Home Soil Troubles
by Anotherjaneway
Summary: The setting is now, in current time Star Trek on Earth, at the little shown Starfleet Academy complex itself, with crew who are a mystery until they mysteriously appear as their authors bring them in. Boothby and the Guardian of Forever engineer mischief.


This is the third showing of a Voyagerliveaction adventure in our third writing season..

Voyagerliveaction was a live ongoing Star Trek Play By Email Game made just for sharing the joy of creative writing in year long created television episodes of fan co-written fiction. Nothing was preplanned, nothing rehearsed.

This group was a collected work of fanfic'ers like you who've banded together on a Yahoogroups list to write a story true to all four Star Trek TV Series from a live production list. They spruced up the fiction with sounds, images and animated movies of their own. Starring whichever character individually cast they wished from the four TV shows.

The setting is now, in current time Star Trek on Earth,  
at the little shown Starfleet Academy/Headquarters/Medical complex itself, with crew who are a mystery until they mysteriously appear as their authors bring them in.

The style of each character is reflected in their author "animator". Those lurkers present on the list were treated with eye and ear candy whenever an author sent pictures and sounds with their story pages.

It's intriguing watching each author's flavor evolve over time within the adventure.

This story's premise starts with a bang that isn't what it seems and settles into a mystery far larger than anything any one author could have come up with on their own. It shows the joy of role playing in the discipline of creative writing in a round robin setting.

Rated PG-13 for all audiences.

Total read time can be from one to four hours depending on your fic devouring skills :)

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Home Soil Troubles

Year Three Voyagerliveaction Theater 2002.

**************************************

WEEK ONE RECAP 01-08-02 ********************************

From : "patti keiper" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] The Wrong Side of the Bed.. Date : Tue, 08 Jan 2002 03:05:45 +0000

#The Time is 0700.# came a soft peeling,  
computerized voice in a sultry alto. #The Time is 0700.# it repeated.

The form sprawled under the silver sheets grunted. "Hmmph?" and flipped over,  
upsetting a stack of datapadds over a low table to one side of the bed awash in brilliant sunlight. Leonard Bones McCoy wasn't even awake when he said. "Computer! Dim the dmned lights!! For crying out l--"

#San Francisco is experiencing direct ten degree azimuth. It is full daybreak. Cannot comply. No illumination was initiated upon nightfall.#

McCoy's groan punctuated the computer's programmed logic and he attempted to snuff it out with a copious pillow over his own face along with the sunlight. But the wakening tones kept sounding, dragging him the rest of the way out of sleep. ::It's been a full decade since I've had to obey Academy wakeup calls. I've enough rank for FIVE cadets.:: he thought.  
"My quarters should be IMMUNE to you. Why don't you just go blow an isolinear chip somewhere and hush up?" he mumbled to the overhead speaker.  
"I don't have to teach any class until 0900 today."  
and his voice softened into a snore from the muffled mumble."Let a tired old country doctor sleep. It's Monday for Pete's sake...."

#Correction. Today is Tuesday.#

Bones McCoy sat bolt upright. "What?!! Ohmygod.."  
and he shot out of bed, knocking the rest of his lecture padds off the veranda to cascade colorfully onto the floor. The sun's glare through his officer's special guest quarters blinded him just enough that he didn't see the one that got underneath him and skidded both his feet out from under him. The momentum from his aborted dash for the sonic shower suddenly made him aerodynamically airborne.....

Bones remembered two seconds of Starfleet gray walls followed by steel blue carpetting as he did a backflip and landed on his jaw and stomach. His left arm wasn't so lucky and took the brunt of his weight across the wrist.

SNAP!! he felt and a white hot world of pain greeted him when he hit the floor the rest of the way.  
"Oooohhhhh... shi----" and then his air forced out of his chest, and the wind was knocked out soundly from his lungs. He lay there, stunned and breathless.  
Stars greeted his eyes and so did an awful buzzing in his ears from the collision with the floor.  
::Don't Starfleet designers believe in creature comfort?! That must be concrete under there:  
His chin complained with a stinging of sudden deep rug burn.

#Do you require medical assistance?# the automated Academy computer bot asked...

The tiniest of wheezes escaped him as Bones fought his autonomic reflexes in an attempt to breathe in.  
But another part of his mind was all doctor. ::I'll bet fifty credits on the length of T'Pau's ears I broke four metacarpals in that one..:: He decided to lay still,  
belly down, and think about something more pleasant.

The computer, not getting a reply from its cabin occupant, carried on into a further step of protocol.  
#Lifesigns indicate injury. Summoning personnel.  
Please remain calm.#

::In a pig's eye!!:: McCoy sputtered, still trying to gasp in around his jolted wind. ::Just how in the world am I going to conduct my seminar on the facets of human/non-human hybridation with a fractured arm?? I'm late already! Oh,,... Jim's gonna rake me over the coals for this little stunt.  
He's always onto me about my messy quarters like an old mother hen.::

An electronic shimmer and hum met his ears while he lay there staring at his burning, ballooning wrist He felt himself gasping without a sound like a Kanapesian Fish on land.

"....Please state the nature of the m-- " Then a new-ish Mach One EMH turned, obeying its sensors and it turned toward the distressed lifesign registering in the room. It said, "Ah,.. Doctor. Looks like you've fallen and can't get up." he quipped,  
smiling mildly..

Then his grin faded and he got to work.  
He quickly noticed Bones's lack of noises airwise and remedied the situation with a fortuitous hypospray from his away medkit.

The missing wind in Bones's chest promptly returned and McCoy took in great gasping breaths while he allowed the Academy EMH to sit him up and steady him against the side of the bed.  
Admiral McCoy was hurt but he wasn't beneath venting a little. "...*GaSSSpppp.* " he breathed,  
a second after the delivering medication relaxed his diaphram muscles, allowing him to breathe again.  
"Gee, how ob- observant of you ther-- *gasp*  
Did that annoying sentient computer alarm clock tell you that or did your logic chips emulate a Vulcan to accomplish the same diagnosis??" he snapped. He instantly regretted his sharp retort when the movement made his broken wrist bones grate together.

The EMH kneeling before him hardly blinked, in fact,  
he replied with a little acid wit himself. "Did that fall damage your cranium or are you always this overwhelmingly charming to someone you've just met?"

McCoy sputtered on.. still sarcastic.

(SEE SOUND BITE ATTACHED AT TOP OF THIS POST)

Bones blinked his watering eyes long enough to really peer at his benefactor..He noted a balding pate instead of the usual sandy fullness on his head.  
"Wait a minute. I thought Starfleet Medical upgraded the bioflag emergency system with Mach V model EMH's last year ever since the Prometheus came back behind Voyager through that dmned Borg slipstream node."

"They did.. I'm your next door neighbor who was scheduled to attend your supposed seminar.. I heard you fall and noted the computer's query into your state of health through my autonomous emitter.." the EMH said, getting a baseline reading of McCoy's fracture.

Bones harrumphed in his throat. "You've got..to be kidding.. Starfleet doesn't send holograms to the Academy to ..to ..to take classes like some first year cadet.. They just program whatever they feel like it into the computational matrices..."

"Not mine." the EMH said pleasantly. He supported McCoy's arm with one hand as he ran an ossicular stazer beam over the site, mending the shattered bones under it. "You did quite a little number here.  
How many backflips did you do befor--"

"Never you mind... that little tricorder's got all the data you need for any treatment here."

"I can always ask the computer to give me a playback." the EMH dangled..

McCoy wrenched his now healed wrist out of the holodoc's grip. "Oh no.. I can believe a wakeup call personality in the Academy's comm system. I can believe that somebody told you to visit Starfleet Medical with that 'going solo' thingy on your arm to record some high brow medical topics from old fogies like me.. But no way in Hades am I going to believe that every cabin here is rigged with Big Brother!"

"It's not.. I'm just checking on how well you respond to subtle verbal stimuli like every good emergency medical rescuer does in a trauma related case.  
Congratulations, doctor. You passed. You may now get to your feet to pace in indignation and rant at me all you like." he added blandly. "I've just certified you as fully recovered." the EMH replied.

That shut Bones up. He rose, but sat on the edge of his bed while the holodoc calmly picked up every one of his floor scattered datapadds and handed them to McCoy. "Thankyou,...doctor....?" he prompted for a name.

"I don't yet have one... Captain Janeway and Chakotay have been at me for years since we all got back for my answer, but I haven't had time to think of one just yet."

Bones was curious. "You know the Voyager Captain and Commander? "

The holodoc nodded as he put his treating equipment away back into his field medkit. "I was pressed into more than overtime duty on their starship for seven years when their living physician was killed by Caretaker actions."

"I haven't gotten a chance to meet them yet." McCoy said seriously, but a little awed. "Heard they were here at Headquarters to lecture some. Just read yesterday that they were going to speak in my class as guest speakers on my topic of study. Said they knew of a hybridized human themselves.. Like I know Spock."

"You're referring to B'Elanna Torres, lately gone off world. She's half human and half Klingon. Unfortunately,  
she won't be around this semester to lecture on the subject herself so Kathryn and Chakotay are doing it for her..." the doc said mildly.

That reminded McCoy of his very late tardiness.  
"Ohmygod, we've got to get going... If you are telling me the truth about being on Earth to learn a few things. Just tag along with me and help me carry these things to class!!" Bones said handing the stack of data padds hastily at the EMH.

He rushed toward the door.

A clearing of a throat stopped him in his tracks.

McCoy turned around and regarded the hologram giving him a head to toe appraising stare.  
Bones looked down and saw he was still in his Starfleet issue gray T- Shirt and shorts.. "oh.  
heh. heh." he said sheepishly.. "I forgot.."

"Just make sure it's just natural aging doing that and not the results of your fall...." the EMH said.

"Oh ha. ha." Bones said dryly.

"I'll comm the lecturn ahead and tell him to show your documentary to your class first to buy us time to arrive there. Go change.."

McCoy grinned toothily and headed for the sonic shower.. but he turned back immediately. "Hey doc.." he called out.

"Yeah?" the EMH answered.

"Toss me your medkit. I gotta evap these rugburns on my chin, or someone will think I lost the barfight last night..."

"Barfight?"

"Yeah. Me and my buddies stopped some offworld lackies from tribble racing in NewChinaTown.."

"Tribble racing..?"

"Yeah. I bet on the winning tribble and got to keep him. Its trainers got a little sore over the conditions of the bet and wanted their champion back. I told them no and called down security on them. We had to delay the undergrounders until the musclemen came to haul them away."

"Where is it now?"

"Where is what?"

"The tribble..."

McCoy's eyes finally dawned comprehension. "Oh.  
Him. Don't know. He got out of our skimmer somehow and the last I saw of him, he was rolling across the shuttle lot."

"Oh. Boothby isn't going to like a tribble running loose in his gardens.."

"It's good for him. After all, he's been weeding those beds out there for almost fifty years now. He was out there when Jim was just a wet behind the ears lieutenant..."

"He was there when Captain Janeway was one, too." the EMH added. "Tell you what doctor.."

"What?" McCoy said from the sonic shower he just turned on.

"Get dressed and we'll visit the Academy Sickbay.  
Then we can get a tracer on your truant tribble and properly regrow your torn chin all at the same time.."  
the EMH quipped. "I'm not too keen on weathering Boothby's wrath when he finds tribble toothmarks in his petunias. I want to cage him long before then."

"I don't think any technology's good enough to track tribbles. " McCoy said ruefully. "I heard of one fellow me and Jim sidelined to a Space Station to round up a tribble outbreak. What was his name again?  
Oh, yeah.. Cyrano Jones.. Took him 24.5 years to do it with every sensor and scanner and probe on the entire base. But why worry?  
What's one little tribble gonna do here? We're a hundred kilometers away from the nearest quadrotriticale field."

"That's what I'm afraid of..." the holodoc emitted.

"Huh.." Bones said frankly, not understanding that answer from his newfound medical friend at all.  
"Let's get to sickbay.." and he looked at his wrist chronometer. "I've only got a half an hour before my film is over in class. We've gotta rush a bit to cover here."

"Fine. Let's go.. I know the best route to dodge Boothby's location on the grounds. Being attached to the computer, I always know where he is."

"I'll trust your judgement.." Bones said grudgingly.

----------------------------------------------------

McCoy and the EMH arrived at the huge sickbay complex in Starfleet Headquarters on the water side of San Francisco Bay.. It was almost as large as Starfleet Headquarters and the Academy combined. All three buildings faced each other in a triad across sculpted elegant grounds and glowed like bright, white snow in the morning sunlight.

They soon were inside.

Bones plopped his butt on the nearest biobed and brought his hands together with a resounding clap. "Let's get that photostatic rear in gear. We've both got a full day ahead of us.."

The EMH rolled his brown unreal eyes. "I'm not the one who's teaching today, am I?"

"No, but you're gonna be a solid notetaker, and believe me. I can make the best of transcribers sweat bullets with one of my rapid fire power lectures." Bones grinned.

"You're forgetting something."

"Oh?" Bones asked, waving at a cute young nurse passing curiously by as the EMH healed his scuffed and hastily protopatched chin.

"I'm not human. I've got holographic capability.  
I can keep up with anything that speaks."  
and the EMH smiled a little smugly.

"Don't be so sure, doc." McCoy winked. "I always lecture with a Vulcan computer, tandemly linked."

The smile wiped off the EMH's face a second later.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Starfleet Academy grounds in bright sun.

Audio: McCoy- I've got sickbay ready.

Image: McCoy in a grey T-shirt.

*animated gif* A medical tricorder spinning.

Image: The EMH- Voyager's holodoc giving a shocked look in a close up.

*****************************************

From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Here's to Coffee and....Donuts~~ Date : Tue, 08 Jan 2002 18:23:43 +0000

On the far side of the main Headquarters building, a fair haired, hazel eyed captain in old style uniform hurried with his equipment across the gardens of the Academy grounds.

He was reviewing notes on a tricorder equally old style and somehow, his feet stayed on the ornate stone path weaving in between the evergreen bushes and flowerbeds adorning it on either side. He was at a good clip,  
moving along with a coffee cup in his other hand when a voice called out, "Watch your course captain!"

Kirk looked up in time to narrowly avoid falling over a wheel barrel full of red and white petunias right in the middle of the sidewalk. He pinwheeled his arms, losing his coffee but recovering his balance quickly as his shins snugged up against the handles of the wheelbarrel. "Whoaaa.."

Boothby rose from his flower bed and caught the sailing coffee cup without spilling a drop. He waited patiently for Kirk to notice then handed it back to him. "Don't tell me Academy fashions are returning to those tacky gold pj's with the balloon pants again.  
Seems like the younger generation these days likes to copy the old."

James T Kirk regarded the gardener before him.  
"Boothby?.. Aren't you.. aren't you dead... or something? You were weeding this very same flower bed thirty years ago when I was a cadet."

The wrinkled old man in the straw hat laughed and replied in a stern voice. "They haven't been able to replace me nor find someone with instincts as good as mine for finding the really good ones. And I'm not talking about flowers here, son."

Kirk looked sharply at Boothby. "So it's true. You wander the grounds using gardening as your cover while you check out and find cadets who show command potential from the sidelines."

Boothby chuckled and scratched his sweaty head.  
"Took you that long to figure that out Mr. Kirk? I'm surprised at you."

Kirk grinned ruefully in amusement when the older man ignored rank and called him by his old cadet title.  
"Spock was the one who put two and two together over breakfast. He saw you out here earlier." Kirk replied. "So..You see everything.. Who else is here on the grounds besides me? If you tell me, I'll explain why I'm wearing my old Enterprise uniform."  
and he snatched off Boothby's sun hat quickly in jest.

That bait caught Boothby hook, line and sinker.  
"Hey.. Give that back...! Do you want to give me heat stroke or something?" But he saw the sharp tone leave the gardener's voice and his eyes shifted to the ground.

::Got you. :: Kirk thought. ::Thanks Spock. For giving me a rundown on Boothby's psyche. I'll get what I want to hear now.::

"I shouldn't be telling you this, Mr. Kirk. But, since you lived up to the potential I told them you would on Enterprise. I think I will." And he leaned on his hoe sliding his handerchief off his neck to let the morning breeze dry it. "A lot of your old crewmates from your first captaincy are here. I saw McCoy and that old Mach I EMH from Voyager slinking around avoiding me for some reason. I've also seen crew from Mr. Picard's ship from the Enterprise four times your ship's descendent." the wizened caretaker squinted sharply at Kirk. "Certain captains I know standing before me right now wouldn't want to tell ol Boothby how he managed to blow up two starships under his command? No?? All right. " he said when he saw Kirk properly looked pained at the memory.  
"I heard why you did it for both of them, anyway.  
Just wanted to see you show the proper respect for those fine ships passing, Mr. Kirk. Rare blooms they were."

Kirk smoothed down the material of his old gold uniform in reminder. "My this shirt is comfortable.. I've got it on again for very good reason..."

Boothby held up a gnarled hand. "Wait..! I'll tell you what you want to know. Just don't go yet.."

Kirk smiled and put his hand on his hip, sipping his steaming coffee lightly. "Do tell, Mr. Boothby.."

Boothby winced and mumbled. "I hate it when my chosen cadets finally get to be captains. They learn how to push all my buttons in a way I hate the most.  
Baiting for information. I've seen one young gal from that far flung Deep Space Nine by that wormhole here too. You know the one. She's got a worm in her stomach."

"Jadzia Dax?" Kirk said. He remembered her. She was a pretty face he saw in a time loop a long time ago, operating a bridge science station covered in tribbles. He shook his head at the memory. And added.. "Don't become a captain, Boothby. Time paradoxes have a tendency to stick in your brain when they really didn't happen."

"Huh?" Boothby said.

"Never mind. Do continue.." Kik encouraged, "I've got to get going in a minute or so..." and he stepped away pointing down the stone path.

"Wait..! I saw another captain here. The one with the steel bun and her indian sidekick.. Yeah, I remember now. Miss Janeway. Another cadet I marked as special.  
She's here and they were headed the same way I saw your Bones McCoy was heading. Towards Starfleet Medical's main symposium building."

Kirk handed Boothby his hat back.  
"Thankyou.. You know how deep the red tape is around here for learning just who's in Headquarters on Earth at any one time. It's like pulling teeth."

"Why do you think I'm out here in the fresh air instead of doing my work in some dark dank stuffy highbrow office??" Boothby retorted. "Oh yeah... you'll be running into Scotty around here somewhere. I can smell him."

"Smell him?" Kirk asked.

"You'll find out.." Boothby nodded. "Now about the uniform?"  
he said, smacking Kirk in the chest with a dirty hand.

"Oh yes.." Kirk said smiling. "I'm heading a very special secret project in Building Five over there..."

Boothby grunted. "Oh you mean the one with the big donut in it...."

"How did you learn that?" Kirk said in surprise. "Transporting the Guardian of Forever from its ancestral home to Earth was kept under tight wraps."

"Flowers always know Mr. Kirk." Boothby said. "The wistera vines are blooming in daylight around those windows. They only do that if a moon is showing somewhere. And with that glowing donut's flashing multiple histories at you project people, those vines get to see a lot of moonlight now don't they? Doesn't take a captain to figure out how that kind of thing can happen. The only answer is a time door."

"hmmm," Kirk mumbled. "The flowers are tattling on us.."

"Your secret's safe with me Mr. Kirk. Only another gardener would notice those blooms blooming oddly like that around Building Five. Like your Sulu perhaps. But I haven't seen him around here yet.."

Kirk smiled. "Hmm.. Enterprise, Enterprise D, and Voyager personnel all on Earth. Interesting.. I wonder why we're all here...." he said.

"Hey, we had a deal." Boothby snapped. "Info for why you're back in your yellow pajamas..."

"So we did, Mr. Boothby." Kirk said a little uncomfortable.  
He mumbled out. "The Guardian didn't recognize me until I put on this uniform. It only answers my questions if I wear this outfit.." he said from the corner of his mouth.

"aaaahhhhhhh.." Boothby said. And it was his turn to smile.

Kirk silenced him by smacking a hand holding his empty coffee cup against Boothby's apron." Hooo!.. Would you look at that?? Look right over there, by that tree..."

"Where..?" Boothby said.

"Right over there. I might be seeing things but I think I see .... a tribble sitting on the lawn??"

Boothby didn't even turn around. "Right.. and there's Romulans in the cafeteria..."

"No really. Boothby. It's small and brown and it just rolled that way.."

"Not going to fall for it captain."

"Ah, well, You'll soon find out. If you know everything happening at Starfleet Academy and at Headquarters. You'll soon know this too. Better listen to your long line of captains candidates, Mr. Boothby. Sometimes we are just a little bit better than their old teacher appraiser hiding in the flower beds..Carry on sir.."  
And he stepped on his way to Building Five.

Boothby tossed Kirk's coffee cup into his wheel barrel.  
"Hmmphh. smart aleck captains. Thinking they can tease me into thinking that... huh..Tribbles indeed."  
he grunted sarcastically.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Kirk arrived at his work station deep in the bowels of Building Five and told security about the betraying vines clinging around the windows. They promptly adjusted the security fields in all the windows to block out light as well as sounds. ::No doubt the vines won't be blooming tommorrow in daylight. Now will they?::

He saw the dark and silent Guardian of Forever sitting below him in a huge hanger in the very dirt from its planet.  
Starfleet was very careful to have transported the time portal with a large bit of rigoloth underneath it and most of the rock strata it sat upon as well. Even the atmosphere around it was climate controlled and identical to its home planet's. ::It's fussy about that. Couldn't believe it when the Guardian told me to move a rock two centimeters more to the left down there.:: he grinned.

He nodded to officers as he descended the stairwell and popped through the containment field into the guardian's envelope. The air was spicy and the same howling wind,  
simulated though it may be, filled his ears. The same feeling of awe filled him as many memories surfaced. ::Edith Keeler.  
Bone's face white with overdose. ::

Then he approached the Guardian and it spoke, it's huge stony arch filling with bluish milky light.  
#A QUESTION. LONG HAVE I AWAITED A QUESTION. LET ME BE YOUR GATEWAY...#

Kirk stepped forward. "It is time. We are prepared to fulfill your request, Guardian. We will allow your traveler to visit among us. It is agreed by my superiors.."

#THEN I WILL BRING HER FORTH.#

Kirk waved both medical and security personnel into the Guardian's enclosure and nodded to Guardian. "We are ready...."

The timeless fog filled the stony circle gate and multiple times flashed before their eyes. One scene came into being.  
A short haired blond woman with a phaser challenging an oil slick being guarding a crashed shuttlecraft by a cliff.

The evil being Armus flung an energy bolt at the woman and she went flying backward. Equally fast, Kirk saw the Guardian deflect a part of that attack, so only a fraction of Armus's power reached the woman. Then it caught her before she struck the ground and angled her fall towards the watching Starfleet officers.

Kirk braced himself as the woman fell through the portal into his arms. He lowered her to the dirt ground and felt her neck for a pulse. It was there..

"..what...?" the woman moaned.

Kirk held her still. "Easy. Just relax. You're hurt. Let my medical officers have a look at you. What's your name?" He nodded to the Guardian and the gateway went dark and silent. The billowing fog went away. Kirk dragged the woman in mustard yellow backwards away from the Guardian to his waiting team.  
Then he supported her head in his lap, holding his hand over a gash in her forehead to control bleeding and checked how she was breathing.

The woman coughed and said, "It's Tasha.. Tasha Yar.. and I'm on a rescue mission to save my friend Deanna Troi.."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Kirk leaning on his elbow.

Image: Yar promo Paramount shot.

*animated gif* Kirk beams home from the Guardian of Forever planet. *************************

From : "Katherine Bird" Subject : Temporal Hide and Seek. Date : Tue, 08 Jan 2002 20:46:17 +0000

Lt. Uhura was in the main reception area of Starfleet Medical. Nurse Christine Chapel had just had breakfast with her and her shipmate was now checking in with the Main Sickbay to see if any new patients were arrived during the night.

"Psstt..." a voice came from a doorway.

Uhura looked up and saw Christine motioning her into the main ward of Starfleet medical. "Christine? Wha-"

"Shh.. It's the only way we'll get you inside.. Now play along." and Nurse Chapel took Uhura's arm and announced to the staff milling about as the two of them made their way to Chapel's temporary office. "You said you were feeling light headed lieutenant?" she said loudly..

Uhura caught on fast to the act and said, "Uh, yeah.. right after I had some of Spock's Plohmek Soup...ohhh.." she groaned.

Some quick med techs helped Uhura onto a biobed and hurried back to their duties when Christine waved them away.. "It's ok, boys.. I got her." Christine waited until they were well away from earshot while she scanned Uhura with a tricorder she barely knew how to operate... "Man .. these new fangled things.. I'd give anything to have my old tricorder back."

Uhura giggled, then stifled it and continued to play her feigned role of sick outpatient. "Against the rules according to the Guardian of Forever. Did you find out why Captain Kirk pulled us from the past into the present yet?"

Christine gave Uhura an amused glance and said, "Here, uh Mrs. Uhura? This should fix you right off. Looks like I'm reading just a mild reaction to the Minhk bean broth from the soup you had.." she said loudly. She injected Uhura with a vitamin shot as cover. Then she added softly. "Have you ever known Captain Kirk to tell us the nitty gritty on any mission of his?"

"No..." Uhura admitted and the two women laughed, and immediately hid it again. "Feels odd being in the future like this. I mean who knows if we'll run into Scotty or any one else from the ship here."

Christine scoffed, "As if Starfleet didn't already know about mingling Starfleet crew from different times. You can't tell me they don't know about Building Five..."

"Shhhh.." Uhura said. "The walls have ears...." and she pointed up. "There's a personality program in the comm system. It's in every cabin serving as a personal medical sentry and wake up call application. It's probably in here too. Watching us.."

Christine and Uhura fell silent until Nurse Chapel whispered. "Our computer is much better on Enterprise. Only activates when you hit a switch or verbally order it on.."

Uhura grabbed her arm. "I've even heard they have holographic doctors in this time.."

"Yuck. What ever happened to the healing power of the human touch. I can just imagine what Dr. McCoy in this time thought when that particular medical advancement came along. Anyway I found out where Bones is right now. He's on his way here. Apparently, the elderly admiral took a fall and was treated in his quarters. The computer told me one of these EMH holos is accompanying him here even as we speak." Chapel admitted.

"Is he all right?"

"Oh yes,, a simple wrist break, now fully healed. But he'll be here any second for some quick cosmetic repair.."

"Oh. In that case." and Uhura jumped down from the bed, smoothing her short red skirt.

Chapel herded her into her temporary office. "Captain Kirk says we can interact with anyone from this time without causing problems. The Guardian is protecting us all from paradox only so long as we remain on Earth. We're walking a tightrope keeping the Building Five mission quiet to those directly involved only. But I think all the secrecy is warranted. The woman Captain Kirk is bringing back is very important to ending the risk to Captain Picard's ex- ships counselor."

"Is this Deanna Troi very integral to this time period?" Uhura said, "I haven't seen much of her on the newsvids or documentaries in my quarters last night. I did see a wonderful holodocu on the Return of the USS Voyager. Now that... was exciting. It seems this starship was missing for seven years and she actually ...got HOME.."

Christine looked at her friend. "Voyager? Now that's familiar. Oh yes.. I saw that ship's coding on the medalert screen when I was looking up Dr. McCoy's whereabouts. That's the ident code on the EMH bringing him in."

"Really?"

"Yeah.. and that ship's captain and first officer's medical files are here, too. They are here as guest speakers for one of Dr. McCoy's classes this week."

"Must be some command crew in those two to have saved a starship like that." Uhura said. "I'd like to meet them.."

Both women peeked around the edge of the office door until they saw Dr. McCoy leading a strange balding man into the ward. McCoy's chin was scuffed badly and he held a hand over it.

The two Enterprise women watched their conversation unfold.

Bones plopped his butt on the nearest biobed and brought his hands together with a resounding clap. "Let's get that photostatic rear in gear. We've both got a full day ahead of us.."

The EMH rolled his brown unreal eyes. "I'm not the one who's teaching today, am I?"

"No, but you're gonna be a solid notetaker, and believe me. I can make the best of transcribers sweat bullets with one of my rapid fire power lectures." Bones grinned.

"You're forgetting something."

"Oh?" Bones asked, waving at a cute young nurse passing curiously by as the EMH healed his scuffed and hastily protopatched chin.

"I'm not human. I've got holographic capability. I can keep up with anything that speaks." and the EMH smiled a little smugly.

"Don't be so sure, doc." McCoy winked. "I always lecture with a Vulcan computer, tandemly linked."

The smile wiped off the EMH's face a second later.

Nurse Chapel and Lt. Uhura giggled again. "Look how old Bones looks. My.. I hope I can get the gray out of my hair when I'm his age." Christine said.

"We may be still young and beautiful. But it's the spirit that counts Chris..." Uhura said. "Tell me. Does McCoy know about Building number Five?"

"No. Not yet. Captain Kirk said to get him through his lecturing day first before we crack the news about OUR being here... We've got to make sure that Tasha Yar is treated for her injuries adequately before we do that. We've got to get from Tasha the reason why she came forward in time to save Deanna Troi.. The Guardian must have told her something while bringing her here." Said Chapel.

"All right.. We'll wait hidden until this Tasha arrives in sickbay to be sure she's going to be all right." Uhura agreed.

"Won't be long. There's a new system in place in the communications grid in this time. It's called the emergency bioflag network. It reads on the EMH channels and links to every crewman's combadge on the Grounds. If any medical emergency occurs. Sickbay knows about it.." Christine said.

"Wow.. I've got to look at that communications board setup. Sounds ingenius.." Uhura smiled in amazement.

"We can do that from here.. Keep an eye out for Kirk's arrival with Tasha Yar into the ward. Shouldn't be long.." Christine said hitting a few buttons on her terminal in her office.

"Whose office is this anyway?" Uhura asked.

"The Head of Starfleet Medical. Chief Physician Dr. Beverly Crusher.. She's off for the day."

"Lucky us..."

"Again. We've nothing to worry about, the Guardian will prevent any time paradox with all of us mingling together from so many ships and times like I said before.."

A summons on the overhead comm attracted the two Enterprise women.. #Incoming patient. Emergency transport..Biobed Two..#

Uhura and Nurse Chapel watched as their older, current times captain appeared boldly still in his gold command uniform leaning over an injured woman who was beamed in stretched out on the bed.. He was keeping a cut from oozing blood on her head with his bare hands.

Nurse Chapel started to stride forward instinctively to help but Uhura pulled her back into the darkened office. "No, Christine.. McCoy will see you.. Let them handle Tasha.."

Sure enough the bald holodoctor came forward and said, "Please state the nature of the medical emergency..." and he left Bones McCoy's side to go to Kirk and Yar.

McCoy wasn't beyond going there either. He quickly went to the distressed woman's side, looking into her pupils as she blacked out. He didn't even blink at Captain Kirk as the man was the same older age as he was. "Dmmit Jim, now what? Move aside and let me take a look at her...."

Kirk said to the EMH, "She was struck by an energy beam from an alien creature of some kind.."

The EMH nodded and his reopened his field medical kit to scan Tasha with his med tricorder.

Kirk stepped back and let the two doctors, one real and one holo, work.

He just happened to glance over towards Beverly's office and he noticed Christine and Uhura peeking from the darkness over there. He pointed at his chronometer and waved them to hide again.. "..Not yet.." he mouthed the words without making a sound and pointed to McCoy's back.

"...We..know..." Uhura mouthed back.. and Nurse and Communications officer ducked back into the safety of the office's depths.

They only heard the activity going on in the main ward as EMH and McCoy treated Tasha Yar's injuries as quickly as they could.

Uhura looked at Christine while they pored over the interesting schematics of the bioflag medical system. "Say,, I wonder what incarnation of Spock is here with us. I wonder if he's just as handsome as you still think he is...I could look up his quarters at Starfleet for you."

Christine smacked Uhura on the arm.."Mind your own business."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Uhura at her comm board.

Gif: A lcars computer screen of EMH interfaces.

Image: Nurse Chapel surrounded by pink walls. Promo.

**********************

From : "Cory Anda" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Out of the Loop No Longer Date : Wed, 09 Jan 2002 00:45:54 +0000

Captain Janeway, a little silver in her hair sat with her old friend Chakotay in the massive cafeteria of Starfleet Medical. She had two lap tops and many datapadds arranged about the table as she rehearsed the talk she'd give for Admiral McCoy's seminar on human hybridization. The task almost seemed over her head and her body english must have communicated that fact because Chakotay started chuckling as he took a bite of his salad.

"I haven't seen you this nervous since you took on the Borg Queen head to head Kathryn. Why be nervous for this presentation? You've been asked to speak at Starfleet Headquarters on a lot of topics like this countless times before..." Chakotay said to his old captain. His own hair was flecked with silver, like it used to be a long time ago when he was a Maquis captain and when Starfleet had been some obscure nemesis to be avoided in the Badlands.

Janeway set her coffee mug down on the table with a clunk and waved over a server to fill it yet again. "I know, Chakotay. I know. But I've never had Mr. Spock in the audience while doing it. He's a personal friend of Admiral McCoy's and he's also a human hybridized being who's also half Vulcan. Just imagine how he'll analyze my delivering some dry study and observations about people like himself." she said throwing up her hand in exasperation before she rubbed her forehead in fatigue. "I can see it now. The Famous Voyager Captain gets Tongue Tied at Symposium. Ohh.. all the holovids will make me look like a fool..." she sighed. She nodded thanks and then blinked when the server craftily left three full coffee pots on the table next to her and retreated. "Thanks a lot.." she said to his back sarcastically.

"Sorry ma'am.. Standing orders from commissary.." he said not turning around.

"Is my reputation that exaggerated around here?" she asked Chakotay.

He nodded. "I'm afraid it is, Kathryn..Sort of makes me glad I was only your commander when we got home five years ago. The heat's off me.." and he sipped his own cool tea.

Kathryn leaned backwards in her cafeteria chair and pushed away her computers and padds and took a long look around her. ::So many beings here. :: she thought to herself. ::So many races that I don't know coming and going from Starfleet Headquarters in so many ships that I can hardly count them all. :: and her face fell outwardly as well as inwardly.

"Penny for your thoughts, Kathryn. You look light years away.." Chakotay said lightly with a gentle smile as he noticed her daydreaming.

Janeway regarded Chakotay and patted her hand on his with affection. "Ever feel like you're seriously out of the loop my old friend? Here I am. Still supposedly a captain and yet, I get the undeniable feeling that there are things going on around here that are purposely being kept from me."

Chakotay had sympathy and he squeezed her hand back in support. "Frequently. Then again, I don't think there's anyone here at Starfleet Headquarters of any rank that "knows it all"."

Janeway laughed morosely.. "Except for perhaps Spock. He knows everything...Ohhh,," she groaned setting her head on the table. "Why did I drink so much coffee this morning..??"

"Because it's real.. Because you developed coffee deprivation syndrome being lost on Voyager like we were, from not having access to the real thing. Don't worry about it. It's a minor problem. Sooner or later. Your reflex of grabbing a cup of it every meal and quiet moment will fade back to normal levels."

"You aren't the one who had a new disorder named after you. The Janeway Caffeine Syndrome. What a way to get written up in a book for your claim to immortality... Oh, no. What if Spock's READ that book. Dmn.." she said raising her head and tipping all three coffee pots over until they fell over with a clunk, each rocking quietly where they lay in a subtle protest of her body's annoying weakness..

Chakotay's face went serious but a smile still filled his eyes. "Stop worrying about the Vulcan, Kathryn. He still puts on his uniform like we do, one leg at a time so he's far from being the ultrasuperVulcan critic you're making him out to be. Trust the human part in him to be tactful about any opinion he may gather about your speech.."

Kathryn sighed. "Can I get a note from the doctor to not go to the Symposium? I feel my Syndrome acting up again..."

Chakotay just rolled his eyes.. "Take a look around you Kathryn. You see all those cadets and guest visitors all around us? They all have multiple coffee pots at their tables too. I'm afraid the Janeway Caffeine Syndrome's an accepted epidemic round here at the Academy. Too many students burning the midnight oil I guess..Don't think anyone will even listen to you in Sickbay even if I were to carry you in there myself.."

"Coward. You won't even back me." she laughed.

"Who's the chicken here, Kathryn? One Vulcan and you fold like a stack of cards."

She studied her still empty coffee mug ruefully. "Back to square one..." she admitted.

It was Chakotay's turn to lean back in his chair, but he regarded her and her alone to the exclusion of all else. "Have faith in yourself. One tiny symposium appearance isn't going to kill you.."

"I wish the coffee would.." she quipped.

"I won't allow anything to harm you Kathryn..not even your own quirks.." he admitted.

"My own dmned fault.. " she laughed. "My old crew's loyal to the point of insanity.."

"I'm not insane Kathryn... I'm just your date for this trip to San Francisco..You're the one who asked me to be your personal body guard so you'd have time to work on this speech of yours for McCoy.."

"Some cover.. I think we had every cadet this side of Earth's moon stop and ask us for our autograph or holopic every since we arrived last night." Kathryn said, shrinking in her seat as one pair of students recognized her from afar and waved enthusiastically and held up their books on Voyager's exploits.

Chakotay threw up his hands. "Yeah well my suggestion of your studying in the main cafeteria is working.. They're all too busy eating in here to come bug you..."

"There's that...." she agreed and started to relax for the first time since Chakotay forced her to take a break for food.

His hair just about curled when he saw who entered the far portal into the cafeteria. "Uh oh..." he trickled.

"What?" she said. and followed his gaze..

Spock was across the room gathering a tray and talking with those cadets and guest speakers who approached him for a few words with the icon personality himself.

Janeway immediately flicked off her computers and buried her notes into her flight bag. She would have eaten her dress uniform too if she could but the tall Vulcan spotted her and headed their way. ::Boy he looks young. But then again, Vulcans age far better than humans do..::

"Ah,, Captain Janeway, Commander Chakotay.. May I join you?" he said. A simple soup and glass of Altarian water sat on his tray.

"I noticed your dress uniforms and surmised you had Starfleet business here on campus today. So do I. May I inquire..?"

"Please..have a seat.." Chakotay said, rising, when Kathryn froze in her seat, a false smile of greeting plastered across her face.

"I'm....giving a little.....speech today.." Kathryn mumbled.

Chakotay raised his hand. "Greetings, Spock. Live long and prosper.."

Janeway immediately parroted her ex first officer. They all sat and Kathryn bit into her tuna salad sandwich for cover. She then remembered that it was meat she was sinking her teeth into and immediately spat it out into her napkin, afraid of the insult she might have given Spock by doing so.

Chakotay thumped her on the back thinking she had started choking.

"I'm fine.." she hissed.. "Sit down.." she told Chakotay.

"Oh sorry..." he said. he sat quickly and grabbed another bunch of his salad onto his fork.

Spock was unplussed and continued to sip his soup quietly seemingly without noticing the tiny exchange between the humans. Finally, after carefully folding his napkin, he spoke. "You needn't be uncomfortable around me with your consumption of animal flesh. I've long been accustomed to Captain Kirk's lunches of Chicken Salad Sandwiches every since my Enterprise days. Do not be concerned about offending me in any way with your meal selection, Captain Janeway."

"Oh. Right. Fine... fine.." Kathryn blurted out then mentally kicked herself for overreacting.

Chakotay changed the subject rescuing his old captain. "We were just discussing how Starfleet seems to hold a lot of its citizens and officers in the dark concerning its activities.. Especially here, on campus and at Starfleet Medical.."

Spock appraised the Indian Commander and said politely, "That seems always the case with any planetary governmental agency in my experience. Even on Vulcan. My father Sarek, was a high diplomat and ambassador to Earth. Even his rank did not give him broad disclosure on convert operations here in San Francisco."

Janeway caught his hint and recognized it for what it was a kilometer away. "Should we compare notes Mr. Spock?"

"Only if it is in regards to your upcoming speech. I eagerly await its outcome this morning.." He rose lifting his now empty tray. "If you'll excuse me. I've some errands to attend."

The three officers were interrupted by a new person barging into the cafeteria calling out Spock's name. "Mr. Spock.. Mr. Spock!! I need to speak to you right away..!!"

It was Reginald Barclay.

The harried man in Starfleet Engineering gold rushed to their table and leaned into it, making the tipped over coffee pots shift and rock again in place. He hastily set them upright, thinking he'd been the one to knock them over. He took a breath to share his news when he took in Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay sitting there. "Permission to speak freely, Ambassador Spock."

"Granted. We can trust these two. They are... Starfleet officers, Mr. Barclay.." Spock said blandly. vaguely reprimanding the excited man.

"Oh sorry sir,, . All right..." Barclay leaned in and lowered his voice so only they and Spock could hear. "We've got problems sir. The go ahead with Building Five's retrieval went as planned but there's been a complication. Tasha Yar's been recovered but she's gravely injured. Kirk's with her now with McCoy in the main medical ward."

Spock rose. "Take me to her.. Lt.." he said. "If you'll excuse me, Captain.. Commander.." the Vulcan said, inclining his head slightly in farewell. "I must deal with this matter at once."

And he left with Reginald.

Chakotay and Janeway looked at each other in puzzlement.

"Building number Five?" "A crewman's recovery?" they both echoed.

Then Chakotay grabbed one of the coffee pots himself and poured them both cups filled to the brim. "Remember what you said about feeling out of a loop?"

Kathryn's eyes glinted. "I think I just found my excuse to miss the Symposium. Captain's discretionary investigational powers..Commander. And I'm allowed to recruit any other fellow officers I'd like to join me in investigating too. Coming?"

She slammed her coffee cup back in several huge gulps and he did the same. She snatched up her sandwich, biting and swallowing the rest of it down quickly.

Chakotay took her laden flight bag and added her second lap top computer to it. "Yes, ma'am.."

"It's captain, Chakotay. Use ma'am only in a crunch. How many times do I have to tell you...." her voice said as they exited the cafeteria...

------------------------------------------

Soon, with a pocket tricorder set to track Vulcan human hybrid, they entered the Main Sickbay after flashing their credentials.

They saw Barclay and Kirk and a strangely injured earth woman on one biobed. McCoy was there hastily giving his patient a hypospray while Janeway's very own EMH sealed up a hideous wound in her forehead.

::Now we'll get some answers..:: she thought. ::The holodoc's one of my old crewmates.::

The two doctors, Barclay and Spock, Kirk, Christine and Uhura noticed the two Voyager officers arrival from where they all were.

But Uhura and Nurse Chapel's hiding place in Bev's office remained undiscovered.

Chakotay and Janeway didn't let anyone they saw stop them and moved to the edge of the unconscious woman's bed. Kathryn glanced up at the life support board long enough to see weak lifesigns there and fading signs of temporal displacement.

Janeway put her hands on her hips. "All right. Just what the h*ll is going on around here?"

Silence greeted her.

"Don't all speak at once.." she said waggling a finger encouraging replies, using her best command tone. ::My,... coffee really gets your heart pumping...:: she thought. ::Almost as much as a good mystery can.. And this certainly fits that bill to a T..::

Reginald Barclay caught a nod from Spock, his direct superior. Kirk, as was his manner, let his lesser officer act for him. "uh,, Captain Janeway. Commander Chakotay. Funny meeting you here. I...We ..didn't expect you to follow us here.." Reg stammered.

"Captain's perogative, Lieutenant." Chakotay said. "This is now investigatory circumstance under article Nine subsection one twelve of the Starfleet officer's code....' When covert activity is suspected in any Starfleet officer, a full investigation is hereby authorized by Starfleet Command until such a threat is discovered and thwarted.' Care to explain things, Mr. Barclay? You seem to be the chosen spokesperson.." he said sharply.

Reg laughed nervously..."My dear commander. This operation you see here IS Starfleet authorized. I just can't tell you how or why just yet. Suffice it to say we've gathered all the people we're going to need for leading an investigation of our own.. Meet... Tasha Yar. We need her to find a possible threat here at Starfleet Headquarters." and he pointed to the bed in front of them all.

Janeway noticed her vital signs were growing stronger by the minute but the puzzled frown still filled her face. "Doctor??" she prompted the EMH.

"What he's saying is new to me too, Captain.. As to the woman's initial condition. I'm bound by patient doctor confidentiality and can't say more.."

"I'm your captain.. doctor." Janeway snapped.

"You were... my captain. Voyager's long since been disbanded.." the holodoc said. "And I'm a free citizen now. The same distinction that Commander Data of the Starship Enterprise has."

Janeway twisted her jaw sideways while she thought out loud... "All right.." she finally decided. "Do go on Mr. Barclay.. Spock if you've any words to add to this, I'm all ears.. sir.."

Spock folded his hands into his robe's sleeves and angled his head thoughtfully. "This woman here is integral to uncovering an unsubstantiated threat we've received against another Federation Citizen on Earth. A one Counselor Deanna Troi."

"I've heard that name before.. Deanna Troi.. Isn't she Picard's aide..." Janeway said... then she pointed to Barclay.. "And YOUR personal psychologist?"

Reg blushed up to his hairline. "I ...know that captain. I...I ..I was there when the last attempt on Deanna's life was made.. I was the one who summoned Starfleet and they referred me to Ambassador Spock and eventually to Captain Kirk here to get to the bottom of this. You see, the whole matter would have been relegated to lower authority agencies if it wasn't for one factual clue found at the last crime scene in Deanna's home."

"What was that Lt.?" Chakotay asked.

"We found traces of Federation android materials on the carpet."

"Couldn't have that been Deanna's friend, Mr. Data paying a visit?" Janeway suggested.

Spock spoke quietly. "Impossible. For at the very time that Chemical Analysis says an android embedded his material in the counselor's carpetting, Commander Data was on Vulcan, visiting me.."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Janeway with a ponytail, Chakotay and the holodoc in a sickbay.

*animated gif* Spock's face with lifting eyebrow.

Image : Barclay with a datapadd looking intent.

*****************************

From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Deja Troi Date : Wed, 09 Jan 2002 07:53:22 +0400

In another part of Starfleet Headquarters Medical.

Beverly Crusher and Deanna Troi were working out in the recreational center. Both were in leotards with their hair bound up and they held hands and linked their feet together while they pulled each other into a complicated series of stretches.

"So,... you going to ask him out on a date?" Beverly asked of her long time dark eyed friend.

"Who? Barclay?? Not on your life. He's my patient Beverly. You of all people should know about doctor and patient etiquette. Never mix the office with your real life."

"I did."

"When?" Troi challenged..

"With Odon.." Dr. Crusher reminded her.

Troi made a clucking sound and shifted the way her muscles stretched using Beverly's pulling grasp to loosen them. "That was different. You two were in love... and Odon was never your patient initially.  
He only became one after Will agreed to become his host and problems cropped up."

"How was that different?" Bev said, releasing Troi's arms and rising to a ballet bar attached to a long mirror in the studio. She set one leg onto it and continued her stretches. "We were doctor and patient. And still we slept together in the same bed while all of that was going on. In a way.. I thought you might be jealous when Odon had to host in Wil's body and we still ...."

"That wasn't Wil, Beverly. Not then. Besides. This is an old incident so let's just forget it."

A few minutes passed as counselor and doctor danced to a routine by computer piano and violin with the rest of the class.

The song ended and Troi turned to Bev before the next movement. "Besides.. I know what you're thinking.  
Reg and I HAVE been spending a lot of time together out of the office too. But those times weren't.. dates..."  
she smiled.. "exactly...."

"Oh?" Bev sighed, towelling off her sweat. "What do you call Neelix the white Persian he gave you?  
A business transaction? He loves that cat.."

Troi laughed and ignored any more comments from her friend.

A second dance routine began. This one a little more challenging. Beverly, being the pro dancer, stayed with her class. But the active routine very quickly made Deanna short of breath starting slow but then building.  
Near the end of the dance the feeling of suffocation was almost overwhelming and it frightened Troi.

She tried coughing but her throat seemed to tighten even more until her air was entirely sealed off.  
She barely remembered staggering back to the balance bar and then sagging with her back to the wall, down to the floor,  
struggling desperately.

Her head was spinning and she didn't even realize the music playback had been halted and that Beverly was by her side, holding her arms. "Deanna?? Deanna!  
Can you hear me..??" A ringing in her ears began to block out Dr. Crusher's voice until Troi couldn't hear anything.

Then her body began to grow numb from lack of air.  
Troi vaguely remembered the faces of their entire class around her before Beverly shooed them away, dismissing her dance students. A blackness descended, coming nearer.

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

......Deanna snapped out of it when she felt a sudden hypospray of triox to her throat.

The frightening airlessness she was feeling went away and her vision cleared. She coughed experimentally.

Things started making sense to her again.

Troi saw the room was empty except for Beverly and herself and that several minutes had gone by without her being aware of it..

She saw that the automatic computer bioflag system on her combadge had been overridden and set on pause. She suspected Beverly did that because she herself was already present for her medical situation.

"Don't tell me that was another psychosomatic reaction.."  
Deanna gasped, and she grunted in pain, the instant she found her voice again.

"It wasn't.." Beverly said smiling for a moment, but then she grew serious. She had out her open medkit beside her as she drew out a tricorder and scanned Deanna's chest. "Just take slow breaths. It'll pass.  
I'm sorry. This is my fault. I thought your new windpipe graph was fully healed. Exercising this hard triggered a reaction and it tried to clamp shut involuntarily.  
That usually only happens in superheated air or in a toxic atmosphere...I've paralyzed those muscles responsible. You'll be fine ..They'll be back to normal when the triox wears off. If you want to lie down.  
You can."

Deanna shook her head slightly saying that she didn't.  
Troi didn't let go of Dr. Crusher's hand.

"It's only been two weeks; you almost died back then.  
Expecting to be back to normal overnight is a little far fetched. If it weren't for Barclay hearing you scream,  
you may not have survived. He kept you going until we could beam you to the Main Surgical Bay."

Deanna smiled. "I don't remember that.."

Beverly grinned and said, "No. But he sure does.  
He's been calling Starfleet Medical three times a day asking for progress reports on you."

Deanna gave a small laugh and was surprised she could even do so. "What have........you been telling him?"

"Nothing past the fact that you are resting and that the surgery to rebuild your trachea went well.  
He knows nothing about your amnesia nor any of your bad dreams.."

Troi watched as Beverly sat against the mirror beside her. The doctor closed her tricorder with a sigh.  
The two friends sat there just thinking for a long time of the horrific events surrounding Deanna.

Then Troi spoke. "I....don't remember much about the attack. Usually, my psi ability can give me some clues but it's as if who or whatever attacked me had no impressions for me to pick up. All I remember is a terrible vise like grip across my neck on the patio."

"We found you with your throat ripped out. Barclay improvised an airway to keep you breathing."

"Huh.." the counselor said with detachment..She went on,  
"And then I was waking up in recovery here at Starfleet Medical... "  
She regarded Dr. Crusher carefully. "Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock came to see me the first day but I was really out of it."

"I shouldn't wonder. They're still heading your investigation."  
Dr. Crusher said. She got to her feet and offered her hand to Deanna. "Feel like you got your feet back? I'd like to check your grafting in sickbay in a little more detail using the holographic imager."

Troi nodded and rose.. There was only a little weakness.  
"This is so stupid. I feel like an invalid."

"Nonsense. I took these days off to help get you back into your old routine. That's all. We just now know that physical stressing will have to go a little bit more slowly than we first thought. Come on. Let's walk to the medical ward. I don't think you need to be stretchered.  
I'll help you change.."

---------------------------------

By the time the two women got to that side of the courtyard, Deanna felt pretty much like herself.  
They both entered the lobby chatting as they once had about dating prospects for both of themselves.

"Barclay's still out of the question, Beverly." Deanna said laughing. "So how about you? I know how much you care for Jean Luc. You can't hide it from me.."

"Oh really? What about counselor crewman confidentialities?  
Using your Betazed empathy should only be when called upon by your superiors, not for everyday use.." Beverly teased.

"It's a natural reflex, I can't just curb it on command."

"Well try. It might just save you a few embarrassing eavesdrops in the long run.. Like my supposed feelings for the captain...." she warned without heat. "Whatever you think you feel about us.. You don't.." Bev teased dangerously.

"I stand corrected. What feelings?" Troi deadpanned.

"Good girl. Now let's get that exam run on you....I know,  
we'll run the holoscan itself upstairs in my department."  
Dr. Crusher said.  
"Shouldn't be many people there now. They all think I still have the day off."

Deanna was tired and was leaning on Beverly heavily when they arrived. Then a wall of impressions struck her emotional shielding and she sensed Spock, Kirk,  
Barclay, and five others whom she did not know in the ward.

Dr. Crusher noticed the crowd of people over one of her biobeds. Her anger rose. "Why wasn't I informed of any medical emergencies to my department. I AM chief medical officer..." she demanded of them all.

Kirk and McCoy and the EMH stepped back in surprise and Deanna got a good look at the patient lying on the biobed beneath the silver sheets.

In horror, Deanna felt a tickling familiar warmth and feel she hadn't felt in over a decade.  
"Oh my god.." she moaned.  
Her eyes failed to tell her brain whom she was really seeing. Her face went pale and Dr. Crusher and the EMH grabbed her before she could fall in her shock. "What is going on here?" she cried softly..

The EMH became no nonsense.. "Now listen here young lady. The first thing we need to do is get you lying down. We'll answer your questions concerning that woman later on once you've been thoroughly examined." he looked at Dr. Crusher. "I take it she had a tracheal spasm recently.."

Beverly nodded.

Deanna broke out of both of their arms and her face suddenly flushed red in anger and she trembled, glaring at Kirk and Spock and pointing to the still figure she could see lying on the bed.  
"What kind of cruel joke are you all playing?  
Just who is this woman!! It can't be her. It can't be!  
Tasha's dead! She died eleven years ago..trying to get to my shuttle. Armus killed h--" her face screwed up in sadness. She went over to the woman and saw that it was truly Tasha Yar, lying there, now fully healed but sleeping,  
and she lightly laid her fingers on her face and lips. She could feel Tasha's strong individual signature, like daylight in her mind. "How can this be??" she demanded of those around her. Her voice was a tight whisper.

Beverly Crusher broke a confidence when she got a nod from both Spock and Kirk to tell her what she had been hiding.  
"We know this is difficult Deanna. When we found you on the patio, Barclay's traces weren't the only ones in that house. Starfleet security also found evidence of artificially created life. Artificial, like Data's."

"No.." Troi cried.

"Hear me out.. Now Tasha's your best friend. If anyone can jar your memory and bring it back to us it will be her. And she's also Data's best friend. If he does indeed have any alterior motive concerning you now, she would know upon seeing him, for she knows how he should be normally better than any of us ever could. So we brought her back...." Dr.  
Crusher told her.

"Stop it.." Deanna shouted. "This is sacrilege!  
A hideous abuse of the time laws. The dead should remain dead." she said frantically. "Who's responsible for this travesty...?"

"Calm yourself counselor.." the EMH told her moving behind her to restrain the counselor if necessary.

Beverly added. "Deanna, Yar's return was fully authorized by Starfleet Command and Vulcan both."

"I don't believe it.." But then Deanna saw Spock standing there and the truth was in his subtle emotional presence as it was in Beverly's spoken words. Strong and calm.  
And telling the truth beyond all doubt.

"Why?" she said finally, she sank down on a stool offered to her not daring to let go of Tasha's arm for fear of losing her again to the past and death itself.  
"Why use Tasha this way..? If you need some justification or way to jar my lost memory, surely Commander Riker could help me too! He knows me better than my own mother."

"Yes, but the commander is still away from Earth. He has yet to hear of this attack on you." Kirk said.

"Has a message been sent to him Beverly?"

"Not yet. We can do that now if you wish..." she said.

"Yes...Please." she sobbed. "Bring my Imzadi to me..."  
Deanna said and she passed out into the EMH's grip.

She did not know that her grip never loosened on Tasha's uniform in the slightest even in her faint. The medical team decided to keep them in contact with each other, keeping both biobeds side by side as close as they could.

----------------------

Starfleet authorized the call to be sent to Commander Riker to report to Earth immediately on a priority hail.

=^=Starfleet Command to the USS Enterprise, Come in.  
Code One Five One Alpha. Priority Two.=^=

-  
(attachments)

Image: Doctor Crusher standing in front of colored dots.

Image: A screen grab of Barclay seducing Counselor Troi on the holodeck.

*******************************

Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2002 23:38:56 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: The New Seven

Seven of Nine checked her messages on her terminal before leaving her Academy Quarters.  
It had been a long three years since Commander Chakotay and she had given up on their relationship. But Seven couldn't exactly say that she felt any remorse about it. ::He seems a lot happier with Captain Janeway. :: she concluded as if her analysis solved all of her problems in that regard. ::And I, still have the doctor.::

She clearly recalled their "date" at the opera house earlier that week viewing a Klingon extravaganza.. ::I should thank Ambassador K'Ehleyr for the suggestion. It was most....invigorating:  
she thought. It was fun going on their weekly trips to the opera houses around the world. ::And we still have 14,747 of them to go before we're through. Perhaps we should see three a week to get in most of them. I already know I'll live around 250 years. I've my cybernetic Borg implants to thank for that.::

Seven of Nine donned her blue uniform, the one she knew most humans liked on her personage,  
and headed out into the morning sunlight.

She walked purposely down the stony cobblestones towards the eating area of the Academy holding her books for her class that day. She regarded them with very real regret. "I should be teaching that class on the Borg. Not taking it. Starfleet couldn't have had a better authority on the subject than I."

"Ah, yes...." came a voice behind her. "But then again.  
You are not yet a Starfleet officer..Seven of Nine,  
tertiary adjunct of Unimatrix zero, zero one. And only officers can teach here."

Seven turned on her blue shoes, surprised that someone had approached her without her knowledge. She saw an old human who was apparently the Academy's groundskeeper kneeling in the petunias. "How did you know my old Borg designation? That information is classified for security reasons. Only officers of lieutenant's rank or higher would be able to access it."

"Ah, but then again, I just may be another officer.  
Don't let my muddy appearance fool you."  
Boothby said of this new prospect. He had long awaited her arrival to his garden grounds. Now he had a job to do. The one Kirk already knew about.

"Perhaps I should report you for vandalizing the grounds." Seven lifted her silver implanted brow at the pockets of missing flowers she saw around her in many of the flower beds surrounding the exBorg and gardener.

"Don't get sassy with me young lady..! Don't you recognize predation when you see it? And I thought Mr. Kirk was kidding me about seeing one of those tiny fuzzy things."

"To what are you referring,..Mr......" Seven asked.

"Boothby!! Just plain Boothby.. And Tribbles..missy.  
I thought Kirk was kidding too. Now look at them..."  
he said flinging a hand at the chewed on gardens all around them.

"One tribble did all that?" Seven said skeptically.

"You bet your sweet blue biffy, it did! And when I catch it....." he warned.. rubbing his dirty hands together..

"You'll what?" Seven inquired mildly. "Kill it? Tribbles are an endangered species now. Ever since the war. Klingons devastated the Tribble Home System.."

"Says who?"

Seven broke off into a Borg access file. "Species number 84. Tribble. Known for a vast appetite consuming biomatter. No technological distinctiveness ever found on that world." and her eyes came back into focus.

"Oh. I see." Boothby said. "I see Miss Janeway never bothered to detach useless information from your memory. Doesn't it pain you? Still holding the data and life memories of those you killed by assimilation?"

His pry didn't get Seven's heart at all. For that was long healed. "Captain Janeway said retaining those accounts would help me shape my individual personality since reforming Annika Hansen's proved to be futile.  
I believe it has.." she added softly. "I am my own person now."

"Hmm." grunted Boothby appraisingly. His opinion of the first Borg victim he had ever met swept up many notches. ::She may be just another Starfleet cadet. But she's all human now...:: "Carry on, cadet.."  
he said and then ignored her for his new task of replanting those flowers that had been tribble tipped.  
::Janeway did a nice job salvaging her. Now it'll be up to me to see if this Woman with a Number for a Name will ever make officer's grade material. ::

Seven of Nine turned as Boothby did, not seeing his abrupt termination of their conversation as the gruff rebuttal Boothby intended her to see.

She made her way into class and saw that the course had been cancelled due to extenuating circumstances developing in Building Five.

"I wonder what's so important there?" Seven wondered, leveling a hand over her eyes so she could see that building. "That edifice doesn't have a dedication plague on its cornerstone like all the other structures at Starfleet. And I've never seen anyone actually ambulate to its interior,  
so,.. it is a site of covert operations where its personnel can enter by beaming only."

Satisfied with her analysis, Seven continued back the way she had come to her quarters.

Boothby, still working a short distance away had heard her verbalized thinking. ::Bravo Lucky Number Seven. Bravo. I've a feeling you'll learn very fast as a cadet. I'm going to watch you very very carefully. I've just marked you as this year's special. Just like I did for Kirk, Janeway and Picard during their cadet academy days.::

---------------------------------------

Seven of Nine hit the special toggle on her computer that usually summoned the EMH to her visual screen but she got a flashing note from the campus computer instead. #EMH responding to a medical emergency. Please stand by..# the overhead speaker announced to Seven.

"Computer. His location."

#Starfleet Medical. Ward One. Biobed Two.#

::How strange. The doctor is not Starfleet's EMH any longer. He is just....the doctor.::

But Seven did not inquire into his situation.  
If it mattered someone biological would report it to her soon enough. After all, she was Captain Janeway's personal aide to Starfleet.

She asked the computer another question instead, remembering how her old shipmates used to locate her on Voyager. She tapped her combadge. =^= Computer. Locate Captain Janeway. =^=

#Captain Janeway is in Starfleet Medical.  
Ward One. Near biobed two.#

"So, the doctor's medical emergency is also hers.  
Interesting."

Her new found human curiosity getting the best of her, Seven of Nine decided to try a skill Naomi Wildman used to try to teach her years ago. The art,  
of snooping. Chakotay said that she had actually mastered it one night during one of their arguments prior to their breakup.::Let's see if the commander proved correct.::

And Seven left for Starfleet Medical. Along the way,  
she used every Borg enhanced sense to watch Building Five closely on the route across campus.

---------------------------------

Data was still sitting in Jean Luc Picard's family library when he got the call to report to Starfleet Headquarters.  
He excused himself gracefully from the Picard's vineyard family and got there in 4.7 minutes to the Main Starfleet Headquarters building, just outside its main entrance.  
It was almost full noon here where it had been late night before. The sudden effect of transplanetary beaming on Earth was still a marvel to him.

He was met by four security guards and a Starfleet Captain he had only heard about from the newsvids of five years ago.  
"Captain Janeway. What a pleasant surprise.." he said warmly.

"Not so pleasant I'm afraid, lieutenant commander.  
We're taking you into custody for the attempted murder of counselor Deanna Troi." she said evenly.

"Captain? There must be some mistake. I was at the Picard winery all this week and before that, I was on Vulcan visiting Ambassador Spock at his main office to learn Vulcan Interplanetary Governmental Duties.  
I am completely innocent of these charges."

Janeway looked pained but she didn't come within five meters of the android.  
Then she held out her hand. "I'm sorry, Mr. Data. But I'm going to have to ask you to turn over your Starfleet combadge immediately."

"Of course captain. May I see the counselor?" he said,  
tossing the badge to his nearest guard.

"No. Come with us." A security guard said quickly when Janeway hesitated in her reply.

Data saw the red headed captain nod her next order,  
very reluctantly. "Take him away ensigns.."

____________________________

Data soon found himself in an altered brig, one that would even contain his android abilities strangely inside Starfleet Medical. ::I seem to be adjacent to Ward One. How curious.:: he thought and he sat down patiently to await the next outcome of his new experience.

It didn't take long. Janeway soon returned with Chakotay in tow. They didn't share niceties.  
And asked a whole battery of inflammatory questions of Data about his past whereabouts,  
future intentions and other personal matters.  
Data did not take offense. He answered each and everyone of their queries in turn until they had run out of them. Then he asked.  
"I am very concerned about Counselor Troi. She is an old shipmate. Is she all right? No one has volunteered anything about her state of health to me since I've been incarcerated."

Captain Janeway and Chakotay glanced at each other in reluctance and Janeway sighed. "She's fine, Mr. Data. Now. She was near death when they found her but Reginald Barclay's fast action saved her."

"How was she harmed?"

"You tell us android." Chakotay said with a little heat.

"Easy commander.." Janeway said, putting a calm hand on his shoulder. "Can't you see Mr. Data's upset by this?"

Data lifted both his eyebrows and tilted his head in a gentle reprimand, "Ah,, the good cop-bad cop rountine.  
Shall I react with the amount of fear I've seen in the holomovies showing this technique? I can be very convincing with my new emotion chip.."

Again Janeway and Chakotay fell into silence.

Then finally, Janeway ordered the guards in the room to lower a holographic wall to one side.

Data started forward in reflex when he saw Deanna Troi lying on a biobed next to Tasha Yar. "Tasha!!"  
Data shouted. His voice was far from sterile. "It's Data!! Answer me!! Counselor!!" It was filled with anguish.

He bounced off the invisible containment field keeping him inside the cell and outside of the sickbay ward chamber.

When his old friends failed to stir, Data turned off his emotion chip and looked at Spock, McCoy,Bev Crusher, Reg Barclay and Kirk and said three words.  
"I don't understand.."

At that point Seven of Nine entered the room.

Janeway saw her and snapped, "Seven! You don't have authorization to be in this room! Report back to class."

"Classes have been cancelled due to events today I believe have been linked to this Medical Bay. And I do have the proper authority to report to you as your personal aide. Starfleet Command's summons has reached the Enterprise. Commander Riker's people has said he heard the message from Starfleet Command ordering him back to Earth."

"You delivered your message, now go..."

At first she thought Janeway was upset with her for seeing Chakotay again, however vague the association.  
But then her better instincts told her that Captain Janeway was trying to protect her from something.  
Despite all that, Seven felt her mouth working, "No.."  
she said. "I.... wish to speak to the doctor.." she said flickering her eyes to the EMH.

Janeway flashed an impatient frown. "You've got one minute. Then leave.."

"Understood, captain...." she eyed Chakotay looking at her with multiple emotions. He had not known Seven had applied and had been accepted into Starfleet academy. "Commander..." she said as a way of greeting and farewell.

Seven did not wish to lose either friendship with her old Voyager commanders, so she did the quickest thing.  
She did as she was told for the moment. She went to the EMH's side, glancing up at both medical displays on Deanna and Yar. They were both stable and out of crisis.  
Seven blinked at the holodoc. "Why are you still here?  
Their emergencies are over. You should be attending your symposium."

"I can't Seven.." the holodoc said gently.

"Why not?"

"Because the man I'm to be listening to is right here.  
Seven of Nine, meet Dr. Leonard H. McCoy, lately, an admiral. And his former Captain, James T. Kirk."

"Admiral. Captain."

The EMH went on, "You already know Ambassador Spock. He officiated at Voyager's homecoming ceremonies."

Seven was oblivious to the Vulcan greeting. "Spock."  
she said.

Spock inclined his head slightly. "Seven."

The EMH drew on Seven's arm until she was out of earshot of the three... "Now I want you to turn right around and go back home, Seven. It's dangerous for you to be here. There's a possible murderer on campus."

"You mean, he's a suspect?" she asked of Data, still looking stunned in his cell.

"Yes, well. No, that's a ruse to bring.. Well Yes.. I suppose so.."

"Be precise doctor. Isn't that something I taught you?" Seven said with a slight smile.

The EMH rolled his eyes sheepishly. "All right. Yes and no."

Seven grabbed the bull by the horns and turned to face Janeway. "I see no reason to leave. I already have "seen" too much. I believe that's the colloquial expression for having learned too much of a forbidden subject."

"Oh? How so?" Janeway said.

Seven launched into her logic. "From the medical scans of the woman on the right. She's from out of time.  
There's enough temporal residue still in her tissues for my occular implant to see. The counselor's semi conscious condition is most likely due to post operative and post traumatic stress syndrome.  
She is clinging to that clothing tightly. Hence she knows the woman well. For anyone who doesn't love someone else would never have the power to keep such a grasp while unconscious. Judging from the color of the hypospray in Dr. McCoy's hand, she's most likely just been injected with Iniprovaline.  
Iniprovaline is well known to be a memory regenerator over time. So, it's logical to assume that her companion next to her has been brought out of time to jar her memory of what ever incident this android, "  
Seven said pointing to Data in his nearby brig space,  
"now stands accused of committing."  
Seven turned to Janeway. "Am I close? Or need I rephrase a few things."

The EMH voiced his feelings. "Oh, my. Are we in trouble now." he mumbled. "Seven, you should have just stuck with your message and have been done with it."  
he said, taking her hand in sympathy.

Seven turned and saw Kirk scowling at her. And strangely, she didn't care. For it had come to pass in the five years since she became a full resident of Earth that Seven disliked being kept in the dark very much..

::The deceptions stop now..:: her eyes flashed back at them all.

Janeway said, "I think I need some coffee right about now."

"I'll go get some.."  
"I'll go get some.."

Chakotay and Seven said at exactly the same time..

Janeway's mind groaned inwardly, ::Oh how well I know them both.::

-  
(attachments)

*animated gif* Seven in many guises, from naked(tastefully done) to righteous.

Gif: The Starfleet Academy Logo.

Image: Data promo face shot on a black background.

*****************************

From :"Clairissa Fox" Subject :The Bush Monster Date : Wed, 09 Jan 2002 17:41:50 +0000

I woke up in my bed like always and remembered that I was on Earth. I had to be brave because father said I had to be. I wasn't even when I was supposed to be. He was way back in time. But I wasn't.

Captain Kirk had brought me and my mother through the big donut that glowed so mother could help with some dumb human investigation about Deana Troy.

Somebody hurt her but the one who did it wasn't around anywhere. I heard the tall man with the points for ears, Spock, say that the perpetrater might still be around the Academy somewhere. But I knew better than to get security mad. They were on to me every day anyway. It seemed like I could turn a corner and there they were, asking to see my Starfleet Id, so I got to wearing it around my neck like an honor sash. That way they only looked and didn't stop me from playing.

"Are you two humans satisfied that I belong here now? Captain Kirk himself brought me and my mother who's ambassador Keylerr to you so back off! I got the backing of a real captain and her behind me. I'm not just any child. I'm important! But I know the rules around this weak human school so you don't have to watch me like a whipped P'tak all the time, ok?"

It felt good being mad. And I saw the guards smile because they were afraid of me and were hiding it. I growled at them one more time and walked away down the sidewalk.

::Hey! I could go hunting! It seemed the man working like a woman in the gardens was hunting something. Maybe I could help him.:: So I went over to him and stood there until he saw me.

"What can I do for you young man?" said Bootby.

"I saw you out here and I also saw that an animal wrecked the human pretty plants all over. I'm part Klingon. But my father's all Klingon. Maybe you could use me to hunt the V'dmerr that did all that. I can smell anything that moves." I told him.

"Oh really. You must be Alexander Rashenko. Heard about you. Captain Kirk told me he'd grab you and your mother through the Guardian of Forever so she could help Ambassador Spock with his investigation of Counselor Troi's attack." the man said.

I looked at him and saw something that looked like a weapon in a cart. "Wow! Is this a human Bateleth?" I said lifting a curving metal sword. I didn't know humans were mean enough to make swords.

"That, my son, is a sickle. I use it to cut away the rhododendrens on the paths by Building Five. Go ahead and swing it around. See that tall bush next to that tree? That's a vine that needs killing. Go ahead. I'll watch you."

I couldn't believe a human was letting me use a weapon! Even father only let me use one on a holodeck. Mum punished me by sending me to bed without my supper when I found her phaser in her drawer in the sleeping room yesterday. So I was still hungry. And I hadn't found the food room yet. I couldn't find it because I didn't know what human foods smelled like to track them. But I wasn't about to tell this Bootby digger that.

I was mad that I was hungry so I went right up to that bush and imagined it was a Borg! I swung that curvy weapon and it sliced through it. I pretended it screamed and squirted out its guts all gory and orange and red. Then I fell down and fought it breaking it into little pieces and chewing on them. I was too little for a blood rage mum said but I could pretend it, couldn't I?

Then I rose and brushed off the enemy and turned back to Bootby and bowed, handing him his sword back. "Thank you. You have shone great honor in letting me use this sword in battle in your name. I declare the enemy,...vanquished!!"

Boothby didn't laugh, he accepted the gardening sickle back from Alexander and said solemnly, "I shall forever remember the day a son of the House of Mogh did battle in my homeland."

"I shall be on the look out for the V'dmerr that you are currently trying to track. I know these creatures. They hate Klingons." That done. I showed the weakling human that I could bury my kills too. I lugged the heavy branches of the bush monster back to the old human's cart and made sure it was piled high so it could be burned like all monsters should. Then I left without a backward look.

Boothby started chuckling when he heard the tiny Klingon boy's stomach growl so he called out. "The cafeteria's right down that path you're on. Just walk straight until you see another bush monster and then turn right. It's the tall white building smelling like human coffee!!"

I knew I should of turned and been human polite to the digger but I was pretending to be a big Klingon Warrior. So I didn't.

Boothby regarded the young Klingon child with amusement and scratched his head. ::Maybe the boy can find that annoying tribble for me. I haven't been able to find it yet.::

-----------------------------------------------------

I got into the eating room the digger advised me how to locate and I got a tray that was purple, the color of Klingon blood.

I walked up to the replicator and said. "You there! Give me some Gaahhhg!!"

#Cannot comply. No living annelids allowed on campus. By order of the gardener Boothby.#

::Figures:: I thought.:: He's so human he doesn't know how to keep dinner from crawling into the gardens..::

So I scrolled down the menufax and found something that looked like Gaahhhg. It was orange and it was called spaghetti.. "Close enough.." I said. I got some grape juice so no one knew I didn't have blood wine with my meal.

I sat down by a big window so I could keep my eye out for the furry V'dmerr and any more bush monsters that I might be able to slay for the digger after lunch.

Then I looked at my watch. It was one and the sun was high in the human sky. My mother would be doing her important ambassador stuff in the Main Headquarters building right now.

But my instincts were telling me that she wasn't there. My skin was crawling. Something wasn't right. And my hair went up whenever I thought of Building Five, the place the digger told me about. ::Now why would that bug me? Mother and I came through that donut gate two days ago. Unless, unless, Captain Kirk wasn't through bringing people in from out of time yet.::

Now that sounded like it was shaping up to be a quest. So I ate like a bigger Klingon and finished my meal.

I buried my tray in the slot too. Just in case the V'dmerr was around. I wouldn't want it to have more V'Dmerrs just because I was careless.

Then I went walking again in the jungly gardens. There were no bushmonsters on that path but my instincts were crawling and I kept growling without thinking about it.

Then I saw the big building where all the doctors and nurses worked Starfleet Medical.

I walked like a human and got inside and got into a turbolift until I was at the leader human's floor, Beverly Crusher Chief Medical Officer. The lift opened and I knew I had found the place making my skin crawl.

There were a lot of people in the room and two ladies were lying on medibeds. Captain Kirk and Spock both were there and Mr. Data was in jail!

This I had to see better so I snuck into a dark place and backed up until the shadows made my skin and eyes disappear. But then I smelled perfume!! Oh! Humans were here in the dark office with me. So I called out. "Hey,, I can smell you two female humans. Why are you hiding in here like a P'tak about to be whipped?"

My eyes got better in the black and I saw a light skinned human in blue and another one whose skin was as dark as mine in red. She reminded me of mother. I waited for them to speak. They had to for I had found them out.

-  
(attachment)

Image: Alexander with Worf, K'Ehleyr on the Bridge of the Enterprise in a family portrait.

*****************************

From: "Alex D" omega_directive_uky... Date: Wed Jan 9, 2002 9:48 pm Subject: Not Staying Off the Grass.

"You call that stable cadet?" Jadzia asked, as she wandered along the benches reading from a PADD, looking up momentarily to wink, "The scanning beam has to be perfectly aligned, and you can't get that unless it's stable,"  
"The generator is perfectly stable....I've checked every circuit," the Cadet pleaded.  
"Re-calibrate the power supply," Dax suggested,  
as she wandered over to look at the results of some of the other scans, "An Inverse Modulation?" she said approvingly, glancing at one laptop display, "Never hurts to read up on the manual, does it?" she winked.  
This was her teaching style, keeping things moving,  
always walking, always interacting with different groups.  
She taught the way she lived.  
This was a specialist field Science class, first year cadets,  
but Dax lectured a wide variety of subjects to the more experienced cadets.  
Her Klingon hadn't gotten rusty, she thought with a wry smile.  
"Ma'am?"  
No time for a trip down memory lane. "Cadet?"  
"The other classes have been dismissed," the benzite cadet informed her, "I went to acquire a power cell, but the entire block has been cleared, the computer has announced that an unspecified situation is occurring,"  
Jadzia shook her head, she'd disabled the audio warning on her terminal.  
"Are we dismissed, Ma'am?"  
"No," she said sharply, "Finish scan sequence one...then pack up," Jadzia wondered outside, the sliding doors leading out of the Sciences annexe at Starfleet Academy, and into the grounds. Just as expected Boothby was tending the grounds.  
No Dax had been at the Academy on a day when Boothby was not diligently tending his beds. Approaching him from behind, she allowed her smile to come into her voice.  
"Boothby," she said.

He didn't turn around, "Well well, haven't you got a class to give some assignment too?"  
"Someone has cancelled classes," Jadzia said carefully,  
"I though that if anyone knew....you would?"  
"Well, you were wrong, and if I don't get these buds gone today..."  
Jadzia stepped over him, over the railing around the flower bed,  
picked a rose, and let it drop onto the pavement.  
Boothby shook his head, "Why'd you do that?" he demanded,  
"Always the impatient one..."  
"Do you know?"  
"What am I? A Terminal? Go channel a console if you want the official version," the old man snorted.  
"Boothby....Boothby!" she said.  
"I knew it, a little impatience bubbling over....been on paradise a little too long have we? Looking for some sort of adventure?  
Try Starfleet Medical...Ward One...." he said, "Some one's monkeying around with the way things should be, it's going on up there,"  
"Thank You," Jadzia smiled.  
"And since your going to step around the rules today, missy,  
go and find Harry Kim...he works for Building Five... he doesn't come and demand information...so he won't have it,"  
Boothby said, in his usual tone. "And you can put that rose on your desk..to remind you not to stamp all over my beds,"  
"You might bump into someone else familiar there...probably still in that dmn set of pyjamas.... Yellow...." he muttered.  
Jadzia smiled inwardly as she walked away, not the first time a Dax had met Boothby, and had the same reaction.

Months...Years.... Well, at one time in his life,  
Harry Kim would have felt elation just at entering Building Five. Working on classified things, working in a building without a door.... just the name of the place 'Building Five.... But behind the smokescreen 'research , it was an operations job.  
Harry thought of it as a stepping stone.... Maybe Operations Chief at Utopia Planitia...or the ASDB.  
Anyhow...it was just work, high profile assignment,  
and the perks were hard to ignore. Libby was happy,  
because he was on his way to a better job.  
"Hello?"  
:: *Hello* ? Nobody in this building needed to say Hi... or, for that matter, Hello... :: Harry walked out of the office he was in, which looked down upon the project centrepiece. Back in the corridors.  
"Hello?" he responded, "Anybody there?"  
"Hello," Jadzia waved from five metres away, and closed rapidly, "I'm Jadzia," she said.  
"Harry Kim," he managed, "Are you... cleared for this level?"  
Dax regarded him with an amused expression, "Do I need to be, is this classified?"  
"Well...Yes, Ma'am," Harry said, feeling an odd desire to stand to attention. This woman was wearing a Starfleet uniform, but he hadn't seen any rank pips yet.  
"I was looking for.... James Kirk," she ventured.  
Harry took this completely normally, "He's not here...." "How did you....?" he began to ask, realising, from her unwavering gaze, "You didn't know he was here....but you do, now," he admitted to himself. :: Nice one Harry....become a little too used to this classified stuff? :  
"Something's going on Harry," Jadzia stepped closer to him,  
"Let's go and find out..."  
Harry had glanced through the logs being sent to Kirk care of Building Five.... and it appeared something was happening in Ward One, Starfleet Medical... it had been sealed off...and Kim had noted Janeway and Chakotay arriving there....as well as some unusual power to a forcefield set up.  
Realising Jadzia was watching him carefully, he nodded,  
"The transporter's still set for Ward One,"  
Dax nodded, and followed him. Harry called out,  
"Energise..." and the two were standing in the ante-room of Dr. Beverly Crusher's office.  
Jadzia walked straight in...risking a quick tricorder scan,  
to check her timing. Harry caught up with her...and they both stepped in to the ward to see the collection of people assembled.

(attachments)

Image : An older Harry Kim, matured by years. Still youngish.

Image: A closeup face view of a very curious Jadzia Dax.

*  
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 20:54:49 -0800 (PST) From: "Myron Ojala" Subject: Dusting Off A Relic

The sounds of metal banging and clanging filled the hall as cadets and new plebes passed a lab door in Science Building Six, adjacent to Starfleet Medical. The door to the lab was marked forbodingly, "Enter at your own risk."

That sight was combined with a noxious smell which made them nauseous if they stayed near too long in the hall. So they hastily went about their business.

The metal banging went on for a few more moments when a new noise was heard,  
it was followed by a rather colorful explicative in highland Gaelic. (When a student later inquired about what he had heard, and what Deora Ar Mi Chroi.. meant, his instructor said,  
"Up yer shaft,.." with a face that could bluff a pair, straight to a royal.)

What was being assaulted, looked like a transporter accident involving numerous plumbing fixtures and kitchen appliances combined with what could be mistaken for a painful Klingon interrogation device. One could only imagine what function or engineering marvel this construct being built would perform if ever installed on a Starship.

Almost reverently, the somewhat famous, or perhaps infamous engineer, Montgomery Scott,  
finally finished the last adjustment on the project that so intrigued those passing outside his lab door. With a pause... he threw the switch!

The strange device began to emit an eerie hum.  
Lightd began blinking on and off in rapid sequence on Scotty's console. The aged engineer grabbed a classic tricorder which he had personally upgraded,  
and scanned the machine's functioning. It was as close to his original design as he believed possible now. The unknown device continued to process until a beep sounded. It went quiet.

A panel nearby opened and a container about the size of a coffee cup appeared. A smile appeared on Scotty's face as he lifted the cup to his lips.  
"So far, so good. But the proof's in the haggus."

The contents from the cup were drained in one gulp.  
For a moment nothing seemed to happen then,  
"....*gasp*..Ccchhhookkeeee *sputter* ..." he coughed, "...ahhhhh, now that's what I call Scotch."  
He created and drained another cup.

Scotty decided to toast one more on the success of his secret project on his third glass. He happily gulped it down and smiled contentedly, and then his eyes rolled up into the back of his head.

He was unconscious before he even hit the lab floor.

Moments later, a signal was received at Starfleet Medical's bioflag monitoring system that a person was down, condition unknown in Building Six, Lab Four.

#Medical Emergency Building Six. Science Lab#  
the computer said aloud.

Janeway and Chakotay looked up and saw the EMH was still busy stabilizing Tasha Yar.  
"Computer, what is the situation?" Janeway asked.

# One lifesign noncritical. Human not responsive to automatic hailing.# it replied.

"Computer initiate site to site transport of your emergency to our location." Chakotay ordered.

The computer responded, #Transporting now.#

On an empty biobed, a cascade light effect appeared foretelling the arrival of a patient. It completed its cycle in moments.

Janeway and Chakotay approached the bed.  
"Chakotay, is that who I think it is?" she asked.

And Chakotay nodded in awe, scanning the fallen man with a modern medical tricorder.  
"Now I know I'm in a room filled with living legends."

The EMH spoke up from where he worked.  
"What's his problem over there?"

Chakotay read his screen, grinning, "Ah, his blood alcohol is unusually high.....He seems to be sleeping it off."

Kirk and McCoy glanced up sharply at that comment. "Noo..." Bones said. Then they saw the patient was indeed their old friend from days long gone. Then he grinned, "It's nothing that he hasn't done before ever since his retirement from Starfleet."

Spock looks at his original Enterprise motley crew and said, "Captain, it appears that the "gang", is all here.."

Kirk said, "I couldn't have said it better myself."

---------------------------------------------

The EMH said, "I'm through here," and he left Yar's side, moving to Scotty's bed.  
"I'm a guest but I'll take a look at him."  
he said sarcastically.

The doctor looked at Scott's bioscan and said. "Time to wake up sleeping beauty.."  
and he removed a hypospray from a nearby tray and gave a not too gentle press with it to Scotty's neck.

The telltale hiss was audible and after several moments the engineer's eyes blinked open and a groan escaped from his lips.  
"I'm getting too old for this."

"One would think 125 years of experience would have shown you that an overindulgence of alcohol is detrimental to your health." the EMH said sarcastically. "But this time you only suceeded in giving yourself one grand daddy of a hangover."

"Going ta give me something for it?" Scotty asked.

"No."

"What kind of programming do they give you things now? Torturing a man who's suffering from a wee bout.." he groaned.

But then Scotty noticed an android in a cell nearby and two lovely ladies on two other biobeds near his.

Then he got a really good look at everyone around him. His jaw dropped.  
And for a moment he didn't know what to say. "I must really be drunk. Lost captains and fake doctors and really old friends all in the same hallucination."

He layed back and closed his eyes.  
"I think I'll stay right here until I'm sober."

"You are sober...." the EMH said authoritatively.  
"I've neutralized the alcohol in your system.  
Whatever hallucinations you think you are experiencing are quite real."

Janeway smiled, "It's a pleasure to meet you Captain Scott. I've wanted to meet you since I read about you being revived in our century."

"I know one particular engineer who'd love to make your personal acquaintance, sir.  
B'Elanna Torres." Chakotay commented.

Scotty looked at Captain Kirk and asked of no one in particular. "Why is that android over there wearing a Starfleet uniform and why do you have the laddie locked up?"

Janeway replied, "Mr. Scott that's going to take a while to explain. Here. Read this."  
and she handed him a data padd.

"Ok." Montgomery said.  
"Hey what's that? " he asked sniffing, "It's perfume.."

"I beg your pardon.." Janeway said, "I'm not wearing any.."

"Captain Kirk.. Isn't that Uhura's brand?  
I swear it's exactly the way I remember it.  
It's coming from over there.." and he pointed to the dark office.  
"Computer lights.." he called out.

And the lights came up in Doctor Crusher's office exposing Alexander,  
Nurse Chapel, and Lt. Uhura.  
"Oh, NOW the gang's all here, Mr. Spock."

Then he saw Uhura and Chapel hadn't aged a day.."Captain, " he said to Kirk.  
"You haven't been messin around with that blasted Guardian again have you?  
Don't you remember how much trouble we had the last time with that confounded contraption?" and he looked at McCoy apologetically.

-  
(attachment)

*animated gif* Scotty in a jeffries tube surrounded by electrical bolts, working madly.

**************************

From: "Samantha Rose" Date: Sun Jan 13, 2002 6:38 pm Subject: Truth Be Told

Soft music streamed from the speakers, and the lights were dimmed. Enough, though, that one could still catch up on status reports while enjoying the comfort of their quarters.

Commander William T. Riker walked out of his personal bathroom, a towel draped around his shoulders, data PADD in hand. He scrolled down the tiny screen as he walked over to a long couch. Sitting down, he propped his feet up on the opposite end and leaned back.

At that time, an intership hail came from the bridge.

"Bridge to Commander Riker, we've just recieved a message for you from Earth. It's marked urgent." the voice of the officer on deck overpowered the music, causing Will to sit up in his chair.

"Route it to my quarters." The officer acknowledged and the Enterprise's first officer went to his computer terminal. Opening the text, he quickly read it. At the sight of the message written, he quickly closed it and went to the closet to grab a clean uniform, hitting his comm badge on the way.

"Riker to Shuttle Bay 2, prep a Type IV shuttle for departure immediatly." the Commander was changed and ready to leave the ship in a matter of minutes. After informing Captain Picard of his leave, Riker headed for the shuttle bay.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Galileo streamed through space as it travelled to Earth. Inside, Commander Riker was at the helm. By this time it has been about 30 minutes since he had recieved the message from SFA about Deanna. The messanger had only informed him about Deanna and gave no reason for her condition. The only reason that came to his mind was it had to be connected in some way to her Betezoid abilities, things like that had happened in the past.

A few moments passed by, and Commander Riker began his descent into Earth's atmosphere. After a short while, Starfleet Academy came into visual range. The landing platform was just off to the left. Riker piloted the shuttle into a landing.

Will didn't even bother to power down the engines, and headed straight for Starfleet Medical, Ward One. He didn't even notice the details of the campus, or the ominous look of Building Five. It hadn't even occured to him that there was not a single door leading inside the building.

The Commander quickly made his way past various other buildings and through the gardens on his way to the Medical building. A ruffled Boothby peered up from on of his chewed flower beds with curiousity. No doubt the hurried man was following the path of the others.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The doors to the Ward One flew open as that tall first officer entered the room. He stopped dead in his tracks at the sight that met his gaze. Captain Kirk, Bones McCoy, Montgomery Scott, Voyager Command, and, ::Data?:: Commander Riker came to the transparent holding cell of his android friend. A full security detail guarded the door.

That's when he spotted Dr. Crusher and an odd looking bald man standing between two bio-beds. Will quickly made his way towards them. He, again, stopped short when he saw who was lying on the first medical bed. With a surprised looked, he approached Dr. Crusher.

"Doctor, just what the h#ll is going on here?" Beverly closed her tricorder and turned to face her collegue.

"A very large chain of events, and a long story." Dr. Crusher gave him an apologetic look and went about her work of maintaining her patients' stabel condition. The EMH noticed this exchange and stepped to Commander Riker's side.

"Perhaps I can be of some assistance." Will turned to find the bald man standing next to him, not tall enough to look him in the eye, therefore craning his neck somewhat. The two stared at each other for a minute or so and Will finally gave a sigh.  
"Very well. Please. Clear this all up." he waved his hand around, indicating the mass of people there.

The EMH gave the Commander a "know-all" look and started.  
"Well, from what Dr. Crusher has told me, Counselor Troi collapsed during a workout this morning. Apparently the grafted tissues in her trachia could not withstand the physical..." as he started to go into the basics, Commander Riker stopped.

"Hold up. Grafted tissues? What grafted tissues?" The EMH, again, started to explain, Riker grabbed him by his holographic uniform, "What's wrong with Deanna!?" A look of surprise filled the holo-doc's simulated eyes and the Commander soon realized what he was doing. Letting go of the Doctor, he quickly apologized.

Smoothing wrinkles from his uniform, the holodoc went on,  
"As I was saying. Counselor Troi was with Dr. Crusher this morning. She experience some problems and was transfered here. When she walked in, she caught sight of the other patient. I believe she was identified as...Tasha Yar." The EMH nodded. "Yes, Lt. Tasha Yar." he now noticed that Commander Riker wasn't paying attention to him anymore. He was looking over at the bio-bed where the once-deceased officer lay. From there, he looked over at Commander ]  
Data and then to Troi and Crusher.

"If you'll excuse me." Will patted the hologram on the shoulder and in keeping his eye on Dr. Crusher, headed in her direction. As he approached the bio-bed, Troi started to come to. Riker noticed this and in taking her hand told her to be quiet. She looked up at him and smiled.

"I am glad you are here, Imzadi." she said.  
He gave her a warm smile and gently kissed the back of her hand. She became weary again, and a nearby nurse gave her a sedative. Turning to Beverly, he looked at her with a mix of determination and pleading.

"Beverly, I need you to tell me exactly what has happened to Deanna and why am I here?" he looked at her and then to the two bio-beds that held Troi and Yar. By this time, Commander Riker's presence was well known and those around who were not properly informed on the recent events, were curious as to his arrival.

Will eyed each person in that room and then came back to Doctor Crusher. She sighed and placed her tricorder on a nearby tray, and began to tell him the horrifying story of Deanna's attack...

-  
(attachments)

Image : Riker looking concerned in his gray uniform and maroon turtleneck.

Gif: A white older logo for Paramount Pictures.

***************************************

From: "Andy Anda" Date: Sun Jan 13, 2002 9:55 pm Subject: tribble 1

Tribble is contentedly active with an intense focus on its intent.  
Its current intent is to find breeding food. But, being pre-sentient and pre-conscious, it isn't quite aware of itself and its motivations.  
In the absence of breeding food, Tribble has been quite content to sample other food-types that apparently sustain, but haven't triggered the reproductive hormones.  
Tribble quickly forgot the comforting hand and dark pocket that gently released him into this paradise of grain-bearing plants. Tribble did not know or care that he had been placed in a few-acre recreated primordial prairie reserve in a region of the Bay area which had a suitable micro-climate. This was both a public services and a research outlets of Star-fleet Medical's agriculture dept.  
Tribble's instincts kicked in when a rabbit passed by. Observing it for a while, Tribble soon ascertained that it was not a predator and not quite a competitor. So, Tribble began to pattern some of its foraging and predator avoidance behavior on the behavior of this indigenous critter. This instinct for behavior patterning has evolved over the many millennia that Tribble's progenitors have been surviving off-world (just which world was the original tribble home-world is an active area of debate in the Star-fleet Xenobiology literature.  
Tribble learns the different reactions of the rabbit as different types of shapes fly overhead -- long necks & short tails are ignored,  
but short necks and long tails mean FREEZE. Tribble no longer remembers or cares about the dark pocket world and its occasionally visiting hand.

-  
(attachments)

None.

*****************************

END WEEK ONE RECAP 01-14-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Hub

WEEK TWO RECAP 01-15-02

*************************************

From : "Katherine Bird" Subject : Getting Ahead.... Date : Tue, 15 Jan 2002 10:16:01 +0000 ====================================

"Computer lights.." he (Scotty) called out. And the lights came up in Doctor Crusher's office exposing Alexander, Nurse Chapel, and Lt. Uhura. "Oh, NOW the gang's all here, Mr. Spock." Then he saw Uhura and Chapel hadn't aged a day.."Captain, " he said to Kirk. "You haven't been messin around with that blasted Guardian again have you? Don't you remember how much trouble we had the last time with that confounded contraption?" and he looked at McCoy apologetically.

Judging from the high color on Kirk's face as his long time ship's engineer associate exposed Uhura and Chapel's out of time youth to the old McCoy, and how most of the command grade Starfleeters in the room rubbed their eyes in mutual frustration, Chapel pretty much figured the cat was now out of the bag..

She tapped Uhura's nearby arm as she marvelled over the computer terminal that still transfixed her with its marvelous future time EMH schematics. "Uh, lieutenant... I think you'd better look at this.."

Uhura didn't take her eyes off the screen. "I am... These blueprints of this century's EMH technology is fascinating.. Oh, and thanks for putting the lights on, I can see much better n--" her voice trailed off as she realized the voice she heard rumbling a few brief seconds ago had been Scotty's and about the Guardian of Forever.. Kirk's supposedly secret operation.. "Oh,, my.. Christine. Are we in for some trouble.." she gasped when she realized their hiding place had been doubly discovered by the room occupants at large and by whom was apparently, a very tiny Klingon boy.

Christine nodded dumbly in agreement. Chapel's eyes shifted between Kirk's ire, Scotty's innocent curiosity, Alexander's questioning Klingon warrior play face and the presence of a few more newcomers to the red haired doctor's ward ; a woman whose face spotted species she did not know and two others in obvious Fleet uniform design but total opposites in their ranking color order. "You can say that again."

The oriental man Lieutenant,. Uhura liked right away. ::He's no Sulu, but is he cute.:: Uhura thought of Harry Kim. But she didn't want to get in the way of the big man with the beard. He seemed to know the dark haired patient on the biobed extremely well. ::Are they a pair?:: she wondered. ::And this Commander is spending time by Tasha's side too. He knows her. This tall bearded commander must know that android over there too. This Data's wearing clothes like his and Dr. Crusher's. They all must be crewmates.:: she concluded.

Uhura guessed all the people whose uniforms had the color across the shoulders were from the same ship. She automatically lumped Janeway with Chakotay and Harry and hoped she had guessed their ranks right by the future style pips she barely learned about from Kirk's briefing before they came forward in time. Jadzia's origins were a total enigma due to her different breast pin even though her uniform matched Janeway's for style. Seven, on the other hand, was only like the female captain, because of her pin.

Struck speechless about what to say to a sputtering Bones and Mr. Scott as they gaped at her still young appearance, she knelt by Alexander instead. She was ironic when she said. "Ever feel like you're gonna get yelled at?"

The tiny boy nodded vigorously. "Everyday.." he said.

"Well.. my friend here and I are about to pay our dues my fine Klingon friend.. " Uhura said and she took his hand in the traditional Klingon handclasp. "It is a good day to die...." she said solemnly serious, then her face broke out into a wonderful smile that broke the tension in the room.

Kirk's rising anger softened and he put his hands on his hips when he realized Uhura had the right of it by mocking the moment.

McCoy, just scratched his head once he saw Deanna Troi's sedation had taken proper effect and he said, "Sure ain't no fountain of youth around here I know about..." he muttered. "The Guardian's the only possible answer for Christine and Uhura looking not a day over thirty.."

Scotty began to grin at his guessing the Guardian's role in everything.::I'm good. Maybe I should have a wee drink more often.:: he thought to himself. ::I feel as smart as a Vulcan..::

Nurse Chapel began to blush when she got a good look at Spock, her former love interest. ::Oh,, does he age well..:: she decided. "They all do...the captain, Scotty included." as she clearly beheld her future time shipmates as she followed a curious Alexander out of Bev Crusher's office.

The EMH cleared his throat and said, "This is nice. But we need a meeting of the minds badly or we'll not know heads from tails.." he said. "I know the history of each of you and the current events. I have just accessed Starfleet Headquarters' Worldwide Database." he blinked at Harry. "Mr. Kim.. you're moving up in the world.. You're Kirk's project secretary for Building Five? I'm impressed.."

"So am I.." the current time Janeway muttered. "Chakotay, did you hear of Mr. Kim's promotion? I seemed to have lost track of everything once we got past the reunion party for Voyager's return."

Chakotay chuckled, "No..." he said, winking at Harry. "I'm just as surprised as you are."

The EMH proceeded to acquaint all present with their mutual identities, places in time/history and then everything that happened to him that morning, starting with his serendipitous meeting with McCoy in his quarters. In the background.. Mr. Data nodded vigorously with each point the holodoctor made but he wasn't heard through the containment field. "Now there's no need for secrecy.. Not about Building Number Five. Nor Deanna's unfortunate incident." He eyed McCoy and Janeway with amusement. "Seems like the morning's lecture headaches will fade away like a bad memory.. Classes campus wide have been cancelled." the holodoc added.

"Why?" Alexander wanted to know. He was worried for that meant his mother would be seeking him soon to make him do his Earth Studies early for the day.

The EMH rolled his eyes at the Enterprise boy. "Because the Dunkin Donut wishes it.." he joked. "You remember how the Guardian brought you and your mother here to solve a little mystery surrounding the counselor over there. Well, the portal brought Yar and Uhura and Chapel back too, using Captain Kirk's influence with Starfleet for a purpose that may or may not involve that gold shirted android over there.." the holodoc said to Alexander. The boy waved to Data, who innocently naive, waved back, making Alexander laugh.

"Oh." Alexander said.

The EMH rose facing everyone around him, "So,...we all know what's going on and who's who?"

All heads nodded.

"Good. Now we can move on with why the Guardian wants us together.. I think we should start with learning more about the night Deanna was attacked, and for that..I need to wake her again."

The holodoc injected Deanna Troi with a simple stimulant and her eyes began to flutter. He likewise injected Tasha Yar, so she could relate with all in the room as well.

Nurse Chapel leaned in on the EMH and said, "Are you always this successful managing odd situations and people?"

He quipped, "I've been around the galactic block you might say, Nurse.. This..." he held out his hand to all present.." ..is a piece of cake."

Uhura reached out and tenatively touched the holodoc's sleeve.."He seems so real..."

"Of course I'm real!" the holodoc laughed. "Does it matter that I'm made up of photons and forcefields? Oh,," he remembered belatedly. "Your Enterprise has never seen holographic technology.." he said to Uhura..

Right then.. all the current time Starfleet officer's pins erupted in a hail. Uhura's eyes bugged out when she realized that the decorative pins she had been admiring earlier were actually... "Those pins are tiny universal communicators??!" she turned, amused, and accusingly at Christine.. "You never told me about this advancement...."

Several minutes went by, and soon, Deanna and Yar were up and talking with the rest of them. All three doctors certified them as fit to get out of bed.

Christine and Uhura hung by a wall where they watched Riker, Janeway, Chakotay and Kirk all in close conference, talking about how best to proceed with the investigation Kirk said the Guardian had asked him to organize.

"Hey Christine.. The higher ups are schemeing.." Uhura whispered to Scotty and McCoy and Nurse Chapel. Her retorting tease was cut off by Boothby's voice coming uncharacteristically over the commbadges.. =^=Boothby to Starfleet Medical Ward One. I've found something you should see out here in the gardens while I was tracking down the tribble snacking on them.. Oh, yeah.. bring Mr. Data with you.. I'm in the east courtyard by the dedication fountain..=^=

Uhura and Christine were nearest the door leading to the turbolifts and got to Boothby before the others..

Chapel looked over her shoulder and she and Uhura made their way over to the wizened Gardener waving them over. "Looks like he never ages.." she quipped to Uhura. "Boothby looks the same way he did when I was a cadet."

She knew the others from the ward would follow in due course if they chose. So she stopped looking for them to arrive and concentrated on kneeling down where Boothby sat in the dirt near a pile of wilted flowers. Uhura took his other side and gasped.

In the dust, Boothby exposed a frightening sight. She shouted, "Oh my god.. That looks like,, that looks like..."

Boothby grew serious. "Yes..., Mr. Data's head. And it's from only two days in the future.."

And he brushed the dust away from the hole he had dug from around it. "Now how did it get here, back into the past, where I'd find it right at this particular moment?"

Uhura could hardly wait to find out what the others thought when they arrived. "I don't think that marvelous Starfleet EMH is going to have a ready answer for this one.." she quipped.

The EMH materialized out of the air making Uhura and Chapel, who were still highly unused to holograms, jump.

He steadied them with grips as he knelt, "Another thing you ladies should know.. I'm a hologram with free will. I come and go as I please.." Then he saw what Boothby was pointing to in the shallow hole in the uncovered garden by the fountain. "Mr. Data sure gets around..doesn't he..?"

And he hefted Data's head in one palm, arm outstretched, at his eye level.. "Alas, Poor Yorik.. I knew him well..." he said dramatically.

Boothby snatched Mr. Data's head back protectively.. "Time paradox is nothing to joke about..! This is obvious something the Guardian wanted us to find while it protects us from consequences crossing times.. " He blew dust out of the head's eyes and nose.. "Show some respect, doctor." He grumbled a second before he huffed a breath on the fascimile's forehead and he buffed it with a grimy sleeve, to a rich shine.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Chapel, a big close up.

Image: Picard and Boothby, crouched by a flower bed in the sunlight.

Image: Uhura, huge smile.

Image: Data's severed head lying in the dirt.

**********************

Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 12:02:53 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: Clues to "Head" off the Mystery

Seven of Nine took all the EMH had to say in stride.

It seemed logical that everyone surrounding her knew facts and details about everyone else.

::It is efficient to have crucial information regarding individual identity and circumstance. The doctor is right to violate the time interference directives in doing so. By Captain Kirk's own admission, the Guardian of Forever is making us free of paradox while we're all on Earth. It was the one who wanted contact with us here, not the other way around. So anything we do or say now will have no risk to worry about:  
she concluded seeing the dark skinned communications officer and the blond nurse coming her way out of the office. Seven's metal eyebrow rose when she saw the tiny Klingon boy following them into the ward.

His civilian outfit was covered in dirt and an errant evergreen twig poked out of his pants. His serious adult like demeanor almost made Seven smile. She knelt by the boy. "I see you have survived a battle today. We must compare battle stories later." and she stood to listen to the EMH speak on, orienting everyone in the room as to rank, name and situation at the Academy.

Then Boothby's call went out over her combadge.  
=^=Boothby to Starfleet Medical Ward One. I've found something you should see out here in the gardens while I was tracking down the tribble snacking on them.. Oh, yeah.. bring Mr. Data with you.. I'm in the east courtyard by the dedication fountain..=^=

Captain Janeway tapped her badge. "Acknowledged, Boothby. I shall arrange with security to bring him."

The Voyager captain nodded to her first officer,  
Chakotay, who lowered the forcefield. He came near Data, armed with a phaser and asked,  
"Do I have your word as a Starfleet officer that you will not try to escape, or cause any aggression to anyone?"

Mr. Data had obviously turned his emotion chip back on, for his face was strained and puzzled. "You have my solemn word as a Starfleet officer. I have never lied except under order. May I see the counselor and Tasha before we go?"

Chakotay caught a glance from Janeway allowing such a visit after she caught one from Kirk which told her to allow Mr. Data freedom for the time being to do what he wished. "Better hurry.  
Looks like we're going to do a little site seeing on the grounds today.. Boothby never calls unless it's very important. I give you a minute.." he said.  
putting away his phaser.

"I understand.." Mr. Data replied. He went over to Deanna and Yar, who were now sitting up on their beds, having both changed into uniforms with the help of screens and Dr. Crusher's assistance.

Data couldn't help but feel a sharp, sad gladness at seeing Tasha full of life again, until he realized that for her, she hadn't experienced her own dying at the hands of Armus yet. For her, nothing had been paused for eleven years. Simply a thrust forward in time to the present. His mind raced to the little holo figurine of Yar sitting on his computer desk in his quarters at home at Harvard and the eulogy he could still hear her give in his thoughts with perfect clarity. ::She must not ever see that during the time the Guardian is allowing her for Troi's investigation. It would be too painful for all involved.:: So Data contented himself with a simple query.

"Are you well, lieutenant?" he asked of Yar, fighting the urge to touch her to convince himself she was real. Being separated from his friend in the containment field had been torture.

The Enterprise security chief was puzzled by the genuine emotion she saw on him. "Yes..I'm.  
fine Data.. Are you?" And she looked at Deanna for an explanation.

Troi pointed to her head and mouthed, "Emotion chip.."

Yar nodded and smiled, realizing what that could mean for her android companion. ::Makes sense. This is eleven years into the future for me.::

"My functioning is unimpaired. It remains to be seen about my involvement with the counselor's attack however.. I have no memory of any event concerning it." Data answered her question.

Seven of Nine came to Data's side. "Lt. Commander Data. We must go. Boothby's message sounded urgent."

Data lingered a bit longer at Yar's side and smiled in a small way that barely hid real tears of happiness. Then he toned down his chip back to old levels and he set his mind on the task at hand. "Tasha. We must talk later when this investigation is over. I have much to say..."

Yar nodded, wide eyed and watched as Seven of Nine and her old friend Data left the room to follow Nurse Chapel and Lt. Uhura out into the gardens. Then shortly,  
the EMH disappeared, most likely, to join them outside.

Tasha threw a shrug about Data's reactions at Commander Riker which oddly, made him grin at her hugely.

Then she noticed Wil's beard and did a double take.

---------------------------------------------

Commander Chakotay kept pace with Kathryn as they watched Seven of Nine and Mr Data preceed them outside into the daylight. He spoke,  
"Kathryn. Do you trust the Guardian of Forever to keep us safe from temporal complications?"

Janeway laughed, seeing Boothby just ahead. "I don't think we have any choice in the matter Chakotay. As a matter of history, the Guardian does pretty much what it wants. But I'll admit, it's unprecedented action on its part for allowing us to bring it to Earth in the first place.  
But I do trust the Guardian to use us and time itself for this mysterious purpose it needs. I trust everything I've read about it to preserve all our timelines back to the way they were when all this is over."

"I suppose you're right.." Chakotay agreed.

Janeway went on, "As to why Captain Kirk brought forward his women officers from his old ship..." she threw her arms wide and her comment hung in the air. "It's anyone's guess. Only he knows for sure. But I think the Guardian knows why Tasha's here. Kirk told us that it was the Guardian's request to allow Tasha to come in the first place before her actual death. I'm going to find out exactly what Yar might know concerning that once she comes outside to join us."

Then there was no more time for words. Data and Seven of Nine had reached Boothby and the place where Uhura and Chapel were kneeling. Boothby was polishing something round and dusty in his hands. It startled Janeway to see that it was actually a head.

She and Chakotay took an involuntary step backward when the gardener lightly tossed it to Mr. Data.

"I believe you lost this, Mr. Data." Boothby said,  
"Or you're going to..." he joked. "Care to explain it?" he said with a toothy grin..

Mr. Data turned the android head until he saw its face. "This is apparently my cranial unit.." he said before Seven's tricorder confirmed it.

"With one difference.." she added, "The emotion chip inside of it has been removed.  
and temporal decay shows this cranium to be from two days into our future."

Janeway gasped, "What?.. Seven scan that again. Has there been any recent opening of the head's access panels? Anything to explain this disembodiment or the head's dislocation out of time?"

Chakotay had already scanned the grounds surrounding all of Starfleet Headquarters. "There's nothing more captain. There doesn't seem to be a body to go along with the head here."

Seven blinked. "It seems we have another mystery.."

Data came up with a solution. "Captain Janeway.  
We can analyze my... I mean... that head in the main cybernetics laboratory. I can link with it to access its memory records up to the point it was cast backwards into our time. I might be able to learn further details."

"Do it." Janeway said. "But first.. Let's wait for everyone else to arrive. They might shed some more ideas about where we go from here."

"Understood." Data answered. And he calmly held his severed head under an arm like a ball and froze in place.

Chakotay shuddered at the sight and whispered to Kathryn. "He's remarkably calm about everything. I mean, android or not, that head is part of a sentient being's remains... possibly his very own. If I were him, I'd be horrified."

Kathyrn laughed. "Never underestimate the adaptability of computer chips. No doubt, the commander has turned his emotion chip down a bit before coming here. I wish I had that ability.. My skin's crawling.."

Boothby was toweling off his sweaty neck,  
letting the officers around him get to work when Seven of Nine angled her tricorder back into the hole where Data's head had been found. "Captain.." she called out.  
"Look at this." and she lifted out a section of carpetting that had been charred around the edges. Seven immediately ruled out the possibility that it might be a part of the landscaping tarp underneath the gardenbed.  
It was blue.

Data spoke up. "That color. I know it. It's the same shade as the floor covering on Counselor Troi's patio, here at the Academy.."

"Then I think we all know where we're going to be heading next after we probe the head's memory files.." Janeway said derisively.

She could hardly wait for the others to arrive.

-  
(attachments)

Image : Data in black and white.

*animated gif* Seven of Nine, going through a flipping gallery, from Borg to human in her life's story.

Image: The original Enterprise over the Earth in orbit.

**************************

From : "Cory Anda" Subject : A Glimpse into the Future Date : Wed, 16 Jan 2002 11:44:45 +0000

Spock quietly watched Commander Riker, whom he knew by reputation, react emotionally to Deanna Troi and to Tasha Yar. ::I have been with humans long enough to know that venting emotions often times relieves stress among them. Yet I am feeling effected myself. Perhaps it is the Guardian of Forever's involvement with time here on Earth causing my reaction.::

He saw the dark haired Deanna Troi turn in his direction and smile encouragingly.

Spock raised an eyebrow in defense. ::I forget that Deanna is of half Betazed descent. She is a true empath.::

The Vulcan ambassador was content to wait for Kirk to guage how things were proceeding with Yar, trusting his old friend's instincts with that regard.

He did, however, amble towards Mr. Scott after the engineer found his land legs again. "It might interest you to know, that in this time, there is a substance called synthehol, that acts just like alcohol on the body until the mind tells it to neutralize. Any unexpected drunkiness can be controlled at will."

Scotty looked surprised while he watched Uhura and Nurse Chapel leave the ward, followed shortly by Janeway, Chakotay, Seven of Nine, Data, and the EMH. His mind was only partly on where they were all going, the rest was shocked at what Spock was suggesting. "Now where's the fun in that, Spock? What'd be the bloody point?" he grinned. And he made his way over to the ladies by the biobeds to see how they fared their ordeal.

"Humans. I still find their reactions illogical." Spock said to himself.

"Then why'd you pick me to be your personal aide, ambassador?" Barclay said, coming near as he scanned the whereabouts of Boothby so he'd know where to escort Spock.

"Living with your unique personality is a challenging lesson in patience which I find strengthens both our characters.. I, do not try to analyze you minute by minute as some of your other friends are so fond of doing." Spock said blandly.

"I heard that..." Deanna said from across the room in surprised gentle amusement.

Barclay gestured her to stop her beginning defense on his behalf, "It's ok, Deanna. I asked Mr. Spock a personal, honest question and I got back a very personal...." he sighed reluctantly,"..and honest answer..." He watched Mr. Spock leave the room to follow the others outside. "...I think." he said, scratching his head. "Deanna, I'm..I'm..so glad you and Tasha are feeling better..but if you'll excuse me.. I.. I'd better go after him.." and he gestured nervously to the door Spock had used.

He nodded a see you later look at Dr. Crusher on his way out and shook Alexander's hand in greeting before he hurriedly left. He only ran into part of the wall in his haste to leave sickbay.

Kirk regarded the departing lieutenant with a skeptical look but all the women and the boy, giggled.

Alex said, "He's so funny.."

Dr. Crusher frowned ruefully, "I suppose he is... unintentionally."

--------------------------------------------

Reg Barclay slipped in easily into the group surrounding Boothby and he blinked in the bright sunlight. "Oh, my..." he said when his squinting eyes saw what Data was holding.

Ambassador Spock was looking at the head closely, while the EMH was scanning it with his medical bioprobe, but Spock did not directly touch it.

Reg asked, "Is,.. something the matter, sir..?" he asked him.

"Not at present. I am at a loss on how to proceed. The reason for the time disparity into the future isn't clear." Spock admitted.

::For the ambassador. That's as close as Spock's ever going to say, "I don't know about this.." :: Reg thought seriously.

But then some deep dark recess in the back of his mind kicked into high gear. "Sir!"

"Mr. Barclay?..." Janeway asked him at his outburst..

"Ah,, sorry ma'am. But. I--I meant... Spock, I'm sure Starfleet doesn't want Mr. Data to risk himself analyzing his own self by accessing those memory files. He would be too close to himself to be an effective detective.." Reg's eyes blinked at his own rhyming metaphors and switching personal pronouns. "If something should go wrong, he would never forgive himself for losing himself inside himself...." Reg bit his lip when his own mind refused to make sense of what his mouth just said. He held up an eager finger telling them all to hold a minute. "One second...Jus just... one...I'll show you my idea."

Then Barclay snatched up the EMH's med tricorder from the holodoc's grip. "Hey... I'm not finished with that yet.." the EMH protested.

But Janeway was intrigued. "Hear him out doctor. If Reg's found a way to get the answers we need without risking our Mr. Data. I want to hear it."

"And you shall..uh, captain..." Barclay replied eagerly.. "Just..let me check a few parameters.. May I, uh...borrow your tricorder Commander uh, Chatokee.." he mumbled half distracted while he turned dials on the medtricorder he was squinting at..

"Chakotay...." the Voyager commander grinned. Janeway did too, accustomed to seeing people not yet familiar with him, butcher the pronunciation of his one and only name. "Sure.. Here.." he said, placing his tricorder into Reg's free palm.

"Thanks.." Barclay awkwardly juggled the two sensing devices until both of them seemed to beep the same patterns of sounds as both were aimed at the android head Mr. Data held underneath them, while the nervous lieutenant checked something. "Ah...! I was right. The frequencies ARE the same between Mr. Data's positronic matrix and the holoimaging buffers in all of the EMH models we have, in the theta band. I can do this.."

"Do what exactly,....Mr. Barclay...?" the EMH asked gingerly as he steadied the med tricorder when Reg tried to adjust the dial with his second hand full of the standard one.

"This!" And Barclay passed his two tricorders over the autonomous emitter on the holodoc's arm.

"Ahhh...!!" the EMH said as he began to shrink to miniscule size in place, getting smaller and smaller over the course of a few moments until he was only a centimeter high.

Both Ambassador Spock's eyebrows crawled into his hairline. "Fascinating.. You've managed to surprise me yet again, Reginald.." he said. "You intend the EMH to interface with the cranium's memory cells in Mr. Data's stead."

"Correct.. sir, uh. It was just a thought. I, ...know how manipulative hologram fields can be since I...used to spend a great deal of time...with them.."

Barclay was glad Deanna Troi wasn't around to hear that confession.

"I see.." Chakotay said. "The EMH will be able to download the head's memory logs into his own until we can return him to his normal size and play those records on a viewer.."

"Exactly..Made sense using his normal safety factors.  
And the doc here doesn't have to use a cable to link up!" Barclay beamed.. "Uh, Everybody, watch your step.." he said as the EMH shrank still smaller, until Barclay reached down and gathered him up. Soon he held a speck of a doc on one palm, barely noticable. He was as small as a pepper grain on the skin as the imagers continued shrinking the doctor. "Off you go, doc.. I know you can hear me. Only your size parameter's been altered."

"Oh joyful me.." The EMH pipsqueaked after tapping his holocombadge to add volume to his tiny voice. "That's quite enough on the downscaling, Mr. Barclay..I'll do this task for you if only to minimize the risk to Mr. Data up there. The sooner I get inside to get those memory files read, the sooner I can leave and lose this munchkin voice and body I've got.."

"All right...You know to enter the head by one of its accessports under the hairline..." Barclay said as set his hand against the face on the head.

"Of course.." the EMH squeaked as he jumped off. A gust of wind nearly swept the EMH away before the doc grabbed a simulated facial hair and hung on. "Shield me from the elements!! Last thing I want is to play a flea to that lost tribble out there!!!" he snapped. The group hastily used their hands to block the breeze until the EMH got into the hair zone on the head on their tricorder scans.

The EMH heard a buzzing and tapped his combadge until it opened a channel to all of theirs. ""There's still some power in here. Mr. Barclay. I'm sensitive to certain energy dischargers.. Are you sure you thought of everything to protect me?"

"I sure did.." he smiled nervously. "I matched your holoprojection matrix to the cranium's own positronic one. You are two peas in a pod!!" he said with greater confidence.

"Terrific.. I feel like a bosom buddy.." the EMH said as a glowing circuit made his holoskin crawl as he walked deeper into Data's severed head. He already knew where he was headed. As he had been shrinking, Mr. Barclay's tricorders also embedded programming with a map of all conduits that made the android up. ::Nice actually. Since I hadn't had any of Mr. Data's records previously in my data records.::

The EMH was about halfway to his objective when he noticed some charring on many of the circuits he was passing as he walked on the micropanels. He tapped his commline to the outside again. "Mr. Barclay. Is Seven of Nine still around?"

"Yes. Why? Do you need her for something?" Reg asked.

"As a matter of fact, yes, I do. I've discovered some damage in here that might provide more details if we could see them visually too at my debrief upload later on. Have Seven vent a nanoprobe to me so I can capture it.."

Seven shrugged and aimed her wrist assimilation tubes at the Data head's neck. The long pipes shot out, making Uhura and Chapel flinch when they realized that Seven was almost part robot internally. Seven fed in precisely one pseioadaptic nanoprobe primed to home in onto the EMH's location.

"Coming your way, doctor.. It should arrive there in moments." he told him.

The holodoc heard a curious depth sounding ping as it found its way down to him. "I hear it.." The nanoprobe found him. It was the size of a toaster. The EMH caught it out of the "air" as it hovered near him and was immediately lifted off his feet. "Seven!! Kill its locomotion cells!!"

"Understood.." Barclay said and she concentrated on the tubes still embedded in the throat section.

The nanoprobe dropped into his hands.. promptly pinning the EMH to the "floor" with its immense weight. "Ugh.. A little more levitation.." he grunted between tight teeth.

Seven sighed in irritation and made the change.

The EMH finally had his working visual nanoprobe. "This is fine Seven, Thankyou. It feels much like my holoimaging camera.."

"I designed it to resemble technology you were familiar with..." Seven said.

"Fast thinking.." the EMH said.

"The Borg are efficient." she countered.

"What's a Borg?" Uhura said, looking at Seven's extended wrist tubes curiously.

Spock promptly launched into a long description that Seven of Nine could not flaw.

"He sounds like Seven..." Janeway told Chakotay from the corner of her mouth.

"Very much so...or Tuvok..." he admitted.

Uhura was immediately horrified and fascinated with what she learned about Borg and she vowed to learn more about them at the earliest opportunity.

"Do those hurt?" Chapel said, scanning Seven's tubes herself with her old style tricorder.

Seven shook her head, and withdrew them, her implanting task complete. Christine got permission and ran a few fingers down the inside of Seven's wrist, looking for where the tubes had emerged. She found only seamless skin. ::True symbiosis of machine and living tissue...::

Chapel nodded her thanks and quickly joined Uhura's "I'm fascinated with the Borg concept" club.

The EMH lifted the nanoprobe imager to his eyes and took snapshots and moving images in all light spectra on the strange charring he was noting. "If I didn't know better.. I'd swear these internal nodes are showing signs of having been in a fire.. A very hot one.."

That made everyone lift their heads.

"A fire at Starfleet Headquarters? How extraordinary..." Janeway said.

"Yes, it seems to have been a very big one. And this damage is still radiating heat."

"Yes. I see it.." Seven said. "I'm linked with my nanoprobe.."

Ambassador Spock didn't like what evidence was being uncovered. "A large fire in two days to San Francisco? Something our technology could not stop?" Then he spoke with the tiny EMH directly.. "Doctor, is there any evidence of solar components?"

"You mean as in solar flare or super nova? No.. None.. This is more like your conventional wildfire signature.."

"California province sure has enough of those." Boothby said. "But the thought of any of them reaching the complex here down by the Bay is extraordinary.."

Spock was reflective. "We cannot ignore the evidence in front of our own eyes..figuratively speaking of course. If the future in two days time signals some widespread local catastrophe involving fire high enough to reach Deanna Troi's patio balcony.. Then we must entertain the notion.."

"Wait just a moment gentleman..." the holodoc said as he walked down the wire leading to Data's mother memory board. "Heat damage like this can be from a house fire, too. I'm not yet reading traces of hillside bioflora.."..a moment later.. "Correction.. I found some.. and evidence of brick and titanium byproducts and....plasma.."

Barclay immediately looked startled. "Building Five. It's the only place that uses plasma shielding for security reasons.."

"Yes," Boothby said, "But Building Five's about two kilometers away from Counselor Troi's living quarters."

Spock slowly nodded. "Which supports Boothby's theory of a large grassfire reaching the heart of Starfleet Headquarters. Fire of a nature that the Corps could not extinguish easily."

"I..I don't like the sound of that.. sir.." Reg said.

"It is a truth given us, however indirectly, by the Guardian of Forever. It sent back this cranial unit two days into the past into a place where it knew Mr. Boothby would find it."

"Why can't we just question the Gateway about this matter?" Chakotay said. "Surely if the gate can bring Uhura and Chapel here from the past, It can see into the future.."

Mr. Spock steepled his hands into the sleeves of his Vulcan embassy robe. "Perhaps it is not allowed to show this evidence directly. Perhaps this is why it garnered Captain Kirk's cooperation in retrieving Lt. Yar back from death. So we could learn about this catastrophe and then deal with it.."

Everyone around Spock grew silent. Even the birdsong above them seemed ominous in their ears.

"Is this the huge threat to Starfleet the Guardian told Kirk to investigate?" Reg said, swallowing around his dry throat. "And..and and..not just us checking into Deanna's attack..?"

"The probability, based on all evidence makes it 84.395 % to one in favor of that outcome.." Spock said finally.

"I don't like those odds at all.." Janeway said.

Reg couldn't have found a better sentence than hers to describe his own feelings in that regard.

-  
(Attachments)

Image : A serious Spock in a promo, arms folded.

*animated gif* A roaring wall of flames.

Image: The whole of Starfleet Headquarters.

*animated gif* An explosion of a fireball in slow motion.

Image: Mr. Barclay sharing a light moment with Harry Kim.

*  
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 21:57:26 -0800 (PST) From: "Myron Ojala" Subject: Scott's Hot Plot Shot

Scotty was wishing that his head wasn't so clear.  
When he realized that his friend, Captain Kirk,  
had for reasons unknown, used the Guardian of Forever. ::Now that was daft. Now it'll be up to me to pull his arse out of the fire this time.::

He looked across sickbay at the young lovely lass,  
whom they called Yar. ::The fair lieutenant is important to the captain's plan, whatever that blasted thing is..::

"Don't worry lassie, " he said to Deanna. "If I know the captain. He's got something up his sleeve about where we all go from here." he confidently reassured her.

Scotty thought about where the other officers went and decided to follow. He stopped short when he saw a small Klingon child looking up at him with a most intense gaze. " Laddie, some days just aren't meant fer dyin.. and I'll tell ye why.. It's much better to outlive yer enemies, because at the end of the battle, ye can have a nice pint, and know that yer enemies died thirsty..."

Alexander returned a growling smile. ::I like that lesson. Even though he is just a human.::

Scotty patted the boy's head and went to the spotted woman in Station Science blue and introduced himself.  
"I heard you were married to one of them..eh,, how'd it go??"

Jadzia didn't take offense, she smiled and said, "  
It's been...memorable..."

Dr. Crusher came over and gave Scotty one last once over with her scanner. "If you've fully recovered,  
Captain may go anytime you wish."

"Aye.. I think I'll join the others with that crusty groundsman, Beebee, or whatever his name is.."

Beverly and Deanna smiled as Mr. Scott exited the medical bay.

--------------------------------------------------------

It took him a few minutes to cross the Academy grounds but he finally found where everyone went. He looked at Mr. Data, carrying something and then realized what it was. He blanched. " I don't know how much I've missed,  
but.. laddie, just where did that come from, or.  
maybe I don't want to know.."

Boothby overheard, "You HAVE to know about this one.  
Or rather about two days hence..you Scottish oaf.."

"I already know about the Guardian ya malicious, peat spreader. " Scotty snapped back.

Boothby came nose to nose with the older captain.  
" I remember you when you were a know it all,  
snot nosed little plebe. Tell me, are you still building those contraband stills? Smelled one the other day.."

Scotty blushed five shades of red, " I don't know what yer talking about. A hobby's a hobby. If you must know, I was conductin valuable research in Lab Six."

The others watched the exchange between the two like a tennis match.

Boothby grinned "I'll just bet. Any student here can tell me the truth of things learned just by sniffing the air around your office. But enough of this banter. I said that two days hence is VERY important.  
Weren't you listening?"

Scotty heard a whine from Data's head and realized just what it was.. He saw Barclay's two tricorder's working overtime, projecting a field downwards over it. He noticed the EMH wasn't there. " Captain Janeway, where did that artificial Bones go?"

Janeway pointed to the noise making head. "He's in there."

Scotty went nearer. He examined the tricorder setup.  
"You've cross connected the tricorders with the EMH's personal emitter thingy. Whatever for?"

Chakotay said, "The EMH is attempting to access the future cranium's memory banks. We've learned that something is going to happen to this entire area in some possible disaster.."

Scotty grew serious and looked up from his mechanical prying, "You mean to say that the ol garden geezer's remark about the two future days is a detail we need to know?"

"Yes." Janeway confirmed, "Most of the components in Data's head have been subjected to some form of extreme heat energy. The holodoc's found signs of incinerated plant material. The kind found in a brush fire. There's more. There's evidence of plasma burning as well."

Barclay added, "As in Building Five.. Its security fields.."

Scotty looked alarmed, "Those shields are plasma driven? How bloody stupid.. Who thought of using those to surround the Guardian thing?"

Spock replied, "Starfleet's. They are quite safe."

Scotty immediately hit his combadge, "Scott to Captain Kirk. The haggus is in the fire and the fire will be very real this time. Hurry along as fast as ye can.  
There's physics here that I may not be able to understand."

Montgomery thought aloud, "Plasma fires? Enough to burn android circuitry? Where was this damaged?"

Chakotay said, "Seven of Nine found a piece of carpetting with that head. From Deanna Troi's outer balcony. I know that to be three stories off the ground."

"A fire coming that big? And a plasma one at that?  
Building Five's not the only place with active plasma ya know. " Scotty pulled out his own tricorder and consulted its database,  
" I got the schematics uploaded, Mr. Spock, of every place and source of raw plasma here at Headquarters. The Engine Design Reactor Lab, next to my building.  
You know the one, Building Seven. And another source would be in half a dozen labs all over, in any arsenal testing range for plasma weapons. We could be weeks checking out those leads."

Scotty came up with an idea, he had to learn more information from what the EMH was recording. "Now where's the doc I need to ask him a few things."

Barclay answered, "He's a little.. uh, little.. right now."

Scotty, "Huh?"

"Just tap your combadge and he will answer you."  
Boothby said gruffly.

"Ok.." and Scott did so. "Scott to doctor EMH."

"Mr. Scott? Are you well?"

"Quit yer bedside quackery. We've got two days to figure out all this. Where the blasted blazes are ye right now?"

The EMH responded, "I'm currently examining Mr. Data's head, literally from the inside out."

"Fine." Scott said, not understanding. "Chakotay tells me you are mucking about for memory files. Skip that.  
What we need to know is just about the plasma signs in there. Age them. Try to find the oldest hotspots.  
Were they from the outside in or the inside out?"

Janeway looked up sharply. "What was the purpose of that question?"

"Well now lassie, Everyone is thinking a fire from the outside.. Now, tell me this, what if Data himself, is going to be this disaster's flashpoint in forty eight anyone think of that?"

Everyone, including Mr. Spock, looked at the head.

The EMH voice was heard saying, "Well, I'm a doctor,  
not an arson investigator. All I can do is show you what's in here.. Pick up where I leave off.. I'm ready to return now, Mr. Barclay.. Or Scotty, would you do the honors.?"

Scotty beamed and rubbed his hands together "Reversing.." and he turned a few dials. "Here comes something.." and he laughed to ease the tension.

Soon, the EMH had returned. "Seven, I believe this is yours.." and he handed her back the visual recording nanoprobe between two fingers.

Seven said, "I will recompile the data for main screen viewing."

Scotty said, "Shall we all go my lab? I've a pretty setup for virtual analyses."

Boothby said, "Complete with alcoholic refreshments.."  
he mumbled.

Scotty shot him an irritated look. "Let's go. The others can meet us there."

-  
(attachments)

*audio* McCoy- Well, Scotty, Now you've done it.  
Scotty- Aye, the haggus is in the fire , for sure.

Image: Uhura and Scotty looking at the forward screen from her communications station on Enterprise's bridge.

*  
From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Knight in Shiny White Skin Date :Sat, 19 Jan 2002 20:46:28 +0400

Beverly finished up her preliminary report for the classified rundown Starfleet wanted on Yar and separate one on Montgomery Scott.  
::I've practically worn my terminal keys down on this diagnosis.:: she thought of the times Scotty came in with alcohol intoxication. ::I don't know how or why he always manages to fall for the experimental drinks can be dangerous to your health trick when he shows absolutely no propensity for alcoholism. "I think I should state my case for Starfleet to come up with that perfect Scotch just to save the man a lot of grief always waking up with a Fleet doctor lecturing him about it."

Deanna Troi glanced at Riker and smiled as she smoothed down her hair. "Every man needs a hobby. Surely Admiral Scott's is a harmless one."

"Not if the floor rises up to meet your face too often." Beverly snorted. She turned off her terminal with a viscious button stab.

"And how often has that occurred in actuality in the past five years..? Be truthful. I'll know if you aren't..." she teased.

Dr. Crusher thought about it carefully.  
"Hmm.. wow, only six.."

"There you go.." Troi sat patting Wil on the shoulder as she hugged him. "Thanks for coming Wil. And don't worry about my Frankenstein's graft in my neck. It's finally taking.."

"Too bad there isn't a synthetic trachea on the market." Bev chuckled.

"What?" Troi grinned. "If there were, Captain Picard and I could form the first bionics symposium.. Where's the captain anyway?"  
she asked Riker.

He replied, "I was given immediate solo leave to see you Deanna. An alpha two message can't be ignored." he said, with both eyebrows rising.

Deanna clucked her tongue. "My aren't I important?"  
I know a few years ago, just getting an open general system channel was tough work.." then she gasped.

Dr. Crusher and Riker both caught her arm.

"I'm fine. It's just the others have discovered something frightening.. I'll tone down my shields by the time we get there so you two don't have to stretch out a safety net everytime I make a noise.." she quipped.  
"Shall we go??"

Dr Crusher hit her combadge. "Doctor Crusher to the Boothby. What's your location? Sounds serious on your end.  
Deanna's already twitching.."

Boothby came on line immediately. "I wish jumpy nerves were the only thing we needed to worry about. Try time dialated catastrophe scheduled to hit San Francisco in forty eight hours..."

Bev and Riker and Dr. Crusher fell quiet. Wil pantomimed that he was going to comm his ship with the news silently and that they were to go on ahead of him.

Dr. McCoy decided to see what Captain Kirk would do and he too waved for the two ladies to go on ahead.

Troi nodded and asked, "So we'll take the bull by the horns and shove back a little." she said with a confidence she did not feel. "Tell us where you ended up Boothby."

"In Scott's lab. The EMH took some polaroids of the inside of Data's head and we're viewing them."

"What??" Beverly interjected.

Boothby was terse. "The sooner you all come down here.  
The sooner you'll learn things. Boothby out." and the connection was cut.

Tasha Yar, in a fresh yellow uniform, padded over and indicated with a nod for the counselor and doctor to go on ahead of Riker and her. "I'll wait for the commander.  
Go.." she said.

So Deanna Troi and Dr. Crusher got to Montgomery Scott's private labs in Building Six. Deanna smiled as she walked through the shadowed highly crowded lab off the cadet's hallway and past what could only be a careful contrived still. She could see a shattered glass on the floor just under it. "Hey Bev.. so this is where Mr. Scott's famous still is located. I wonder how many cadets try to break in here to sample some of the goods on the sly themselves.."

"None. Or Scotty's still wouldn't be the tantilizing mystery it is, whenever the winds blows its perfume around the Academy grounds. I hear talk about secret quests to find it from the students occasionally. I'm sure Boothby enjoys the challenge for them too. He sure talks about the smell and slips the admiral's name to them often enough."  
Deanna said grinning. On the outside, she was all professional,  
but on the inside, a huge part of her wanted to snatch up a beaker and taste the stuff sitting in the tube apparatus bubbling before her eyes herself.

Montgomery Scott said as if he read her mind. "When we get over this doom and gloom prophecy of ours, we'll drink on it, but, come see this ladies.." he added.

Dr. Crusher and Deanna went over to where Seven, Janeway,  
Chakotay, Uhura, Chapel, Ambassador Spock, Barclay,  
Boothby, and Data stood in front of a very hodge podge main viewer. Deanna was shocked to find it part holo.  
"All the images are 3 D. wow.." Then she recognized the detailing of circuitry drifting around her. "Now why are we seeing the inside of Mr. Data's head here?"

Janeway looked up at Deanna and pointed to the charred haired head under the android's arm. "We checked it out when it came through from the future. It's singed by plasma burns as hot as a real hillside wildfire."  
She held up a scrap, "Recognize this?" she asked Deanna.

Troi saw the blue material in her hand, "Yes.. that's the floor covering from my balcony.. I don't understand."

Chakotay went on, "Boothby found Data's head, from two days in the future, with that shred of rug in one of his flowerbeds. We are guessing the Guardian of Forever put it there so we could all guess the real meaning of why Tasha Yar was restored from her timeline to ours."

"I thought it was to help me remember the attack on me."

"So did we.." Janeway smiled tightly. "But we think the Guardian's thumbs are tied with directly mentioning a major event effecting, say, an Earth City like San Francisco. So it approached Captain Kirk with its visiting proposal until Starfleet accepted its passage here to Earth. Then all it did was slide us this clue, " she pointed to Data's sooty cranium, "with a foot while looking the other way so to speak.. Makes sense that it might have a few noninterference directives of its own."

"Why do that for Starfleet and Earth?" Beverly asked the Voyager captain. "Surely there are a million other worlds to protect apart from ours.."

"Yes, but how many have Captain Kirk on it?" she grinned.  
"I have a hunch the Guardian loves visiting with him almost as much as Kirk likes seeing it. Naturally,  
the lonely Guardian would want to help and possibly save,  
his gold uniformed friend by warning us of danger."

Deanna sighed as she finished reading the reactions of everyone around her. She knew of Uhura's fear of fire but the lieutenant was holding up remarkably well so far. Data, on the other hand, was a blank. ::He's turned off his emotion chip.::

Troi went to his side, "It's all right, Data. If I were facing myself, I'd turn off my emotions too." she said, patting him on the arm.

Data gave her a quizzical look but turned back to the EMH giving his virtual holo report to them all on the 3D viewer.

The EMH said, "I only found evidence of plasma charring on the outside circuitry just below the optic servers and Data's dermal covering. He saw the plasma fire, Mr. Scott,  
so he couldn't have been the object that started it."

Captain Scott nodded.

"And the nature of how Data's head left the rest of him is interesting too." the holodoc said, "It was phasered off at the neck."

Everyone was shocked.

Beverly spoke up, "Who would try to murder someone in the middle of a catastrophic wildfire?"

Deanna added another question. "And why was Data on my balcony to be that victim in the first place?"

The EMH was just getting into his element as a lecturer. "Perhaps he was trying to save you yet again. I'm not convinced that he was the one who harmed you counselor, despite the android traces found in your home the night of the attack. Mr.  
Barclay found you on your balcony, horribly injured and took steps to keep you alive until Beverly Crusher and others arrived to help. I am convinced,  
now more than ever, that Mr. Data was trying to protect you then and he will again in the future,  
from another attacker who's still at large.."  
he said, "...and.. I found this account in Mr. Data's memory files.."

The EMH blinked and the holoview changed to a moving 3D picture of a night scene in Deanna's quarters as if from behind a pair of eyes.  
"This is Mr. Data, on the night he was decapitated.  
It is his own memories leading up to the event."

Smoke filled the balcony window and a horrific orange glow. A white hand swept away curtains to show a landscape on fire.

Everyone gasped, the flames eating the trees and buildings below were turning the hideous green of a plasma fire as it neared. Most of Starfleet was threatened by the altering blaze.  
"Somehow, a natural wildfire from Golden Gate Park got through Starfleet's security shielding.  
Once it opened Building Five, all the natural oxygen flames turned to these green plasma flames you see here.."

"Those are unstoppable!" Beverly whispered.

"Yes.." the EMH replied. "Only open space can put them out."

Data's memory vid played on until he had located a huddled form on the smoky balcony.  
Again, Data's hand played in front of the view,  
shaking the person he had found.

It was Deanna, in a long white gown and loose hair. She turned over and looked up at the "camera". "Mr. Data.. I can't get down. We have only a few minutes to evacuate.  
We have to find K--"

They all heard the future Data's voice.  
"I am aware of that. We must go. Can you stand?"

"Yes.." the sooty future counselor in the image said and rose, taking the white hand. Then she screamed.

The view on the screen shifted and focused on a second dark form coming out of the darkness.  
"Armus!! Let her go!!" They all could see short blond hair and Enterprise security yellow.  
It was Tasha Yar with that phaser!! Her hair was whipping wildly in the heat of the massive color altering fire below the balcony.

The watchers heard Deanna's voice call out.  
"Tasha! This is Data.. You're hallucinating.  
He's trying to help me escape.. Let him help you too! We've got to get away from the Academy before they evaculate all the air out of--"

Then a wicked view of a flashing phaser beam shot out and the vid playback went dark as Data's head was severed off his body.

In the lab, everyone was stunned.  
So was Deanna.

"And that's how it happened. "the EMH smiled. His face flattened when he saw the others didn't smile back. "Sorry.. I thought you'd be pleased we found out how Mr. Data's head was transported into our time. It fell from the balcony according to these readings and hit the leading edge of the advancing plasma fire line. It began to burn there but then the Guardian shoved it into the dirt of Boothby's flower bed and two days into the past where we'd find it.."

The counselor began to tremble as she stared at the snowy screen before them. ::That will be me in two days.  
Oh Tasha.. How could you mistake Data for Armus?  
Did the fire make you think you were back on his planet and you were firing at what you thought was the oil slick, trying to save me?::

-  
(attachments)

Image : Troi in a nightgown.

Image: Dr. Crusher, with her face lit up by viewscreen light.

Image: A view from a green screened viewer looking at Seven, Janeway and Tuvok, examining it.

*  
From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Heart of the Fire and Fire of the Heart~~ Date : Sun, 20 Jan 2002 16:03:54 +0000

Dr. Crusher and Deanna Troi had no sooner left the medical ward when Yar and Kirk's combadges went off.

Scotty immediately hit his combadge, "Scott to Captain Kirk. The haggus is in the fire and the fire will be very real this time. Hurry along as fast as ye can.  
There's physics here that I may not be able to understand."

The older Kirk tapped his, "Scotty? Can you tell me more?"

"Just come." came the answer.

::Now that was odd.:: Kirk said. Usually, his old engineer spattled off reams of information almost as detailed as Mr. Spock's when Kirk asked for it.  
::Must be serious indeed.:: Kirk said.

He waved cheerily at Dr. McCoy, putting the last touches on his medical report while Harry Kim watched him fight with the computer and Kirk nodded to Dax and Riker who seemed to be saying hello to Alexander, a tiny Klingon boy.

He grinned at Tasha who was pulling on her boots.  
"I actually see a real Klingon child. I don't believe it.  
I've seen Kang, Kor, and Koloth. and countless warriors,  
but then to see that boy here on Earth. It's comforting to know that one day, the Klingon Empire and the Federation won't be mortal enemies." Then, a curious vulnerability crossed the older captain's face. Yar was surprised to see it there in the legend she had heard so much about.  
" And there's some other intelligence I don't keep up upon very often. Like seeing Riker, and that boy.  
It seems anything and any one coming to Earth with a history on Enterprise D, slips my notice. I guess it all came home when the Guardian contacted me to find you and bring you to Earth on its behalf." Kirk went unexpectantly open. "I wonder why I'm slow in that area?"

Tasha looked at him and blinked,"Perhaps we.. remind you of your old Enterprise starships captain. I..heard about your loss of each vessel under you vividly.  
I even had models of them growing up."

That admission made Kirk feel old. But he replied.  
"I'm flattered. Perhaps that's the reason. Shall we go find out what all the excitement is about?"

Yar nodded, and adjusted her phaser and tricorder in her belt, ill at ease for having caused Kirk some angst. She started to speak again, "Captain, I..."

But the Enterprise original had already changed the moment. Kirk went over to Alexander, "I'm sure your mother will be along soon, Alexander. Come with us until she arrives. I'm sure it will be very interesting.."

"More than fighting bush monsters?" the boy asked.

"Oh yes. I'm practically certain of it." Kirk smiled.

Alexander nodded, agreeing to go with an actual human captain. ::Now I'll see some glorious battle!!::

Yar regarded Jadzia Dax for a bit, copying Kirk's move to let the weighed moment pass. "I've heard of your people Lieutenant, being combined with a symbiont and all.  
Having multiple lifetimes of memories sounds wonderous. I hope you come help us in Montgomery Scott's lab." and she left with the gold uniformed Enterprise captain and the tiny boy.

------------------------

Kirk was the first to arrive as Tasha's and the boy's legs were smaller. "What's the situation people? I heard Scotty's call.."

The EMH glanced over Kirk's shoulder and saw that Yar wasn't in the room yet. He spoke quickly.  
"In two days time, there will be an out of control brush fire metamorphosing into raw burning plasma after it damages Building Five's shield modulators.  
Commander Data over there will try to evacuate the Counselor from her home before Starfleet Corp Engineers erects an atmospheric envelope and create a vacuum across the city to put out the plasma fires. Tasha Yar, apparently,  
gets delusional for a time and phasers off Mr. Data's head before any of that can happen."

Kirk's eyes looked to his old friend Spock and he saw the truth in the matter when the ambassador nodded slowly at him in confirmation.

Before Kirk could say anything. Tasha arrived with Alexander in her arms and the two were growling in Klingon amicably. Tasha immediately noticed everyone staring at her and set the boy down, handing him her tricorder to play with, "Alexander..why don't you record a few things in the lab. Might help us out."

The boy ran off eagerly with his prize.

Tasha met everyone's eyes and said., "Why do I get the distinct feeling that I'm out in left field here?"  
She saw the snowy screen and then Mr. Data's head in the current Data's arms. "Oh...!" she said. "What happened?"

Kirk said. "Lieutenant.. have a seat. We've learned events about the future and some of them involve you.  
But first, what did the Guardian tell you when he pulled you off into the Gateway for me to find you?"

Yar shrugged, "Nothing out of the ordinary, sir.. uh,  
I remember a voice saying that I was needed for another mission to save Deanna on Earth. So I turned,  
Armus shot me with something when I started to move,  
and then I felt the Guardian pulling me in.."

"Is that all?" he asked.

"Yes....sir..." she smiled uncomfortably.."I..I remember you kneeling over me, asking me if I was all right..I'm confused.  
Did I do something wrong?"

Kirk weighed the decision to inform Yar about what he had learned and decided that the Guardian's protection from paradox would operate here. So he said, "Gentleman,  
show us what you've found." he said to Spock, Barclay,  
the EMH and Kirk. The EMH's playback resumed.

Yar's face ran a gauntlet of emotions as she beheld the roaring brush fire turning green as it was contaminated with plasma from Building Five's shields. And then paled when she saw Deanna tell Data they needed to escape the balcony. Then Tasha saw herself "kill" Data with her phaser. A horrified knuckle went to her mouth.  
".. I- I'd never do that.. Sirs.. how can you know this evidence is real? I,, mean.. the fire damage could have altered Data's visual memory records.."

Chakotay looked to the floor. Even Janeway rubbed her mouth, saying nothing. Scotty started to say a few words of encouragement, but Deanna stopped him with a small gesture.

Kirk again smiled warmly and he took Yar a short distance away from the others, nodding to the counselor and Spock to look sharp. He told her things the way they were. "There is no guilt being plied here, lieutenant.  
Not on you and certainly not on anyone in this timeline.  
We don't have all the answers yet. But this, " he pointed to Data's head, " is from two days into the future. That can't be faked. And the Guardian cannot lie. It usually tells things as they are... Like " his mouth quirked up on one side, "a certain cantankerous old country doctor I know..."

His wry look was lost on Yar. She was too disturbed to see an inside joke to Mr. Spock from him. " Captain.  
Here.." and she took her phaser off and handed it to him, powered down. "Take this.. if my actions later this week will cause that.." and she pointed to the frozen viewer locked on the image of the phaser shot from her own hand.

Kirk gave it back to her. "I don't believe in predestiny Lt. Yar. And neither should you. Our choices in our lives are laid out like tree branches, you've many ways to decide where to branch off into. These images are simply showing one branch, one possible way that might happen. The Guardian has been good enough,  
in its own crafty way, to get around its own laws to warn us. Forewarned is forearmed. And I'm certain that Mr. Data over there would agree with me.."

Data nodded eagerly and Yar went over to him and gave him a big hug, the stress of her coming to the future, briefly coming to the surface. Then Yar immediately broke apart and wiped tears away from her face. "Data, if you see me ever coming at you with a phaser. Break my kneecaps and both wrists. I'd rather be a crippled delusional than a free murdering one." She added more with a gruff tone. ~~SEE SOUND INCLUSION ABOVE~~

Kirk let them have their moments while he consulted everyone else closely. "We should tell Starfleet to heighten satellite surveillance. To look for any evidence of storms or other sources creating off a spark in the grasslands around us. It must be something out of the ordinary that we aren't yet aware of that will begin this fire. And it has to be one that starts fairly close to Building Five, if plasma conversion instigates before the Fire Corp can deal with it."

"I'll get on it sir.." Scotty said, and he moved off to a console to tell them and show them the vid the EMH had recovered.

Then Kirk gathered everyone else to him. "Time we tried something novel." And he tapped his combadge. =^= Kirk to the Guardian of Forever..=^= he motioned all the higher officers' sudden protests silent while he went on, =^= We....understand your mission.=^= he said being intentionally vague. =^=Looks like it's going to get a little hot around here.=^=

##ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. I AM YOUR GATEWAY.  
THE FUTURE IS CLOUDED UNTIL IT COMES TO PASS.  
THE TRAVELERS I BROUGHT FORWARD ARE MULTIPLE FACETS TO A LARGER POSSIBILITY'S SOLUTION. I CAN SHOW YOU NO MORE.## it said.

Then the comm line went dead.

Uhura muttered, "I didn't know it could do that over communications systems.."

Kirk grinned, "Neither did I, lieutenant. The thought just occurred to me."

Immediately, all the status bars over their heads went amber,  
as the entire Starfleet Academy Headquarters Medical complex went to yellow alert.

Scott came back into the group. Kirk gripped him on the shoulder. "Thankyou Mr. Scott. Now the powers that be can't blame us for getting involved with sensitive situations.  
We gave Starfleet full disclosure, fair and square. It's about time more eyes and ears got involved in this."

The EMH's over head view switched to an automatic override as Starfleet trained its satellites towards a fire watch on San Francisco and put a higher security protocol on any approaching craft to the area.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Out on the prairie reclaimation grassland projects, the gone wild tribble found a piece of glass lying among the tall stems of grain it was nibbling upon. Its passing made the shard flip over, until its convex edge curved up into the sky. The tribble moved on, still lost in rabbit mimicking behavior as it adapted to Earth's climate.

The bumped glass fragment reflected the sun's light and the dry tinder under it began to heat.

A small curl of smoke wafted upwards into the sky until the wind unfortunately dispersed it beyond the satellites ability to sniff it out.

As yet, there were no flames.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Kirk by meteor display.

Audio: Yar- Data. I'm only going to tell you this just once. It never happened.

**************************

From : "Clairissa Fox" Subject : That dumb V'Dmerr Date : Sun, 20 Jan 2002 17:35:50 +0000

I watched the human captain in gold a lot. He was the one who had brought me and mum into the future. I didn't know much about all the time talk. It made my head hurt. But I knew about fire. My father was in a lot of it when he was a boy. Starfleet had rescued him from some when he was little and that was why he was a officer on a starship.

I wished he was here. But he had to stay where he was because of duty. Duty's stupid. Then you can't go and play all the time.

I tapped my pin and called mum.

Mum! MUM! You'd better get down here real fast. We're all going to burn down like haystacks if you don't hurry.

I knew that would bring her running. And I laughed. I didn't care if she thought there was an emergency with me. If she were smart she'd see there was no burning by me on her tricorder and just come anyway. I like to keep her on her toes. Serves her right. For she always leaves me alone all the time and she never asks me where I want to live. She gets these dumb ambassador jobs and drags me with her to do them.

Like bringing me here to Starfleet. That was stupid. I'm too young to talk to all the other lucky cadets here and too Klingon to have the security guys leave me alone. Only Bootby understands me. He let me play with his batlet.

But I wanted to see mum a little bit more cause things were getting scary so I just did what the blond head girl told me to do and I scanned the big room we were in.

I growled when the yellow alert came on. So I aimed my tricorder all around me until I found why straight up. The floating things in the sky were looking at the city for something. I could see their beams pass through the whole campus like water!

Then I heard Captain Kirk thank the fat guy for telling them about the fire stuff.

Then I saw on the telly showing the medical room, that Harry and Dax were leaving with suitcases. Where were they going? I just barely met them! Oh, well. Maybe they had another mission to go on.

Like like a secret battle where they could blow up a lot of Romoolans. I hated those guys almost as much as I hated V'Dmerrs other human kids waved at me in the playground.

I liked the yellow head girl alot. She knew Klingon!! And she didn't mind carrying me around. It made me feel safe.

I knew the others would need to know about the others leaving so I went over to where the grownups were standing and said. Aunty Kathy! Aunty Kathy! You'd better plan out a new plan without Harry Kim and the freckled lady. They just went away somewhere else for good.

Then I went over to the lady who looked a lot like mum and me because of her dark face and hands. Hi, remember me? I'm Alexander. Are you part Klingon? We're the same color.

But then I remembered my promise. So I went over to Mr. Scotty. If the pretty dark lady wanted to follow me to answer my question. She could.

Mr. Scott! Mr. Scott! I promised Bootby that I would find him the V'Dmerr eating all the flowers. Can you give me a probe so I can go find him?

"What in the world is a V'Dmerr, youngin?" the stout engineer asked.

It's the furry balled thing that yells at Klingons when we get too near them. I forget the human's name for it. I have to find it like I said I would. I forgot to ask the hollow doctor to put a sensor out for it when I was in Beverly's office.

I got a little mad he didn't open the probe cabinet for me. The ones he invented were fun toys! I once sent one to spy on Mr. Barkly when he was practicing his speech on how he'd ask Troi out on a date! It was so funny! I did that first thing when mum and me came through the Big Donut.

Scott smiled like all humans do and pointed to a me to a terminal, then he waved the EMH over to help me on it. He liked me because I liked his inventions when no one else would.

"What exactly are you trying to do Alexander? I only caught part of that. I was watching Councillor Troi and Natasha Yar handle Captain Kirk's briefing." the hologram doctor asked.

I want to find a V'Dmerr Bootby said was stomping on all the flowers. He let me play battle with a real sword so I must be honorable and hunt for him because he's too busy to.

"I see. And..." the EMH consulted his vast memory files.. "I assume a V'Dmerr is the Klingon word for tribble.."

That's it! That's it! Why didn't I remember it?

"Perhaps because it is such a stupid word for an dumb animal.." the holophysician mimicked Alexander's voice.

I laughed a whole lot! So can you help me find it?

"There are many animals at the Academy. And many tribbles according to the live species manifest here." the EMH told the boy as he sifted through the records he had called up on his screen. "I'm not officially on active duty for Starfleet any more. I'm just a visiting guest who was hoping to see some top notch lectures from Dr. McCoy. Now with this yellow alert in the way..."

I know how you feel. I see a lot of these when I'm with mum. It's kinda scary sometimes. Will this fire hurt me?

The EMH grew gentle. "I won't let it, Alexander. I'm programmed to protect life. No matter who's it is. Including that tribble's you're seeking. "

I groaned. You mean I can't hunt and kill it?

"No..I'm afraid not. You see. I've just remembered that the tribble was rescued by Doctor McCoy from a bar. One whose proprietors were making the tribble race against its will. He told me about it when I was treating him in his cabin for a fall."

Do you think the V'Dmerr I want is his?

"Most likely. Bones told me that it had gotten out of his skimmer in the car park by mistake. And Dr. McCoy will want it safe to live a normal tribble life after it had lived one so poorly as an illegal tribble racer."

I guess you're right. Ok. I'll bring it to Bootby in a cage then instead of skinning it to keep my promise to him.

"Good boy. But first, we have to find it." the holodoc said. "Let's start by scanning where he's eaten.. Shall we? If that doesn't work we can ask Mr. Boothby directly where the freshest bites go. It might show us where the V'Dmerr ended up."

Ok. I said. So I sat right down next to the hollow doctor and together, we used all the cameras and tellys outside to try and find the dumb V'Dmerr before Mr. Bootby got so mad the rest of his hair steamed off under his hat!

-  
(attachments)

Image : Alexander smiling, wearing brown.

*animated gif* Tribbles, multiplying and pouring into a pile.

*

From: "patti keiper" pattik1h... Date: Mon Jan 21, 2002 6:50 am Subject: Hot meets Cool.

Doctor McCoy looked up at the monitor he had programmed to keep track of the others as they moved about the grounds. First, in pursuit of Boothby, and then from inside Captain Scott's experimental laboratory.

He did a double take when he saw a shadow falling across the floor of the quiet medical ward. He got up from Beverly's office chair and walked slowly out into the main area.

He saw her two steps into the open. "Who the h*ll are you? How'd you get in here with that weapon?"

The tall stately woman holding the disruptor pointed at the ceiling blinked slowly, her balance comfortably shifted to one leg and she actually smiled. "I might answer that if you tell me just where my son might be.  
I've tracked his DNA into this room."

Bones said, "He's with the captains. All three of them in Montgomery Scott's lab.  
And why in the blazes did you leave your son alone all day to fend for himself?"

K'Ehleyr didn't bat an eye. "I didn't leave him all alone. He ditched his governess."  
the Klingon ambassador said, then she tilted her head wryly, gesturing with her weapon. "Rather an easy thing to do. K'empec's blind in one eye and mostly deaf. Her nose isn't as good as mine or she'd've found Alexander by now."

McCoy unconsciously ducked a bit when the muzzle of the disruptor swung his way.  
"And why do you have that thing unholstered?"

K'Ehleyr shrugged a shoulder to the ceiling,  
glancing upwards. "Standard procedure for foreign ambassadors tied to Starfleet to do during a blanket yellow alert."

Bones followed her line of sight to the amber status bar winking all over sickbay. "Hadn't noticed. My attention was all about the computer screen and filing my report. I thought I was done with those things when I retired.  
I do have to stop getting involved with medical emergencies. I've filled my quota.."

K'Ehleyr stepped the rest of the way into the room looking around and listening past the subtle alert klaxon. "Fine.. Then play tour guide Dr. McCoy.  
I need to get to my son right away. His trail doubles back and I can't find which way he went from here."  
K'Ehleyr said mildly.

"Why don't you use a tricorder?"

"Don't believe in them. Technology's a waste handling most problems.. I believe in good solid face to face communication.." she sighed expansively, putting her weapon back into her boot. "Except for owning one of THESE for those people who don't care to listen very well." she said, patting her disruptor.

"I hear ya there. I'm always afraid one of those dmn transporters are gonna scramble my molecules to kingdom come one of these days."  
McCoy agreed whole heartedly. "But you government types can KEEP your shotguns. There's far too many people on the receiving end of those in my line of thinking."

K'Ehleyr crossed her arms. "Maybe there's just a lot of stupid non listening people these days who won't listen to higher vocal persuasion unless a barrel is sticking their noses a little higher in the air."

"So says the foreign ambassador to the Federation."  
and Bones grinned from ear to ear. "I think I'm gonna like you a lot honey. Not afraid to tell off an old human.  
You know my name. What's yours?"

"K'Ehleyr with a silent "h"." she smiled and offered him her glove in human style in a hand shake. She was diplomatic enough not to crack any of his knuckles when he shook back. "Nice to meet you. I'm sorry none of us are going to get to hear Captain Janeway and you speak on the subject of human hybridization.  
I could have been a very good case study."

"No kidding.." McCoy said, looking her up and down.  
"And here I thought you were a full Klingon with that sharp wit of yours.. Alexander?"

"He's the same. Worf is full and I am a half blood with humans."

"I should let Beverly know about that for his records."

"She knows.. She saw quite a bit of us on the Enterprise before I died."

McCoy blinked "Are you telling me you're some dmned ghost?"

"No. Not exactly. More like.." she smiled in quiet amusement.  
"Liberated before a fateful encounter with Duras's bat'leth.  
The Guardian told me all about it in transit."

"Don't tell me it's a Klingon fan too."

"No,..it's partial to you humans. Like the Q are. My guess is that your Captain Kirk made quite an impression on it when he leaped through looking for you."

"How'd you know about that?" McCoy said with a touch of embarrassement.

"My dear doctor.. I'm an ambassador to the Federation.  
I make it a point to learn all about my adopted identity."  
K'Ehleyr grinned.

"Point taken." McCoy said, heading for the door. "You won't have to test the wind for your son anymore. I'll take you right to him. I'm going there anyway."

Just about then, K'Ehleyr's combadge twitched.

I (Alexander) tapped my pin and called mum.

Mum! MUM! You'd better get down here real fast. We're all going to burn down like haystacks if you don't hurry.

McCoy's mouth dropped open. "What an about faced lie. Just what are you teaching him?"

"He's such a kidder." K'Ehleyr said. "All Klingon males around his age have an over abundance of both impatience and a sense of exaggeration. Typical for boys his age. I found if I let his little comments slide, it boosts his ego and self confidence to the point where he can hold his own among the human children.. It's nothing.."

"If Joanne ever spoke to me like that growing up, I'd washed her tiny mouth out with soap."

"Tried that. Tastes like candy to us.." she shrugged.  
"And he's too young to listen to diplomatic reasoning.  
Actually, he's getting too smart for dear old mom.  
Wish Worf were around to pain stick ceremony him once in a while to give Alexander's identity a direction.. Know what I mean?"

McCoy scratched his head as they rode in the turbolift down to the Medical's lobby and outside. ::Pain stick?  
Perhaps Jim was right about these Klingons all along:  
But he said. "Whatever you say, ambassador. The lab's right this way.."

===================================

Ten minutes later Bones and K'Ehleyr were as deep in the reason behind the Headquarters wide yellow alert as everyone else was. The tall Klingon woman fit in easily with both the out of timers and Kirk, whom she unconsciously labelled as a Klingon hater, even after all his years on Earth. The rest of the people in the room she knew by reputation indirectly on her goings about in the last two days since the Guardian delivered her and Alexander.

::Ah, now there's Janeway. We've got to compare notes about dressing down infracting underlings over coffee sometime. No one can do it better. I've seen those ship logs of hers. Poor Harry Kim got the best one on that journey..:: K'Ehleyr thought. ::And it was for firing phasers out of turn even..Imagine that.::

Then she shook her thoughts to the present. Alexander was currently chewing on the R'Neq's jerky she brought for him. She knew the spaghetti she smelled still on his lips that he hadn't had enough animal protein to eat that day. ::How can he eat that stuff? :: she meandered, after she had kissed him in greeting.  
"Now, Alexander.. go give that tricorder back to Ambassador Scott, we already have two you borrowed and that spy probe from his cabinet in the living space we were assigned to. The housekeepers are getting tired of returning them to Supplies in your name."

"Yes, mother.." Alexander said, glumly.

K'Ehleyr gave him a gentle ruffling to his hair as he saundered past. "There's a good boy."  
Then she reconsidered. "Say,.. on my way over here with Doctor McCoy, I caught sight of a vanquished bush monster near one of Boothby's gardens. If I didn't know better, I'd say it had the same sword stroke marks in it that you leave during your Bat'leth exercises from the holodeck on the target dummies."

Alexander looked up in alarm.

K'Ehleyr winked. "Nice kill..." and she took him in a rush into a hug.

Then K'Ehleyr turned to the event at hand.  
"I'm fully prepared to offer my services to help get to the bottom of this future catastrophe. I'm.....quite used to having surprises sprung on me.." she grinned slightly.  
"Just tell me what's needed and I'll get right on it."

-  
(attachments)

Image : K'Ehleyr wearing sleek tan leather.

Image: McCoy wearing his blue surgical tunic.

********************************

END WEEK TWO RECAP 01-21-02

WEEK THREE RECAP 01-22-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Hub.

*************************************

From : Jeff Seltun Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Lunch Break.. Date : Due, 22 Jan 2002 21:15:01 -0800 (PST)

Then K'Ehleyr turned to the event at hand. "I'm fully prepared to offer my services to help get to the bottom of this future catastrophe. I'm.....quite used to having surprises sprung on me.." she grinned slightly. "Just tell me what's needed and I'll get right on it."

Seven of Nine stepped forward. She didn't quite know what to make of the Klingon woman. She instinctively knew that K'Ehleyr didn't appreciate side stepping issues. So she got to the point. "What may serve Starfleet best in the time we have remaining is to guard against any wildfire ignition points from beginning in the immediate vicinity. The satellite deployment by Headquarters is a good start."

Data set the future head back onto the counter.  
"Viewing this account of what is apparently a fatal injury to me yields little useful clues. Is it necessary to even credit what we've seen beyond the basic fact of a fire out of control?  
My cranium unit's apparent separation from my body is not important."

The EMH protested, "Of course it is.. I've followed your career Mr. Data. You are alive in every sense of the word. You merely... have a better chance at surviving...conditions fully biological lifeforms can't, such as being...well,.. beheaded.. Don't write yourself off so soon. This.."  
he said pointing to Data's head from the future,  
"...hasn't happened yet. And until it does or can be prevented, you are going to enjoy the full protection and action any Starfleet citizen is entitled to by law from the Federation.. Including search and rescue if this disaster happens and you actually get....scattered into pieces..Dr. McCoy, I'm sure you'll agree with me."

"I do." Bones said.

Janeway said, "I've seen enough here. It's time we do something to take our own fate into our hands."

Chakotay asked, "What do you want to do, captain?"

Seven looked up and carefully folded her hands behind her back. "Isn't it obvious Chakotay?  
We simply do, ..nothing. If a fire outbreak occurs,  
we'll deal with it. We've been warned by the Guardian of Forever. That's makes us especially alert to any emergencies and makes all of us more cautious from this point on."

"Are you all with me?" Janeway reiterated.

At least the EMH, Seven and Data nodded yes.

"Good, cause I'm starving. Yellow alerts make me hungry." She found a broad table that had only some of Scott's experimental blueprints on it and she set them aside, clearing it until the black enamel table was empty. Janeway made her way to the replicator and said, "Scan the identities of everyone in this room and give me one preferential meal and beverage they order most often for each. Site to site to the table in front of me." Kathryn said.

Chakotay began chuckling. "I think I'll join you.  
After all, most of us here are guests of Starfleet and not on active duty beyond the teaching,  
guest lecturing levels.. We aren't on the front lines of this yellow alert.. Headquarter's got the ball.." and his eyes twinkling. "Ah,..now this would be mine.." he said reaching for a steaming plate of yams, cornbread and a simple berry bread. A recreation of his clay tea mug from that morning appeared next as he touched his plate. "Ginger tea.."

Janeway got some coffee and a solid stew.  
She and her ex first officer sat, pulling lab stools under themselves and grabbing napkins.  
"Dig in.." she said. "Mr. Scott. I like this model of replicator, makes meal selections for a group easy enough for even me. DNA selected memory, and off slot delivery by verbal command.. Slick.."

"Glad someone liked the upgrade. " Scott mumbled.

The EMH smiled when he found a plate that had simply a datapadd on it. "And my middle day fare.. the Opera House Column in the Global News Net. Seven...have you picked a favorite program for our next date yet?"

Chakotay nearly spit out his tea. "Doctor,  
isn't that information a little personal for the lunch table?" he said with more offense than he intended.

Data tilted his head, sitting down before a beaker of dark, bitter smelling substance.  
"I thought the doctor was engaging in small talk Commander. Is that not the case?"

"It is. Ignore Chakotay's tones. He and Seven have a past that is changing. Pay the last remark no mind." the holodoc said pleasantly. "I'm deciding not to."

Chakotay sighed and was glad the others were too busy seeing what had been replicated for them to hear the exchange.  
::Maybe I am a little worried about Seven liking myself and Kathryn together. I value Seven as a friend too much. Or am I still on automatic "EX" mode.?::

Oblivious, Janeway caught a whiff of Data's drink and curbed a look of disgust quickly as she asked, "Uh, what are you having Mr. Data?"

"Guinan calls this the Revolting Ruin. My favorite. It was one of the first drinks I ordered when my emotion chip was installed."

Seven didn't understand the interchange between the EMH and Chakotay to Data. She was lost in her own thoughts during those seconds and missed the entire thing. ::Can we relax vigilance during this blanket yellow alert:  
Seven of Nine thought it was a little surreal how the higher ranked officers dismissed the potential crisis situation surrounding them in what seemed like moments to eat when she realized it was a skill that she, as an Academy Cadet, might find useful later on. So she emulated Data, Chakotay, Janeway,  
and the EMH by sitting by the plate she knew was hers on the table. A large wedge of dark chocolate cake.

Deanna Troi was already sitting and she eyed Seven's platter and pointed to her own bowl of chocolate icecream. "Trade you.." she said to Seven.

Seven didn't understand the reference so she smiled slightly at the counselor and continued eating lightly.  
"Doctor, I'd thought we'd try the Marseilles Opera House in Constantinople."

"I'll book us tickets for two..." he said.

Janeway loudly cleared her throat.

"Make that four..." the EMH said. "You, me,  
Commander Chakotay here and Captain Janeway.. " he hit a button on his reader pad sarcastically. "Anyone else??" he said aloud to the group as a whole.

No one else in all politeness answered.

Data almost did, but McCoy's slight shake of his head stopped him. He hadn't missed the relationship pair conversation going on in the slightest.

Seven of Nine approved of her ex captain inviting herself along, she was almost relieved in fact. ::That way Chakotay and I can get used to the fact that we are no longer romantically affiliated. We can concentrate on being differently bonded. No doubt the EMH and the captain are faster than Chakotay and I on realizing this:  
"Now the only task about which I am uncertain is about what I should wear.."

Kathryn winked, "I can help you with that. I've a whole closet of functionary affairs that can double as evening wear. I've given a whole lot of symposiums since the ship got back and I've a line all the colors of the rainbow.  
Will be a cinch finding you one Seven."

"I'd like that captain."

Janeway stopped chewing for a moment, smiling with amusment at Seven. ::I don't think she'll ever call me Kathryn. We'll have to work on that.:: she thought privately.

The EMH held out his hand to the rest of those in the room. Steamy smells of drink and hot food were enough to convert everyone to at least consider eating with those already starting. It was a strong attraction having a favorite meal already dialed nearby.  
"This may be the last solid meal and relaxation we'll see for a long time.. Eat while it's hot.."  
the doc said.

"For day after tommorrow...I die.." Data quipped.

Everyone in Scotty's lab went awkwardly silent,  
until Data began to laugh uproariously.

The rest followed suit and all tension, yellow alert or otherwise, fled the room..

Data's smile was genuine. "I guess I've finally mastered a joke..." he said eagerly, and bent to his beaker of revolting brown with a will.  
"MMmm" he grunted thoughtfully.

Then he noticed Alexander edging nearer and eagerly eyeing the glass with a fixed stare,  
licking his lips.

Data held it out before he took his third sip.  
"Want some?" he asked the boy.

-  
(attachments)

*animated gif* Data laughing uproariously.

*animated gif* Seven of Nine trying coffee.

Image: The EMH singing in an Opera House on stage.

**************************************

Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 20:53:42 -0800 (PST) From: "Myron Ojala" Subject: Sure Plays A Mean PinBall

Scotty dragged over another lab chair next to Janeway with Chakotay flanking his other side. "The haggis you ordered is a might better than I thought it would be."

"I just simply called up whatever is most frequently ordered under your ident Mr. Scott.  
Apparently, you have this recipe often.. or it wouldn't have arrived." Janeway said.

She noticed that the beverage went mostly untouched by his hand.

Scotty noticed her look and leaned over,  
saying, "The replicator can't make a decent Scotch, but it can make a nutty ale. But,  
I'm sort of on duty now aren't I?" and he jerked a fork up at the row of yellow alert bars winking above them.

Janeway smiled to herself and answered,  
"That's all right, Mr. Scott. I should have remembered that your replicators provide real alcohol.."

Scotty took another bite of his meal, and he looked down and noticed that it was half gone.  
Thinking as only a Scotsman miracle worker would do, :: The Guardian said the danger was less than two days away but what we know about the future is that it is always in motion and always changing. I can use that:  
Aloud he said, "This plate is half empty.."

"What?" Chakotay asked.

"This plate is half empty.. but still half full."

"Wonderful psychology Captain Scott. " the EMH said sarcastically, "I'll book you my next symposium on the elderly stating the obvious."

Scotty glared daggers at the holographic physician.  
But kept his peace. "No sense arguing with something that's just a computer program who doesn't know how anything really IS... I was referring to time and probability..." and he gestured to his plate once again.. "This here's an example. If I don't finish eating. Nothing will change. But, If I continue to eat or replicate more, then the outcome is different based solely on what I ...choose."

Scotty saw that he was winning everyone's attention and they all stopped chewing for a moment and really started paying attention when they realized he was on to something they didn't yet see. " As we make choices, the resulting effect becomes shaped eventually by WHAT we choose as well as WHEN...."

Janeway's eyes lit up. "I see where you're going.  
Chakotay. Is it possible?? Can we alter what we see as evidence here?" she said, looking at Data's severed head.

"I don't see how..just yet.. Captain." he said,  
looking at Mr. Scott. "What are you saying exactly..? "  
Chakotay said.

"There's an old proverb, Time waits for no man.  
That probably means that it's going to happen when, it happens... For us that means a fire.  
Now, we know, that Data somehow gets severely damaged trying to rescue Deanna Troi.  
Now, why was Yar there? And why didn't she recognize Deanna or Data? And why did she appear on the balcony at that point?"  
Mr. Scott watched Tasha shift uncomfortably.  
Little or no food was eaten off her meal at all.  
She wasn't looking at him. "I know the unknown can be frightening lassie, but the sooner we solve this mystery, the sooner you can stop blaming yourself for a murder you didn't commit."

The EMH spoke, "Captain Scott. We know the evidence,  
The head has been burned. Sent to us from two days in the future. That is a fact. Deanna Troi and Tasha Yar have been recorded as having been with Mr. Data on a balcony in the midst of a huge fire turning into deadly plasma fire. This is also a fact. Where are you angling your logic here? We need action. Not more speculation.."

The gray haired Scotsman smiled and rose from his stool. "Ah,,.. laddie, logic is something I learned from Mr. Spock here. And I've come up with a form of my own. Sometimes even the most concrete facts may not be what they seem if the whole picture isn't known.  
I am going to find a way for us to learn this before the forty eight hour mark is reached."

"How?" Chakotay said straight faced.

"How else laddie?" Scott beamed. "I intend to use the blasted Guardian and go a day into future.."

Janeway stood "Wait a minute Mr. Scott. We can't just go willy nilly and leap into a situation even we can't control. The Guardian went through a lot of trouble to warn us. No one's going through anything. Starfleet would never allow that. And quite frankly, I don't think the Guardian would allow us either."

"All right. Point taken. But a wee fire alone being the culprit? Somehow I think it's all much bigger than that. Somehow, events are being manipulated in a way that makes it seem our problems are only at home."

Mr. Scott went to his invented 3D Viewer they had been using and scrolled back Data's play back from the awful scene on the balcony. "Here's the moment just before Yar came outside with her phaser, Look at this time index, Just over her shoulder.. There's something else there.."

He zoomed into the shot, slicing squares and getting closer and closer to the image behind Yar. "Computer enhance image in quadrant 7-18 by a factor of five."

The section of the image became clear. "Computer.  
Based on the light reflecting off the object in this frame. Speculate and conjecture its identity."

##Plasma configuration. Orientation UNKNOWN.##

Janeway and Chakotay were on their feet now.  
And the EMH had even gone silent.

The image showed Scott's special view screen tie in bringing the image sharper and sharper into view. Something was touching Yar's shoulder, a strange green fog..

The EMH stood up, "What is that?!"

Janeway said, "Looks like some plasma wash.."

"More like a coaelescing field I'd say." Scott replied.

Chakotay said, " But we saw outside the balcony window that the brushfire was only just turning to plasma after it hit Building Five's security shields surrounding the Guardian. I thought a plasma fire consumed anything it touched, that's what makes it so dangerous."

Scott pointed again to the green glow surrounding Tasha. "Ah,, but what if this isn't Tasha.? What if we have an intruder on our hands? I can't think of a better way for explaining how a simple wildfire got through Starfleet Headquarters proximity deflectors."  
Scott tapped his combadge =^=Captain Scott to Main Starfleet Headquarters Command. I've reason to believe a hostile lifeform may be connected with events I presented to you a few minutes ago. I suggest going to red alert. Tie into my lab viewscreen and you'll see what I've just uncovered. Scott out.=^=

Scott turned to the room at large and said. "Choke those meals down. Looks like the second wave generation is about to become the first. It's us on the front lines again.."

He walked over to his cupboard of inventions and probes, unlocked it and kicked it open.

Janeway looked over his shoulder as she joined him, an expression of shocked pleasure forming there. "Oh my... You ARE a regular packrat Mr. Scott. "

"Aye.. but I'm no packrat.. I invented these beauties.  
Alexander knows all about this cupboard. Don't ya laddie."

Janeway and the others gathered near and saw an assortment of hand sensors, data padds, probes and what appeared to be various hand weapons of a powerful nature. She wondered what Mr. Spock thought of those.

Mr. Scott pulled out one of the strange looking tiny probes. One that appeared to be nothing more than a silver sphere shining like a mirror but it was only the size of an old style pin ball. He tossed it into the air and it stayed, "This, is a silkie,  
changes form at will, and can locate anything out of a timeline.  
Sort of like a miniature observation post. I...sort of came up with these but then the war ended so they were shelved. Made a few enhancements we might be able to use.. Built in high range sensors.  
Chameleon effect shielding. It's got an AI that can link with android or EMH.. Give her a crack gentlemen!! " and he stepped back waiting to see what Data or the EMH or both would do next.

-  
(attachments)

Image: A serious close up on Scotty.

Image: A table top showing Star Trek gadgetry.

*animated gif* A Red Alert beacon flashing.

*********************************

From : "Samantha Rose" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Surprise! Date : Fri, 25 Jan 2002 05:47:14 +0000

Riker waited as the last of the accumulated officers had cleared the ward. It still surprised him to see Tasha, though she seemed equally surprised to see him. For Will and the crew of the Enterprise, everything seemed unchanged, but they had adapted to any change that may have occurred in the past eleven years. Tasha's story was different. To her, everything had changed, including her friends.

The doors to Ward One closed with a tell tale hiss, breaking the Commander's train of though. He looked around the room, seeing now that only a few registered nurses remained. The transparent cell that Data had recently occupied had been converted back into it's original state.

Walking away to a quiet corner, Commander Riker tapped his commbadge, opening a link to the Enterprise, in orbit around Earth.

"Riker to Enterprise." the chirp of the commbadge signalled that a link had been opened.

"Go ahead, Number One." the familiar accent of a one Jean Luc Picard answered the hail.

"Sir, some unusual events have been unfolding at the Academy. Commander Data has been detained." Will saw the klaxons turn yellow just then in a campus-wide alert.

"Detained." Genuine curiosity and concern from the Captain.

"Yes sir. He's being charged for attempted murder." Riker could imagine the Captain's face, a knot of confusion and surprise. "Counselor Troi was attacked on her balcony a few weeks ago. Trace elements of android components were found in the carpetting."

"Surely, Mr. Data cannot be the one who committed this crime." Picard paused for a moment, then continued, "Is the Counselor alright?" he asked more as a friend than a commanding officer.

"She's doing fine. A little shaken right now, Doctor Crusher has taken good care of her. I should have some more information by the end of the day." Will leaned forward, resting his hands on a nearby console.

"Good. I'll be expecting your report, Commander." By now, Picard had eased back into his command, a slight hint of apprehension slipping from his voice. It was never a good thing to hear about an attack on an officer and even worse to hear about another officer being the attacker, especially your own.

"Captain, you should also know that Lieutenant Yar is here." Will hesitated at first. They had all lost a friend.

"Tasha? Alive? That's impossible." Picard's voice raised a bit at the sudden news of his late Tactical Officer's reappearance.

"Apparently not, seeing as she's here at the Academy. Along with an older Captain Kirk and his crew. I must admit Captain, this is rather...strange." More surprises to report.

"Very strange indeed, Number One. Very strange indeed." Jean Luc paused in thought, then continued, "I'm going to beam down. In the mean time, I want you to gather as much information as you can. Picard out." the Starfleet Captain closed the link with his first officer and, with a nod, handed command of the bridge to the highest ranking officer there and left via aft turbolift.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Riker sighed as the link between himself and his ship was closed. It wasn't his custom to let the Captain go anywhere alone. There were protocols on the subject and he strictly adhered to them. Personally, he rather liked that protocol. ::Why should the Captain have all the fun?::

He let a small smile escape, but quickly retained a serious manner. He walked out into the open as Captain Picard materialized in the shimmering blue light of the transporter. Commander Riker stepped forward as the shimmer died away.

"Sir, everyone has met in Captain Scott's lab. I suggest that is where we begin." Will towered over his Commanding Officer.  
"I concur, Number One. Let's go." With a wave of his hand, Picard motioned for them to exit the ward and make their way to Scotty's lab.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun shone hot and bright on the Terran surface as two of Starfleet's finest made the short hike from Starfleet Medical to the location of Lieutenant Commander Data and Company. They soon came upon the lab, a rather enticing smell greeting them as they got closer.

"It smells like someone is having lunch." The doors slid open in front of them and they entered the building. Just as they did so, the klaxons around them turned from yellow to red. With the change came a change in pace for Picard and Riker.

Turning a corner, Commander and Captain alike stepped into Mr. Scott's lab to find an assortment of officers huddled around a cabinet of some sort. Above them, a tiny silver ball.

Riker stepped forward, his eye brow arched in confusion at the sight of everyone present. Captain Janeway was the first to notice their new arrivals and silently alerted her ex-first officer as well. This caught the attention of everyone else there.

"So glad you could join us, Commander Riker, Captain Picard. You might want to come take a look at this." she nodded her head towards the airborne device. William looked at his Captain and then joined the group.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Riker's promo on a soft gray maroon.

Gif: A steel combadge bar design

Image: Picard's promo on stars.

Image: A group photo showing Crusher, Troi,  
and Scotty with others by a food counter.

*animated gif* A fire burning orange.

******************************

From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Close Call.. Date : Fri, 25 Jan 2002 12:03:08 +0400

Chakotay began chuckling. "I think I'll join you. After all, most of us here are guests of Starfleet and not on active duty beyond the teaching, guest lecturing levels.. We aren't on the front lines of this yellow alert.. Headquarter's got the ball.." and his eyes twinkling.

Beverly Crusher was easily taken off alarm as the rest of them so she dove into her lunch of romaine hearts and trout with a passion. ::You know. I never thought of yellow alerts in quite that way before. Chakotay's right. Most of us are second wave. Including me. If anything happens, I'll be paged.::

So she drank her cider and ate her fish salad smiling at Deanna. "Nothing like food to calm jangled nerves."

"I agree Bev." Troi said, spooning even more sundae into her mouth. She was enjoying her typical lunch snack when her eyes fell on Mr. Data's head. That upset her appetite and she set down her spoon. Deanna got up, grabbed the detached head from the lab counter and set it on the table in a spot not occupied by someone's meal.

Then she folded her hands neatly in front of her and stared into its eyes. "Mr. Data." she said of the still live one across from her with his beaker of revolting drink of choice. "Have you ever.. she broke off, regathering her thoughts. "I mean do you think he can function without a body?" she said, spinning the face on the head around until it faced Data.

Data was intrigued. "I have done so in the past."

But they were interrupted by Captain Scott's astounding discovery. Deanna found herself transfixed by the image of green fog surrounding whom she thought was her dear friend Tasha Yar. But the computer's identification of the stuff told them it was plasma. But the plasma was NOT consuming Yar. ::He's right. That's not Tasha. Plasma fires burn organic matter utterly, using oxygen as its fuel and any carbon as its path for travel..::

Near her, she could feel Uhura's inherent fear of fire grow as Scott zoomed in on his clued in image. ::I have to talk with Uhura about her fear. It's growing in her by the minute.::

Then Scotty drew Janeway away from the table and launched his clever tiny round probe.

About then,.. Deanna felt the familiar touch of her Imzadi. His feelings were very satisfied. And then she felt those of her captain. ##Will. Always planning ahead..##

##When have I not?## came his amused impression.

"Captains, ambassadors..." Deanna said to everyone at large. "Commander Riker has contacted Captain Picard off the Enterprise.. They'll be here any moment..."

Janeway looked up and saw the two men arrive moments later..

"So glad you could join us, Commander Riker. Captain Picard. You might want to come take a look at this." she nodded her head towards the air borne device. William looked at his Captain and then joined the group.

Deanna held up a shush finger to them, smiling in amusement as Mr. Scott continued his demonstration.

"....Made a few enhancements we might be able to use.. Built in high range sensors. Chameleon effect shielding. It's got an AI that can link with android or EMH.. Give her a crack gentlemen!! " and he stepped back waiting to see what Data or the EMH or both would do next.

The EMH eyed the device and held out a hand. It hovered over to it. "Great.. You've given the commander and I, a floating marble. We can go play badminton." He inspected it like a jeweler would a defective diamond.

"It's much more than that!!" Scotty protested.

There was a powering down tone and whine that began immediately, distracting all from their thoughts.

Then the screen over all their heads suddenly went dark. Janeway had to call the main lab's computer so everyone could see again. =^=Computer.. Lights!!=^=

##Lights on full..##

"What happened?" she asked. "Report."

McCoy had out his bioprobe over the future travelled head. It was smoking.. "It's dead, Jim. " he said.

Mr. Data, the live one, raised his eyebrows..."That is most unfortu--"

"Complete positronic breakdown is beginning. Must be residual plasma burn melting its carbon based neural net." the EMH agreed with his own bioprobe and med scanner.

Barclay shouted, "Quick!! Call the Corp! If that plasma fire spreads..."

Alexander hit the red call button on the wall, summoning help, even as his mother found forceps to move the head to a non organic surface.

"Wait a minute!! " The EMH said, still clutching Mr. Scott's silkie class probe. "We can still save the data and some of the personality files.. I can see what to do now through the Probe's AI." And with that, the probe sank down below McCoy's scanner and stuck to the forehead on the head. "We need that evidence saved!"

Immediately, Mr. Scott's holo viewscreen showed racing algorithms and binaries as the whole personality and memory records inserted themselves into a side program linked to the EMH. The holodoc abruptly turned white, like Mr. Data, as the process went on and he went rigid, falling away from the table arms still outstretched with one palm cupped as it if were still holding the probe.

Mr. Data caught the EMH as he fell and lowered him to the floor. The blue voyager uniform exchanged for a replica of Data's current yellow one in violent flickers, his arms still sticking up into the air like a broken marionette.

Janeway and McCoy both ran over to him. Chakotay too. "Doctor!!" she shouted. "Doctor! Can you hear me?!"

No one touched the EMH except for Data, who was able to grasp the shifting holo matrix easily in his artificially created hands. The holodoc seemed to freeze and quit moving.

Captain Picard looked down. "I don't believe what I'm seeing."

Deanna told Riker through their empathetic bond the whole story about finding Mr. Data's head and the whole frightening vid inside its memories cells implying a future murder of Data by Yar during a horrible fire contaminated by plasma threatening the Academy.

Riker quickly updated his captain while Deanna focused on the crisis in front of them.

Then the downloading from the future head completed.

The probe lifted off the dead head and floated back into the EMH's palm, and glowed briefly once it nestled there. Tractors from the probe closed the EMH's fingers around itself and then...

The EMH's own personality and appearance reasserted itself and he "woke" up. "Ahhhhhhh!!" he cried with a jerk. "Mr. Scott! You did a stupid mistake! I almost suffered an identity crisis permanently. Next time. Design a manual shunt for the next EMH who taps into this silkie probe's AI link of yours. You forgot to separate the android and EMH program port tie ins in there. I just fixed it."

"Sorry.." Scott said. "Like I said. Shelved after the war they were before being perfected."

Janeway knelt down by where the EMH was lying. "Doctor. Are you all right? Did it work?" she still did not touch him.

"Yes. I believe so. I have the holographic equivalent of a headache. But the knowledge from the head has transferred to one of my self adapting analyses programs. I can tap into it but I'm afraid I can only talk about what I "see" there. Mr. Data here won't be able to access them through me anytime soon. The memories are fully holo now. The video images we saw earlier have been lost. Unless someone managed to record the data I put up on Mr. Scott's lab viewscreen."

Chakotay put his hands on his hips. "I'm sure Starfleet Command recorded the transmission Mr. Scott just sent calling for a red alert. We don't need it any longer. Doctor. We'll just use your accounts to guide our investigation from here on out."

"That will be adequate.." Ambassador Spock said.

Deanna meanwhile had covered the head with a fire sheet, and Dr. Crusher sealed it into a vacuum tight container which drew out all the air from inside of it.

Beverly stated the obvious. "If there was still some microscopic plasma burning it there, it isn't any longer. I've just snuffed it out. We're safe now." And she scanned the outside of the container. "No signs of plasma registering. Strange that any of it managed to time shift with the head. I guess the Guardian had to hurry too much to decontaminate it before transporting it into our time."

"Perhaps.." Captain Kirk agreed.

Troi looked at Mr. Data. ::I wonder if this death is effecting him? Technically, Data just watched himself die. And the EMH instigated the holographic equivalent of a katra ceremony for artificially based lifeforms.::

But the expression on Mr. Data's face remained neutral. Deanna felt nothing from him at all.

There was plenty on Mr. Barclay's face. He was jumping from amazement, worry, curiosity and lastly, to self consciousness when he realized the others weren't panicking in the same way he was. He fought down his responses admirably.

Troi winked at him. "It's all right Reg. I think everyone is feeling the same as you right now. " Then she turned to the EMH. "Doctor.. Now that you have integrated Data's memory ingrams. Tell me.. what other readings besides the visual did you get off Tasha Yar on the vid? We've already seen the apparent plasma on her form there."

The EMH shifted, his usually exacerbated reactions and expressions levelled off into blandness. "I have found the time index Mr. Scott framed in that isolated data set. There are no lifesigns coming off Tasha Yar at all in this recollection. Even moments before I was decapitated." came a voice that was somehow, still the EMH's, but with his words phrased ike it would have been if Data had been uttering them.

Tasha shuddered, keeping silent..

Beverly Crusher set a comforting hand on the woman's shoulder. But then she asked more. "What else do you see, doctor? Anything else out of the ordinary, inside that playback?"

The EMH stared at nothing for a bit. Then his head jerked back as if it had been struck by a phaser beam. He gasped, then returned pure EMH. "I reviewed the entire memory vid. Other than Mr. Scott's green fog, the computer's tenative identification of a plasma configuration and Mr. Data's impression of no lifesigns off whom he and Deanna apparently saw as Tasha, I see nothing new.."

"Thank you doctor, for both linking with the probe and saving those records. I'm sure it wasn't pleasant." Janeway said, helping the EMH to his "feet".

Chakotay said. "It is never easy to see another in the moments before death comes."

"One would think I'd be used to it by now.. I'm a doctor. I'm exposed to it constantly." the holodoc quipped.

"Speak for yourself..." McCoy said. "I'm still not used to it."

"Mr. Scott, I return control of the probe to you.." and the doc released it to float back into the air with a series of warbles and bleeps.

Only then did Janeway step in to grab the holodoc's hand. "Doctor.. Did you burn yourself? That probe was in direct contact with the head."

"I appear to be fine captain."

Dr. Crusher added from a terminal, "He's safe. I just pulled up the schematics of Mr. Scott's probe here. It has plasma repellent shielding.. They'll be no cross contamination over to him."

Deanna turned and beamed at Tasha Yar. "Well all of this is good news. You aren't responsible for anything that will happen two days into the future. So stop worrying."

Yar stood, scanning Scott's silkie class probe with her own tricorder. "My worry is still there. It's just shifted from me to you Data.. Something mimicked me and then eliminated you on that balcony. And I'm going to do something about it. Now. "

-  
(attachments)

Image: Riker, Dr. Crusher and Data standing in bright lit out of doors.

Image: Deanna Troi and Captain Picard standing by fire.

*animated gif* A green plasma ball expanding.

Image: Data's head, lying on dirt, severed from body.

*animated gif* A tiny rotating silver probe, with red spikes coming out.

Image: A shocked look on the EMH's face in a close up.

************************

From : "Katherine Bird" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Plan of Action- Nightfall Date : Mon, 28 Jan 2002 04:33:41 +0000

Collectively written story for the third week between "Cory Anda" , "Katherine Bird" , "Clairissa Fox" using MSN messenger chat window and email letters over two days.

main parts -------------

Uhura Nurse Chapel Alexander Spock Barclay

free roles -----------

the EMH Boothby Janeway Chakotay

Uhura saw Deanna Troi looking at her while her mind was lost in a morass of thoughts. ::No, not that.:: she agonized. ::Not fire. I don't think I can stand dealing with another fire.:: But then she snuffed out her fears as Mr. Scott gave his presentation about the Enterprise security head not really being who she appeared to be. She turned to the EMH, wiping her mouth with her napkin to brush crumbs off her face after her sandwich. "Tasha Yar isn't really Tasha Yar, doctor?" she asked him.

"Not from the readings I'm seeing here in the memory vid. Plasma fire consumes organic matter and the image we saw earlier shows what looks like the lieutenant in direct contact with the energy fire. An impossible outcome."

"Mr. Spock..." Nurse Chapel began. "What is your opinion about what we've learned?"

"It is too soon to make an hypothesis to explain this incongruency of facts. Not enough information has been gathered." the Ambassador admitted.

Mr. Barclay smiled and began clearing the empty meal plates from the lab table and hitting the replicator's recycle mode. "But, with Mr. Scott's probe, we'll be that much closer to explaining all this." It was all the Lieutenant could do to not drop everything and examine the floating probe above their heads like an eager child. He missed getting one plate into the slot and had to juggle wildly to regain his grip on it.

Everyone chuckled.

Uhura couldn't help but feel apprehensive about the Red Alert active all around her. She could hear bustling personnel in the hallways outside Scotty's lab and she could see teams of security dispersing about Headquarters. A tell tale sparkle in the sky told her that the dome deflectors had been erected over the entire Starfleet grounds and that civilian traffic was being turned away for the duration of the alert. :: I wonder what that thing is in Data's vision if it isn't Tasha Yar? If it is an intruder, we all could really be in danger of that fire from the future if we aren't careful.::

A scuffling from the hall drew away Uhura's attention and she looked up to see four men in full firegear and apparatus dial into the lab at a run.

"Ah.. there they are..." the EMH said out loud. "Over here gentlemen.. We've contained the danger .."

The Fire Corps arrived in a timely fashion from Alexander's summons.

That was fast! They got here in a whole twenty five seconds! I thought. I got them! I got them! Now there won't be any danger. I shouted. I may be little but I knew what a fire alarm was. It's in there. I said to the fire officers. Dr. Crusher and my mum put it in a space box so it wouldn't burn more.

Nurse Chapel ruffled Alexander's hair affectionately. "Let the Corp do their work, let's stand back."

I stood back away from the lab table mum had set the container with Data's head in it and the men in outfitter's gear scanned it for the green fire.

"It's clear.." the Leader said.

I was a little scared but then I felt Uhura grab my shoulder. "It's going to be all right now, Alexander. You want to know why my appearance is like yours and your mother's? I'll tell you. I'm from a part of Earth where the people developed under a very bright sun and where it's hot all the time. My skin is dark because I'm from a place where a hot savanna has stretched all around for millenia. It is a trait of African people Alexander to look like me. Like your forehead ridges are a trait of Klingons to scent trails from the air given to you by your dark moist homeworld."

I smiled. I liked this Uhura. She wasn't treating me like a young boy like the other humans. Wow. Not many humans know what these are for. I said smacking my head bumps.

Nurse Chapel told more about the reason for the internal fire alarm call to the corp team. "The source of the plasma fire is microscopic in a positronic net inside that containment field. We've instated a vacuum around it. Medical is not needed here. No one is showing signs of plasma contamination."

"Thanks. We'll take it from here." said the fire corp specialist.

Janeway spoke up. "That is an artifact of a classified nature associated with the Building Five Project. I'm sure your superiors may want--"

"Yes, maam.. We have our orders.." said the tall man . He and his three others antigraved the container holding Data's head between them and escorted it out of the room, leaving everyone behind.

"Talkative, aren't they.." Chakotay quipped.

Janeway rolled her eyes. "Straight to the point. I guess all fire fighters are that way. They have to think and act in a pinch.."

"So do captains.." he mumbled.

Janeway toasted him with her coffee mug. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Mr Spock sat quietly in his chair watching the events around him, allowing the captains to organize and group together for the situation at hand. His simple juice was finished and so was his salad. He steepled his hands in front of him as he regarded a computer scan from a laptop he had secured from Scotty's desk. "I've recalled the copy of the memory files Mr. Scott relayed to Starfleet Command before the head disintegrated. I've confirmed active plasma fire surrounding the visage we see as Tasha Yar in that record. Whoever or whatever she is must be ascertained with all possible speed."

Mr. Barclay had finished clearing the table and sat back down into his chair next to Mr. Spock. "I'm..I'm not much of a forensic specialist, but isn't it a bit unusual to have this sort of finding? Granted the red alert Command put out is warranted. But this record is an event from two days into the future.. Who's to say the memory vid we've recovered and reviewed is even real?"

Mr. Spock nodded but added blandly, "I've known the Guardian of Forever as long as Captain Kirk has known it. Any situation it addresses in any context is viable beyond any benefit of a doubt. We must construe this evidence as fact."

Barclay was properly abash. "Uh,, yes. yes sir." And he folded his hands, not looking at his superior. Then he remembered the little silkie probe floating over the table and extended his hand out to it.

Scotty gave a nod and it obeyed, settling on Barclay's hand neatly with a soft purring whirr.

Reg gingerly pressed its general menu button and its schematics filled the viewscreen in the front of the lab. "This is incredible Mr. Scott. An EMH interface and one Mr. Data can use. I don't believe anyone has ever thought to link those two individuals together using any technology before."

Mr. Scott's eyes beamed and he folded his arms over his expansive belly. "Made sense at the time."

Mr. Spock knew when his aide had an idea and wasn't speaking about it. "Mr. Barclay. You have a suggestion in your mind and you are suppressing it."

Reg hung his head in an I'm caught body english and rubbed his chin, smiling ingratiatingly. "I.. I.. am just surmising sir.. Thinking about what artificial matrices or lifeforms that could mimick Tasha in this way.." he said, pointing to the image Spock had in a loop playback on his terminal. "While being immune to plasma fire at the same time.. The only answer I keep coming up with is the same.. A hologram.. programmed in such a way to be able to fire a phaser."

That answer startled the EMH.. "There are specific inherent safeties to any Starfleet hologram anywhere against being altered to become a weapon Mr. Barclay.. It is a primary functional law built in before any animation matrices are enabled."

"I..I..I know doctor.." Reg said uncomfortably. "I'm just mulling over a few ideas.." He gestured over to the main viewer split screened to show the satellite feeds coming from space as they scanned Headquarters and San Francisco.."..They are finding nothing entering or leaving Starfleet that's not authorized. If there is no intruder, than the only possible answer for Data's memory vid showing Tasha Yar can only be.. a hologram."

Uhura didn't like that idea at all. She barely had a grasp on what little she read about the system in Beverly's office when she and Christine had first arrived. She had an ugly thought.

But Janeway beat her to it. "Reg. The only hologram we know about that isn't fitted with an inherent safety failsafe is the doctor here. He's grown beyond the barbaric need for one as a self willed individual."

"That's... uh, that's the same conclusion I've come up with, captain.." Barclay murmured.

The room fell silent..

Chakotay's unease matched that of everyone's as it welled up. "Who would take the doctor's free will away and reprogram his mobile emitter to imitate Tasha Yar to kill Data in two day's time?"

"Someone who wants harm to come to Data and Deanna Troi of course.." she said. "That fire outbreak may just be cover to hide the real crime.."

"But why is the Guardian of Forever involved here?" Nurse Chapel asked. "Surely someone's single crime wouldn't have much significance in the natural order of things in our time line."

"Wouldn't it?" Janeway said. "All it takes is one infiltraitor to undermine a whole city's image of safety and security. I'm willing to bet whoever created that false image of Tasha also encouraged that grassfire to grow once it was discovered.."

"That is a logical inference.." Mr. Spock said.

"Yes, but what do we do about it?" Chakotay added.

Janeway gestured and the little silkie probe of Mr. Scott's left Reginald's hand and settled into her own. "The same thing Mr. Scott originally planned. We watched for the fire ignition point and see if anyone is attracted to the site to "fan it along" in any way. I don't think putting a security watch on the counselor or the EMH will make any difference. The doctor can appear anywhere at will in the blink of an eye."

The EMH grew indignant. "Wait a minute Captain! You sound like you've already written me off as that murdering tool you've outlined! Let me remind you that none of this memory vid has happened yet!"

Janeway sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Doctor, I could discuss kudzu and karma and manifest destiny with you all day long but we can't afford to demiss anything the Guardian has shown us thus far and I'm certainly not going to tell Starfleet about Barclay's suspicions. Would you enjoy them deactivating you permanently doctor?"

"Well. No.. but.."

"No buts about it doctor. You are an individual with rights as much as Mr. Data here is and I will defend you like I would any other officer here working with me. Is that clear?" Janeway said.

"Yes.. very."

"Good." she said. "Now.. Our direction seems clear. Locate the fire source site, and keep the EMH under constant contact with one of us until we get to the bottom of these memory vid events in case someone tries to take him over to fashion that Tasha Yar fascimile."

I saw Captain Janeway and was surprised that a woman could be so much like father when it came to security matters. Captain Janeway! Captain Janeway! Can I help? I saw her look up at me.

"You'll have to ask your mother on that score Alexander." she said. "But.. I could use someone to watch that viewer with the satellite readings and this silkie probe's monitor for any new developments.."

Mum! Mum! Can I do it? I know I can help Mr Scott. I know I can. I saw my mum say yes so I went over to the big screen and watched the satellite picture and the probe's telly. Do you want me to send that silver ball out to find the fire spot? I asked.

Mr. Spock raised an eyebrow. "That would be very helpful, Alexander. Please implement your idea."

Goody! Now I could do something to help everyone. I wanted Deanna Troy and Data to be safe despite the things the Donut showed us for the next two days. I didn't want to burn down, I didn't want to see Data's head again. It was too scary. And doing a action made me feel better.

Just then there was a communique from Mr. Boothby. =^= Boothby to Lab Six. Starfleet Command Fire Corp has opened the containment box they've secured from your location. Looks like the Guardian has already returned Data's head back to the timeline it belongs. I assume you've gotten the message the Guardian wants us to find and that now we're stuck controlling our own destiny to stop some horrific event?=^=

Chakotay smiled at that comment. "Mr. Boothby, who says it's some horrific event?"

"When does any person or agent want to help another except in a bad situation Commander..?" came the gruff comment. "I don't see the Guardian of Forever getting involved in a rosy scene now do you?"

"Point taken. Mr. Boothby. Join us in this whole endeavor?" Chakotay asked wryly.

"Hmph.. My flowers need me more than you need me. I've still that errant tribble to track down. It's an unknown.."

"Tribble?" Janeway asked.

Yes! The V'dmeer! I shouted. I'm supposed to go hunting it for Boothby in an honor oath. He let me use his sword in battle.

"He did that Alexander?" Janeway asked, "Never mind. I don't think I want to know the details about that situation.."

K'Ehleyr laughed proudly at the human captain's reluctance.

Nurse Chapel stood. "Right.. Well if there isn't anything else we can do in this lab. I think I'll go back to Starfleet Medical and see if this Red Alert's caused any civilians being held under our perimeter deflector shield any problems..That's if.. I have Dr. McCoy and Dr. Crusher's permission to work in their department.."

Both McCoy and Beverly Crusher waved a go ahead to her.

Nurse Chapel turned to Uhura. "Coming Uhura? I think we should stick together for Captain Kirk in one area until he needs us.."

She got Kirk's affirming nod on that idea.

Uhura and Nurse Chapel left the lab.

Mr. Spock and Mr. Barclay joined Alexander at his terminal in front of Mr. Scott's viewscreen and read all the data the little boy was monitoring. Reg frowned. "So far.. There's no sign of fire within five kilometers of Starfleet Headquarters."

Mr. Spock said, "We'll have a better chance at spotting any developments of that nature at night. Infrared will assist us once the sun goes down."

Mr. Barclay was startled, looking at his chronometer. ::Oh my.. how much time flies when we're having fun.:: The over head universal time on the security alert screen read 17:32. It was almost sundown. And already, night was cooling the city and Starfleet Headquarters under a blanket of darkness.

He knew his place for the next few hours, to be by Alexander's and Ambassador Spock's side, looking to thwart a firestorm disaster..

-  
(attachments)

Image: Uhura in Star Trek II tunic.

Image: Nurse Chapel in profile.

Image: Spock close promo shot.

Image: Starfleet headquarters room.

Image: Alexander and his family on the Enterprise.

Gif: Star Trek title lettering from the original series.

From: "paramountrbd" paramountrbdy... FOR "Roxy Dee"  
Subject: [voyagerliveaction] Guard at the Door~~ Date: Mon Jan 28, 2002 6:07 am

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yar stood, scanning Scott's silkie class probe with her own tricorder. "My worry is still there. It's just shifted from me to you Data.. Something mimicked me and then eliminated you on that balcony. And I'm going to do something about it. Now. "

She stood, eyeing up Captain Kirk. She abandoned her plate of food instead heading over to the older Enterprise original captain. "Sir, my course is plain. I was pulled into this time by the Guardian to help Deanna Troi and so that's what I wish to do. Mr. Scott has been able to contribute to all this with his new probe technology. Tell me what you want me to do sir, and I'll do it."

Kirk couldn't help notice the slightly stressed look in Lt. Yar's eyes but her commitment and sense of Starfleet duty was very clear. He drew her aside from the others.  
"Ambassador Spock and I didn't know exactly what the Guardian had in mind either. But now we do. I've never liked time paradox and anything even remotely smacking of time involvement. Goes with the territory.  
But I like to think that I've gotten past my inhibitions by associating with the Guardian of Forever recently."  
and he shot Mr. Spock his most challenging I'm an emotional human look.

But then he leaned in on Tasha Yar. "Your captain's here.  
Lt. Does he have level nine clearance with concern for the Building Five project?"

"Yes. He does sir. Last year's business with the bluegill worms and Admiral Nyugyen has made that apparent.  
That conspiracy with Remington, that whole affair came to light to my captain from the very beginning. He has level Ten clearance for sure. I can call Command for you to give you his authorization."

Kirk held up a hand. "That won't be necessary. I believe you. In fact, I'd like to use Mr. Riker as well."

"What do you have in mind sir?" Yar asked. She was comfortably alert and receptive.

"Pretty much what makes the most sense. Keeping my eyes and ears open for any changes in our immediate area on the satellite fire watch. Keeping an eye on Deanna Troi's denizens. Not an activity I'm accustomed to. I'm used to a Starship."

"So am I sir.." Yar grinned.

Tasha moved near Captain Picard and noticed he had the same expression Deanna Troi and Dr. Crusher wore when she had awakened on the biobed in Ward One.  
"Captain. I know that eleven years has past for you. And I don't know why you all look at me in amazement as if I shouldn't be here. But let's not look a gift horse in the mouth. We should take advantage of what the Guardian has provided and move on from there."

Picard actually reached out and took her hand in a gentle squeeze, ending her emotional outburst. Then he motioned for her to sit as he nursed his own Earl Grey tea.

But Yar would not be silenced. "I could stay the next two days with Deanna in her quarters. I could have a security team outside her quarters too. Let me at least try."

Captain Picard slowly nodded yes.

"You won't be disappointed sir." Yar said. "I'll do my duty to protect her and Starfleet from whatever comes."

Kirk met Picard's eyes and spoke, "You have a lot of faith in that young lady captain. I wish my security staff were as dedicated. Join me by the main viewer? Looks like the satellites have spotted something of interest."

Kirk waited for Picard and Riker to move near him and he began to toggle up various space views of the San Francisco Bay area in detail. "Here..." Kirk said,  
stabbing a finger down. "Here is where the ecomechanics have not culled the brush from the hillsides yet. That work is scheduled for next month." He swept a finger in the blue crosshatches of unmowed vegetation. "If any fire will outbreak in Golden Gate Park. It is most likely to be in these areas. We could use Scotty's probe to sweep those areas for signs of potential trouble."

Picard said, "I agree."

Riker concurred. "Sounds plausible."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the other side of the room Tasha gathered Deanna Troi and Dr. Crusher with her. "I know with this red alert that you have to check back with your departments. But I'll go with you to do that. Captain Kirk has authorized me to be your body guard counselor. I hope you don't mind my staying with you for a few days."

Deanna said, "Of course I don't mind."

Dr. Crusher rose from her seat. "The sooner I check my department floor, the sooner we can get back to Deanna's quarters."

Yar said, "I want to see if that scrap of carpetting Boothby found has been torn from the balcony yet. "

At Deanna's quizzical look, she added. "Just because it was found with Data's head in the gardens doesn't mean they both arrived there at the same time.."

Tasha nodded to Captain Kirk who saw her depart with Deanna and Dr. Crusher. He indicated his communicator pin to her and she ok'd signalled him back. ::He wants me to comm the lab once Deanna and I are situated at her house. I'll do that..::

Yar didn't know what to expect next but she decided she would be ready for anything. She wasn't afraid to face death in the eye.

She saw Captain Picard move closer to Kirk to begin to get involved in the situation. At that, she felt a whole lot better about it all. :: We've four captains here. I don't think there's a problem out there we can't solve together.::

And she didn't miss Riker's sudden glance upwards at her when Picard told him where Yar was headed next. Yar knew that Wil wanted to be the one guarding Deanna with all his might but only his title as first officer proved to be getting in the way of that.

She gave Wil a thumbs up and then followed Deanna Troi and Dr. Crusher to where they needed to go .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kirk saw the three ladies leave Scotty's lab. It felt good taking action, finally. He was never good for waiting around for clues to develop. ::Spock is much better for that than I. McCoy is too, for that matter. I guess I'm not the scientist or the doctor and patience doesn't have to be in my job description. Fine by me. I'll let my crew work. And, I'll keep them safe. Earth isn't very different than safeguarding crew on a starship. The only thing different is that you don't have to watch out below your feet.:: he chuckled, taking a sip of coffee.

Then he listened to what everyone was saying around him.

-  
(attachments)

None. Author's secretary from California offers apology for not being able to send pics and sounds offered by this writer.

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From: "Andy Anda" gdaeo... Date: Mon Jan 28, 2002 6:09 am Subject: Tribble 2

The direction of the breeze shifted lazily as it had been doing for some time now. However, this time Tribble smelled (tribbles don't have noses,  
but they can perceive subtle chemical changes in their environments via specialized hairs distributed amongst the rest) smoke.  
Regardless of the planet, the one predator that a tribble must be wary of is fire. The smoke was still telltale, so Tribble didn't automatically encyst to survive it -- that was an extreme autonomous reaction that allowed it to survive small diffuse fires much like a horse-chestnut nut, but at the expense of its fur which took a significant energy debt and some time to grow back while also allowing the tribble to be more vulnerable as well. However, there was still time yet. So, as always in this environment, Tribble moved to where it could view the local lepus and its reaction to the smoke. Fortunately, the rabbit had a keen sense of smell as well. The rabbit soon smelled the smoke as well. Quickly,  
the rabbit disappeared down into one of the portals to its warren. Tribble followed soon after. This was not the first time Tribble had entered the warren. Tribble had followed the rabbit down under the surface of the prairie several times before. As before, Tribble was able to mimic the scent of the rabbit at least well enough that the rabbit and its brethren were not alarmed at the intruder...

-  
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None. **********************************

END WEEK THREE RECAP 01-27-02

WEEK FOUR RECAP 01-28-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Graphic Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writing Site

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From : "patti keiper" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] From the Ground Beneath Your Feet... Date : Mon, 28 Jan 2002 21:56:09 +0000

K'Ehleyr was feeling punkish. Matters were about to move beyond her usual ambassadorial duties. She could feel it in her bones. The answers the humans needed had finally materialized through the Guardian of Forever's graces. ::One would never suspect an android head to be the pancea of fortune telling:  
"Alexander.." she called out to her son. "That was a quick reaction calling in the Fire Corp the way you did. I'm proud of you." she grinned setting a hand on the back of his chair as he watched Mr. Scott's main viewer as the satellites swept the earth around San Francisco. He was fascinated by the graphic maps that phased in from them.

K'Ehleyr whispered by her son's ear. "Now this Vulcan next to you is a very wise man. He's Mr. Spock and he's even spied on Romulus without having been discovered."

"Wow.." Alexander said, eyes goggling out as he looked again at the older calm Spock in his robes as he, too, watched the computer displays from the silkie probe and the satellite images.

K'Ehleyr said, "Remember, you mustn't touch him.  
He admires those who control their emotions.  
So show no fear or doubt even if a crisis begins.  
He will teach you strength of a kind that isn't fighting with a sword or even the path to violence. I have come to respect him."

Alexander absorbed all that his mother told him and grew thoughtfully in awe of the seated Vulcan steepling his fingers as he analyzed the computer displays next to the boy.

K'Ehleyr told her son that she would go with Tasha Yar and Dr. Crusher and the counselor and that he would be safe in the lab with Mr Barclay and Ambassador Spock. She was turning to go when Spock raised an eyebrow to her and pitched his voice so only she could hear.

"If I was as legendary a figure as you portray to your son, no doubt peace would be an absolute across the entire Milky Way galaxy, Ambassador.."  
he said, quirking an eyebrow.

K'Ehleyr tightened her lips. "I forget your ears are as good as my sense of smell. Just hush up and play the good babysitter while I'm gone,  
a favor from one ambassador to another. huh...?"  
And she left his side in quick irritation at having been read so well.

Spock's lips rose in the barest of smiles at the corners. "I dutifully accept the honor."

Dr. McCoy saw K'Ehleyr leaving, too, ducking as her son directed the tiny silver probe's sphere outside to sweep the grounds, to look for fire sign. The silkie probe rose into the sky and headed west, glimmering in the moonlight brightly despite its small size. He hurried to catch up to the Klingon woman. "Wait a minute,  
Where are you going?"

K'Ehleyr didn't lessen her stride for the aging human and neither did she look at him.  
"Isn't it obvious? I'm going where the heart of the action is. Not much work for ambassadors this evening..We're in a lock down..." she said pointing to the red alert beacons flashing on all the lampposts across campus in the darkness.  
"Everyone except officer's grade will be restricted to their quarters, including you.. I might add."

McCoy harrumphed loud in his throat. "I'm an admiral Ms. AmBASSador Klingon."

"Purely honorary doctor as I recall. You were never one for paper pushing in a corporate ladder." she quipped, turning up the night cloaked path leading to Starfleet Medical.  
She could clearly smell Deanna Troi, Tasha Yar and Dr. Crusher as having passed that way.  
"This way.." she said, cutting in front of McCoy as she abruptly changed direction in a haughty air. "I'm sure the higher ups gave you that title to get you out of the sickbay setting where I'm sure you drove the resident doctors to distraction following your retirement. With an emotional makeup like yours, teaching and lecturing is better suited at your stage of life.."

McCoy sputtered, highly indignant, but his reactions were cut off as he lost his breath trying to keep up with her. "I'll have you know th--!"  
Then he stopped in his tracks, very thoughtful.  
::You know.. I've always wondered why I got promoted so quickly back then. And I think Ms. Turtlehead's right and has just pegged the answer I never knew. I'll be dmned.:: and he hustled after her, his respect for her sharp powers about things and people around her,  
growing by leaps and bounds.

Both K'Ehleyr and Bones squinted as they entered Starfleet Medical's lobby from the nightime grounds and waved their idents past the security guards at the entrance. They saluted smartly.

K'Ehleyr didn't even look at the head security crewman as she asked, "Has Dr. Crusher and Counselor Troi along with another woman gone straight to Ward One?"

"Yes..about two minutes ag--"

"Thankyou, that will be all..." she said and swept into the turbolift behind Dr. McCoy.

Bones took great delight in the man's discomforture at her grilling question and manner.  
"Do you always take great perverse pleasure at keeping Starfleet types off balance?"

"Sure. Why not?" K'Ehleyr shrugged. "I especially find it so with human males. My being a female Klingon rattles them.. Just look at OUR first conversation together Dr. McCoy. I was bracing,  
wasn't I?"

"One wonders how you've managed to work together with others for so long.." he mumbled as the turbolift doors opened on Dr. Crusher's department's floor.

"Here's my reasoning for it, Doctor.  
Ambassadors work best alone on occasion.  
We become accustomed to being opposed politically quite often. My being female is often a detriment in my line of duty when it comes to working inside certain circles. An air of competence and a touch of snob works wonders in the trouble spots. But I'll admit, it's hard to mask that facade once one is recalled off assignment." She admitted, straightening out a leather glove in her belt.

"So that's why Spock's still in a super Vulcan mode everytime he ships back to Earth from one of his Romulus undercover assignments.  
That attitude shifting difficulty you just mentioned explains why he gets his ears in a knot over anything Jim dabbles in that's classfied that he finds excluding his Vulcan rear.  
Like this Building Five project. Spock had to verbally muscle his way into it with the high admiralty before Jim would even peep about the Guardian.. heh." he chuckled.

K'Ehleyr tactfully said nothing and just curled her lips in what she thought was polite listening. She entered the ward and was surprised to see all the biobeds empty. ::Huh. I guess even these Starfleet cadets are somewhat hardy against panic during a blanket red alert. No one is here getting treated for anything.:: "Dr. Crusher?  
Deanna Troi? Lt. Yar?"

"Over here.." came Beverly's voice.

K'Ehleyr and Bones found the three women in the main office getting together medkits.

McCoy grabbed his own he had brought with him but had left behind, when the EMH got him to sickbay following his wrist mishap that morning. "I take it you three are going to camp out at Deanna's for the next few days... Mind if I join you? K'Ehleyr here can be useful too. She'll sneer at the guards and keep them awake at night."

Deanna smacked Bones on the shoulder for his comment.

K'Ehleyr simply raised an amused smirk. "It's all right counselor. Dr. McCoy's joking about something we discussed on the way over here.  
I am not offended. It's his human way of using acid humor to ease his own tensions I'll wager.."  
and she helped Tasha Yar find the comm frequency on her outdated pin to the current day's so she could keep in touch with Commander Riker and Captain Picard still in Scotty's lab across campus.

"And I thought I was the counselor here.. She's got you down fairly well doctor.." Deanna winked at Bones.. "And yes, you can come. My suites are big enough for all of us."

"K'Ehleyr reads me better than Spock does I've recently discovered.." McCoy grumbled to Troi.

"A survival trait only. I assure you." K'Ehleyr admitted.  
"I'm used to hitting the preverbial prejucidicial Klingon wall with most people on Earth these days. I forget I'm on campus, where my diverse bloodline is tolerated with open arms.."

"Thank Ambassador Spock for that little effect.  
Now if only he can crack Jim's Klingon bristling.  
we'd be Scot free." McCoy snorted.

"Let's go..." Tasha Yar said. "I want to get set up as soon as possible."

"Relax darling.. We're in the heart of Starfleet Headquarters. What can go wrong?" K'Ehleyr soothed the fiery lieutenant.

======================================

Out in the park, one of the blue cross hatched regions Kirk indicated on Scotty's overview as a fire hazard, was becoming so.

Three yards from the rabbit bolt hole the tribble had found refuge within was an airduct, which led down into Starfleet Headquarters massive Tramway system stretching underneath the campus and Starfleet Medical. It was drawing the night air down into the ground as part of a passive ventilation system for the stations underneath the earth.

After a few minutes, a random night sea/land breeze finally made the sunlight heated, glass shard sparked ember catch after its hours long smoulder.  
It was the tiny source of smoke the rabbits and lost tribble had detected before they had retreated underground to safety..

The curl of flame fed on its plant stalk and it climbed up the single blade of the grass stem, reaching its top.  
The burning grass frond folded, tumbling over the sucking subway airshaft grill beneath it and its autumn seed pod snapped off of it and it fell, with all of the fire flaming with it, deep into the tunnel below.

The sooty grass frond, free of its heavy fire and top,  
recoiled back into place, and the smoke coming from it was smothered by the thick fog before any sensor,  
satellite or eye noticed it and it went cold once more.

Deep inside the earth, the grass seed ear crackled with flame as it fell onto an antigrav track in the red alert cleared tramway below. It was convected into the earthen wall by static charge in seconds, to behind the track's metal wiring, where ancient roots of trees, tinder dry, stretched inside the sandy soil.

The fire began to feed, invisible to satellites and sensors,  
through the ground along the dead wood, and soon,  
underneath the deflector dome shield erected around Starfleet Headquarters. Abandoned animal tunnels became avenues along its highway of destruction.

Any smoke from the fire was absorbed by the soils and never reached the detectors lining the tramway tunnel.

And meters of earth kept the satellites from seeing the rising temperatures of the spreading fire deep inside the ground.

The fire coursed inside its net of tree roots, sucking its air from pockets left behind from centuries of accumulated earthquakes in the area, growing larger.

Its progress was inexorably towards Headquarter's heart along its crawling subterranean route.

As it burned invisibly, the earth around it began to weaken wherever the fire disintegrated the roots it fed upon.

Building Five was the nearest structure to the buried fire,  
only a half a kilometer away from the airshaft the fire had fallen into from above.

The building was still glowing with its experimental green plasma shields Headquarters had mistakenly thought safely isolated by the deflector shield dome over the city. And those inside of it had forgotten one important fact. The protective energy dome didn't reach beneath the surface at all. Building Five's belly was open to the growing fire angling upwards, sixty meters beneath it.

The stressed substrate weakened further, crumbling,  
as dirt and rock steamed and hissed from the heat of the fire. Scientists in Starfleet Command dismissed the activity as common variety earth tremors on their seismographs as the chamber was born.

The great hole opened up into a cavern and even more roots piled high to feed the subterranean fire. The cavern grew taller, and it was right beneath Building Five and climbing...

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Inside, the Guardian of Forever was forced to remain silent by its own laws even though it knew the fire had begun.

It had done its best to warn the emphemerals around it of the danger and it could do no more on the matter,  
so its portal stayed dark and its communications access quiet. It hoped the man in gold it had befriended from the metal shelled ship would yet again make a difference when it counted most despite his encroaching later age years..

Its own structure could withstand fire easily, it was only a matter of phasing. So it prepared for what was to come and just waited. Something it was famous for doing well.

===================================

K'Ehleyr and McCoy and the others were on Deanna Troi's balcony, sharing drinks and relaxing in the warm night air. K'Ehleyr's nose twitched. "Do you smell something doctor?" She felt on the verge of a very human like sneeze. Watering eyes blurred the faint weak light from the full moon overhead,  
shining over the grounds.

"Huh?" McCoy grunted, looking up from his 3D chess game with her. "Oh.." and he took a deep breath of air from the slight wind tickling his face to humor her.  
"No.. I don't smell anything. It's probably just the sea fog. That's something you're not used to smelling. Remember, we've still a lot of residual smog left over from two hundred years ago. The ozone's sure to stink from it for a good while yet despite the air scrubbers and purging weather satellites. You can't just replace atmosphere like a shattered dilithium crystal."

K'Ehleyr was unfamiliar yet with Earth's scents close to the hillside residential towers ringing Starfleet Headquarters. Deanna's home was on the third floor of one of these. The musty brush and sharp tang of eucalyptus made K'Ehleyr sneeze finally as she tried to separate elements from the moist cool sea air around her face. It was loud enough to make everyone look up.

"Bless you.." Bones said afterwards. "Maybe I should take a look at you after our game. There's always a first time for you to develop an allergy to your are slightly out of time, like Tasha Yar is.." he quipped.  
"You're bound to develop something like that. Your immunity probably isn't used to this decade yet."

"Perhaps that is it." And K'Ehleyr dismissed any thought of the unfamiliar scent that had briefly drawn her attention to the horizon and turned her mind back to their chess game trying to ignore her suddenly streaming nose.

-  
(attachments)  
Image: K'Ehleyr in black and red.

Image: McCoy looking at a rod.

*animated gif* Blazing orange fire.

*animated gif* A red, black, amber and green lcars panel saying Star Trek.

*  
From : "Katherine Bird" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Popcorn by Firelight Date :Tue, 29 Jan 2002 10:48:09 +0000

Nurse Chapel and Uhura took their time returning to Starfleet Medical. Even at Red Alert, the future time for them held wonders and sights they had never seen before. Uhura spent a moment looking at the campus lamps glowing in the dark and the alert bar fashioned above them. "Christine. Look at this.." she said, tapping a virtual pad at its midpoint. "It's like the captain's status padd. It's telling a constant report on what condition this alert is for. A possible intruder. In this decade, even the garden lamp posts have computer terminals.." and she giggled.

The ground shifted beneath their feet. "What was that?" Christine asked.

Uhura swung her old style tricorder to scan the ground. "Just a little seismic activity I suspect. It's nothing to worry about."

"Let's go inside. It's getting chilly out here." Nurse Chapel said. "Now I know why the women crew around here all wear trousers!" she quipped and they both laughed. "Janeway's got the right idea. Even Beverly's got a lab coat over her uniform unitard."

"Think we can get a pair for ourselves?" Uhura asked.

"I don't see why not? We do have clearance in Building Five to obtain anything we might need for ourselves." Nurse Chapel said, "Remember the briefing we got before the older Kirk showed up to take us here through the Guardian of Forever?"

"How can I forget. It was all I could do to keep from laughing when our Captain Kirk met the older one." Uhura. "I've never seen the captain looked so disappointed he couldn't come into the future with us."

"Yeah, but his older self is just as charismatic and all business here as he is for us back on the ship." Christine said walking down the path leading to Building Five. The guards at that door, lowered the plasma security field long enough to admit them passage.

Uhura nodded and they walked past, but then she turned and looked back at them.."Any word out of the Guardian boys?"

"Not a peep lieutenant.." the younger man said. "It's been quiet as a morgue in there.."

Nurse Chapel descended the stairwell leading to the vast climate controlled hanger where the Guardian sat. They went past it over to the living quarters and research room reserved for them and all involved in the secret Building Five project. Uhura followed closely behind and they went into a cabin very much like one found on a starship connected to a smallish galley. The windows of the room opened onto the enclosure containing the Guardian of Forever and a continuous readout flowed on a panel next to the sight.

Uhura went over to it and tapped a button. "Well, we're still being protected from temporal paradox, Christine. I'm still getting two chronometer times. The galley here is in our time, matching equipment and technology we're familiar with. And this living space is in their time, so we have access to the communications net with the current Captain Kirk and everyone in Starfleet Headquarters."

"Did our Enterprise leave us a message in the galley?" Nurse Chapel wanted to know. "I can't see them sitting idlely by in orbit over Starfleet while we enjoy a jaunt into the future like this.."

Uhura took a breath and crossed over to the galley's time envelope. There was a new data padd on the counter. She picked it up and read it. "It's from Captain Kirk...=^=Hope you girls are having fun. Don't get into too much trouble with myself. And make sure Spock and McCoy over there behave themselves like two proper middle aged men. Signed..your past acting Captain..=^= ". She laughed and returned to modern day Building Five's time period in the main living quarters there. "You were right. He did, absolutely burning with jealousy that we're here where he can't be." she said, handing Christine the now dusty datapadd.

She flopped down into a chair across from Christine, who had replicated two universal trouser style unitards for them that still were the same color as their old Enterprise departments, right down to the breast insignia on their shoulders.

Chapel tossed Uhura a comm badge pin programmed from current time. "Put this on somewhere after you've changed."

She shushed her friend as she hit the comm open. =^=Chapel to Captain Kirk. Change of plans. We decided to wait for your orders in Building Five. Nothing's doing in sickbay.=^=

"Understood, Christine. I'll check up with you later.." the middle aged Kirk replied.

=^=You already have, sir..=^=

"Pardon?"

=^=Never mind. Chapel out..=^=

And the two women laughed hysterically over that ironic fact.

Nurse Chapel sighed.."It's about time we get to wear these openly." she said, polishing the communicator pin. "McCoy knows about us now."

"Isn't that funny how Captain Kirk fussed over that? I still don't see how Bones seeing us young would have made him nervous for his speech giving symposium, do you?" Uhura said stretching out a few kinks as she caught the new uniform Chapel tossed to her. She disappeared into the sleeping room to change.

"Leonard's funny that way, Uhura. He doesn't like change. Maybe that is why the captain tried to hide us and the Project for so long.." Christine said softly.

Uhura appeared back out of the water space in the new uniform. "Ooo, I feel like a crewman from these times already.."

Chapel laughed and joined her on the couch. "What shall we do now while we wait for the powers that be to decide what we do next in the investigation? Watch a few televids? Eat?"

"I'm open.. It's not like we'll get to see any live action tonight.." she said jerking her thumb over to the viewports overlooking the silent Guardian of Forever on the other side of the hanger.

"I...am going to go change... You pick what we'll do.." and Nurse Chapel went out of sight to dress.

Right then, the ground shook again, making the ornate sculpture on the VIP suite table shift enough to make both nurse and communications officer notice.

"Whoa.. active night for the San Andreas faultline." Uhura said. "Did the big earthquake happen yet for Earth? I forget.."

"That's not for five hundred years or so..around 2907." Christine's voice replied from around the corner."I remember that detail from the Guardian's sequence just before we leaped here to meet Captain Kirk and Spock in this time."

"Ok.. I'd give anything for a little excitement around here." Uhura sighed, eyeing the subtle mauve furnishings and crystal table of their VIP quarters provided by the Starfleet of this time to accomodate them.

"Bored with the future already?" Nurse Chapel said, "Don't tell me you're eager to return back to "Hailing frequencies open, sir.." so soon?"

Uhura giggled. "I'm not. Believe me. I'm glad to hear from the computer that my older self got promoted past that fifteen years ago.."

"Where are you.. I mean, where is she now?"

"On Vulcan.. visiting Spock's cousins. After Sarek died, She feels the need to keep in touch with them even as Spock chooses not to." Uhura said. "Captain Picard knows alot about how Spock's father passed. He was there for Sarek's last official assignment as Federation Ambassador." Uhura said.

Chapel made a connection. "And now K'Ehleyr is the new ambassador in his stead?"

"Bingo.. until she dies..er....died nine years ago. Two years after Tasha's killed."

"Agh... My head hurts wrapping around all this time paradoxal history.."

Uhura chuckled. "Yeah, well she's just as much future shifted as we are until this whole adventure runs its course. I wonder who else will show up?"

Chapel snorted. "Probably whomever the Guardian sees fit to keep this timeline and Starfleet Headquarters safe I guess.."

"Hungry..?" Uhura asked.

"Famished.. I didn't eat a lot in Scotty's lab. Too much new stuff to see."

"I hear you there.. All right.. Chakotay told me about an old snack native of his people, but prepared in an even older way from a real paper sack.." she said.

"What is this miracle food?" Chapel said, intrigued.

"Microwave popcorn.. Be right back.." and Uhura went to the replicator and got some enough for two. She was still talking animatedly as the two settled onto the couch for a long night of waiting for orders with the steamy bag, she was excitedly chattering until Chapel slit the top of it open and a smokey scent and column of steam rose from the white buttered morsels. All color left Uhura's face and she began to sweat.

"Uhura! What's wrong??" Christine said, freezing in place.

"Nothing.. It's.." she said, wiping the thin sweat off her upper lip. "I was just reminded of something..when you opened that...The smells and sight, brought back a memory. I.. it's stupid. Never mind.."

Nurse Chapel turned all professional and she set the bag aside. "Now I know a psychogenic fear when I see one.. Want to tell me what it is or do I check the computer database on your file to find out what it is..?" she said firmly.

"All right.." Uhura said, closing her eyes. She gripped Nurse Chapel's hands and closed the tricorder record she had almost opened. "I'll tell you.." and she sighed, flopping back onto the couch dejectedly.

Christine lost all sense of her hunger as she heard Uhura's tale of her childhood unfold.

Uhura's voice took on a fearful color as she related her memory. "Growing up on Epsilon Colony Serengeti II was the ultimate eco experience. Even the same Earth trees, animals and plants were relocated there in a second, great African wilderness all for the sake of wildlife preservation. My family moved there to help out shortly after the humpback whales went extinct. Everything was done with the minimum technology necessary. Even down to the weather.." and she shivered.

Christine got her a silver blanket and draped it over Uhura's shoulders and she set a hot cup of tea in front of her. "Go on.. I'm listening.."

Uhura smiled faintly and went on.."..I must have been about five or six.. playing with my boyhood friend on the plain not far from our villa, when a stray lightning bolt panicked the local impala. One of them kicked open a fallen log the bolt had struck in its haste to get away and the sparks set .. the savanna on fire.. I started running for the water hole as fast as I could, almost faster than the impala and soon I was safe. When I looked back, all I could see was a great wall of fire behind me but no sign of Bantu.. " Uhura lowered her head. "I got wet with water and ran searching for him until the fire turned the water in my hair and on my skin to steam. But still, I couldn't find him. I was forced to return to the water hole just to breathe.." She began to sob. "Bantu didn't make it even though the fire passed quickly.. Father eventually found me and flash healed my burns.. but for years, I dreamed of that fire and imagined Bantu's screams as he died. I.. and just now.. I smelled the same smell from the popcorn..."

Christine drew Uhura into a hug, cradling her head. "Shhhh Uhura.. You don't have to say anything more.. Hush.."

"It's so stupid.. Having this uncontrollable fear of fire. I ..I almost didn't get the Enterprise because of it. McCoy put in a good word for me with the captain..." Uhura said, pulling away. "I've learned to control it even when we got into battle and my own communications panel erupted in overload, I never panicked nor left my post.."

Christine pulled the blanket closer around Uhura.. "Listen hon,.. we are far from that savanna.. and even farther from the Enterprise for the moment so relax.. and EAT your popcorn.." she teased, waving the bag under Uhura's nose.. "before it gets cold. We want to enjoy Commander Chakotay's favorite snack food the way it's supposed to be served. Piping hot.."

Uhura laughed through her tears. "I don't know why the old phobia's suddenly having an impact. I..I ..guess it started when I first saw the playback from Data's cranial records. It reminded me of Bantu.."

"Yeah, well, Data's head is long since returned to its own time. You heard Mr. Boothby." Christine said, stuffing her face with the paper bag cooked popcorn in a greedy handful.

Uhura took only a few. "Yes, I know. That's what I keep telling myself. But nothing I do is helping to convince me of that Christine. And I don't know why.."

"Don't worry about it. It'll pass. All bad memories do.."

-------------------------

Uhura was about to relax when the entire floor of the hanger outside the living space collapsed into a fiery hole filled with flame. With a horrible high pitched shatter, the transparent aluminum of the windows all burst in their frames and the floor of the crew quarters splintered and listed.

The couch, and furniture slid at a hideous angle towards the yawning gap beneath and Christine and Uhura were thrown onto the skeleton frame of the floor that remained above the drop.

"Uhura!!" Chapel shouted.. "Hang on!!"

Choking smoke made it hard for both to see and then the earth shook again as the whole back side of Building Five tumbled into the burning chasm that had appeared from the very ground.

Again the metal frame work jolted hideously downwards into an angry pit, taking the two women tangled there with it. Then the falling stopped suddenly. The wind was knocked out of the lieutenant. Uhura quailed, ::Fire.. The one we were told to look out for..no!!::

Uhura desperately grappled on the twisted bars of the collapsed floor to keep herself from falling. Then she remembered her friend.. She saw Chapel on a narrow ledge along the viewport lip, perched precariously. She wasn't conscious. "Christine!!" Uhura reached out to her but the other woman was more than three meters away.

Her friend didn't move. Gasping, Uhura's nightmare fear grew and clamped down on her mind with numbing strength. But her fingers worked, to reach the spot where the new time combadge was. To her horror, it wasn't there.. "Oh, god. no...oooo... Not again....Bantu...."

Uhura passed out when thick smoke covered her.

By some miracle, the scaffolding continued to hold her body beyond the reach of the fire that was still an earthy orange.

None of it had yet touched the plasma security field during the floor's collapse in the hanger to turn green. It was still uncontaminated by plasma. The gaping hole had stopped just short of the Guardian of Forever's base, but the flames were building along with the smoke inside what was left of Building Five.

The two guards standing vigil outside had heard the women's screams and rushed in. They connected with the green plasma field jolted meters out of place inside the thick smoke and they were immediately vaporized when they failed to guess it had been grossly warped out of shape from around Building Five's exterior.

Both women were threatened by both flame and smoke where they lay trapped.

The night sky on campus began to glow orange as the fire made itself known from the depths.

A combadge, melted from the heat, tumbled from Nurse Chapel's shoulder and chittered open on a rocky protuberance below when the earth shook again. But there was no one to speak into it..

Only static was sent out. SEE SOUND BITE

-  
(attachments)

Image: Nurse Chapel. Big close shot.

Audio: A channel is open warble.

Image: Uhura. Big promo pic.

Gif: A chest insignia from the original Trek show.

From :"Clairissa Fox" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] I Find the Emergency Date :Tue, 29 Jan 2002 17:45:47 +0000

I couldnt help myself. I kept staring. The gray haired wrinkly Vulcan made my mum treat him like Kahless? Even when the sun went down, I kept staring. And then my elbow bumped the wrong button on the human computer. It caused Mr Bootby to call me on my pin.

"You needed something of me, Alexander?" the gardener asked.

I didnt want to tell him I was clumsy because Klingon warriors are never clumsy. So I made up something. Im with Mr Spock and were both watching for stuff on the sky things and with the flying silver ball. I could hunt the Vdmeer for you using them.

I thought that Spock would say that I couldnt use them that way because of the red alert but he just kept changing the pictures on the big telly and writing into his metal pad.

But then Bootby decided to come by me. He came using the transporter. "Ah,, there you are..." the crusty old man said walking over to the tiny boy. His straw sun hat was gone and so were his dusty overalls.

Youre clean! I shouted.

"Of course I'm clean. It's nighttime. Do you think anyone can garden when you can't even see the hand in front of your face?" Boothby exclaimed. "And thank you for the offer to hunt down the tribble, but I distinctly recall someone telling you that hunting and killing the tribble wasn't an option young man. And yet, you still insist to me that you are."

Shhh not so loud. I said. I didnt want Mr Spock to hear me. I know. I was made to promise Id bring him to you in a cage instead. But look! I showed him. This screen is coming from Mr Scotts marble. I sent it outside to look for the fire Data told us about. And these other really high ones are from the sky things.

"Those are satellites. Alexander. I know it's a human word that's hard but that's what they are."

I know.. I said and got a little angry. I hated it when there was an Earth word I didnt get right away. I was happy when Mr Spock didnt say I told you so. He knew I was only a little boy and was trying to be like him. Bootby Captain Janeway left some food on the table over there. Not everyone ate because they were scared. I saved it for you.

"How thoughtful. Cold food." Boothby said sarcastically, but he yanked on Alexander's ponytail affectionately in a way that he knew would be taken as play.

I leaped from my chair and knocked Bootbys pink hands away. He wanted to honor battle play with me! So I growled real loud. I didnt care when Mr Spock raised an eyebrow at me while he worked and I got right in there and tackled Bootby around the legs.

"Why you, tiny little hairy leech!" the gardener pretend insulted, lifting Alexander by the back of his trousers into the air.

I swiped and swiped but I couldnt reach his face so I just got louder. Grrrr!! But then my boot got him across his middle.

"Oaf!!" Boothby pretended and went down into a heap onto the floor.

I leaped onto his throat and grabbed it. Die! Traitor! And know that it was I son of mum and Worf of the Moug house who kills you like the slime you are. Grrr... and I grabbed him by the ears.

Boothby cried out and faked a death dramatically under Alexander's tiny grip on his earlobes. "Ahh! Oh woe the day I challenged the great Alexander. Farewell..."

I laughed loud when he went limp. He battle played real good. So I leaped off him. You mock battle just as good as dad.

"I take pride in knowing Klingon practices. Sometimes I think there isn't a race I don't know.. Except for the tribble's." he said glumly.

You still can't find him? Ha! I said and climbed back into the computer chair next to the old Vulcan. I can find him. The metal marbles a really great telly and fox hound all in one! See?

I pushed some buttons and the picture zoomed around as I made it fly over the woods.

Mr. Boothby got to his feet, brushing off non existent dust off his backside and eyed up an apple on the luncheon table. He picked it up and started chewing as he made his way back over to the boy. "Ah,.. so that's Mr. Scott's new prototype surveillance probe.. He called it a silkie class if I remember rightly."

Thats it! Thats it! I just couldnt remember that word like I cant remember the hard one. The satill..the sata..

"Satellites.." both Boothby and Mr. Spock said together.

Yeah. That one.

"But why isn't Mr. Barclay flying it right now? I thought he'd be the logical choice." Boothby asked.

I said. He went with Scotty to see his inventions in the secret cupboard back there and Mr Spock said I could take over for a while for him. This feels like flying a shuttle. It's easy. But then I saw the clouds. They were glowing tangerine. Hey look. I know its not dawn yet because that weak Earth moon just came up. Whats that? I made the picture look at the ground. A green dome was over the Building mum and I used to get here but it wasnt sitting right. It was leaning over onto the sidewalk and had made a few of the post lights go out. The faint orange glow was coming from inside of it.

Mr. Boothby exclaimed in alarm. "Fire! And from a direction none of us ever expected. I look down everyday digging in the dirt." he said sarcastically. And he hit a disaster call bar on a wall that ran to Starfleet Command.

=^=Situation? We've no infrared sightings..=^=came the admiral on duty's voice.

"That's because's it's covered up with your experimental plasma shield! Building Five's been engulfed from below! Get on it! And shut down that confounded plasma containment field over the Guardian before the fire changes into charged plasma!!"

I saw a white button flashing so I pulled on Mr Bootbys sleeve. Sir. Sir. The firemen cant. The box making the green dome is stuck still on. Look. And I showed him the white button.

"You're right. It's fused over there. They'll have to find another way in. Transporters will be nonfunctional with that dmned security field in place." Boothby checked.

Mr. Spock had moved the satellite sensors over Building Five and they could see the glow the boy had spotted just barely, through the green security field. Spock tried rerouting the override controls through the master computer but still the misshapen, battered plasma dome remained stubbornly over the burning building.

Bootby! Bootby! Get them out of there!

"What are you talking about young man?" the caretaker demanded, grabbing Alexander's arm sharply.

I heard the pretty yellow haired lady call Captain Kirk to tell him she and the lady dark as mum would wait in Building Five for his orders.

"Spock? Is this true..?" Boothby asked the Vulcan who was rapidly trying to learn more about the situation through the sensors.

"It is true. However, I cannot locate any emissions, biological or other wise through the plasma shield. Only visible light is escaping." he said.

"That's why the alarm wasn't raised..That dmned full moon blocked out the fireglow." Boothby snapped. He tapped his combadge. "Boothby to Uhura. Respond."

There wasn't even a welcoming chitter. Boothby tapped another frequency. "Boothby to Nurse Chapel. Answer me."

This time a line came open, but only hissing static and the sound of crackling flames came over it. "At least she's confirmed inside, Mr. Spock." Boothby told him. "I'm hearing fire over her combadge."

Why didnt the bioflag ambulance transporter help her?

"The plasma shield prevents lifesign readings from being taken by the main computer Alexander.." the caretaker told him.

What should I do. Should I call the Fire Corp again?

Boothby looked at the tiny worried boy. "You don't need to. They've been alerted with my disaster call. Now, all of Starfleet knows."

Sure enough, they could all see tiny running figures heading towards Building Five's coordinates.

I turned on the voicebox on the metal marble. Look out! Look out! The green domes tipping over wrong. Dont touch it or youll get hurt! I saw the people stop and pull out their tricorders so they could find the edge of the green energy covered by the orange glowing.

Boothby got to thinking. "Aren't there two guards posted at every building across campus due to our intruder alert?"

Mr. Spock nodded.

Then why arent they calling us? I asked.

Boothby took over the flight path of the silkie probe and made it move over to the egressing transporter pad near the main sidewalk side of the building. Two hideous silohuettes were burned into the grass where the security guards had collided with the security field trying to get inside.

Oh no! They got killed. I said starting to get really scared. But then I remember what mum told me about showing no emotion around Mr Spock so I uncurled my fists and made my face listen. What can we do now?

Boothby hit his combadge to all the personnel still on the other side of Scotty's lab. To Kirk, Riker, Picard, Scotty, Seven, Data, Janeway, Chakotay, the EMH and Barclay. =^=Front and center people. The fire found us from under our feet. Building Five. Two are dead and two others possibly in jeopardy. Get up here!=^=

He heard running footsteps as the others came quickly.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Alexander in white Karate clothes.

*animated gif* A night moon reflected in an electrified mirror probe.

Image: Boothy wearing his straw hat.

*********************************

Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 02:15:20 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: Blast Into the Past

Boothby hit his combadge to all the personnel still on the other side of Scotty's lab. To Kirk, Riker,  
Picard, Scotty, Seven, Data, Janeway, Chakotay, the EMH and Barclay. =^=Front and center people. The fire found us from under our feet. Building Five. Two are dead and two others possibly in jeopardy. Get up here!=^=

::Mr. Boothby? With news on our mission? Things must truly be urgent if he's relaying accounts:  
Seven thought as she hurried back to the wide area in front of Scott's viewscreen. On her way, she consulted her tricorder and aimed it towards the direction of Building Five. ::Strange. I'm reading nothing amiss.  
But then again, the experimental plasma security field around the structure is very good at what it does by concealing internal contents.::

Data caught her eye as he too, matched her move attempting to scan the fire reported. He shook his head in the negative fractionally when Seven raised her eyebrows.

But then android and exBorg saw what Alexander had seen on the main viewer and heard the open comm crackling flames audibly. He saw the ident displaying the signal as coming from Nurse Chapel's combadge. "Does she have any lifesigns?" Seven asked Boothby.

"That dmned prototype dome's blocking everything except for our comm system signals and visual light according to Mr. Spock. We can't tell, and,...these others say, Lt. Uhura may be with her."

Captain Janeway and Chakotay came at a run from around a bend and sized up the situation in seconds.  
"How long since you got that comm badge functioning?"  
Janeway asked, eyeing up the status board the silkie probe was projecting as it hovered,  
circling in the air above the eerie green glowing energy wrapped around Building Five.

"Twenty one point five seconds.." Spock replied.

"But she doesn't answer us.." Alexander added.

Chakotay asked, "Your confirmed dead are the guards?"

Boothby nodded. "Yes. Their DNA is reading on scorch marks in the grass."

Janeway sighed, clearly not happy at all. "The field's still up. We've got to get it down, now, for a team to go in there to get to the two women. But I see here, its generator is fused from the high heat levels inside."

The EMH sparkled by their side. "I have an idea. Send me in there after them."

"We can't.. transporters won't function through the plasma shield." Seven said.

Data spoke eagerly and he didn't blink as he delivered his idea. "We can stream in the doctor the same way the fire entered the premises. From underneath the surface. Once he tags them with proximity tag beacons,  
we can beam them out safely into a tramway tunnel."

"Let's go.." Janeway said. "Captain Kirk, Mr. Scott,  
Spock. I'll need you here to be our eyes and ears on the sensors.  
You tell us the moment by moment if the fire contaminates with plasma, I don't want anyone to be anywhere near the area when it does. Data, Seven,  
doctor.. Chakotay, You're with me.  
Mr. Barclay, if you're feeling adventurous, meet us in Tramway Tunnel Three with a full med team. I don't know what condition they'll be in once the doctor finds them. Or how injured we might get if the fire turns plasma. Captain Picard and Commander Riker. I'm open to suggestions. I might need you to rescue us if something goes wrong down there. But I'll try Data's idea first.."

"D-Don't you worry. I'll have everything ready captain." Reg reassured her.

Chakotay tapped his badge. =^=Lab Six to Starfleet Command. Beam Captain Janeway the EMH, and Commander Data, and Seven of Nine and myself to the tramway tunnel directly below Building Five with a standard series of portable transporter enhancers. We're going to try following the fire's path inside to mount a rescue..=^=

=^=Understood Lab Six.. Site to site transfer in five,  
four.....three..=^=

Janeway felt the lab shimmer away and immediately, she was somewhere else and a trickle of seared dirt and soot rained down on top of her head. They had materialized directly beneath the cavern where the fire nested. They were in the middle of the tramway tracks. She coughed, ducking away from the earth that was falling in dusty columns to a clear area. "Doctor!"

The EMH had his med tricorder aimed at the ceiling. "They're alive... and I'm getting only oxygen burning up there. The fire hasn't reached the shield yet thank goodness or they'd already be incinerated."

Chakotay quickly motioned for Data and Seven to turn on the pattern enhancers Starfleet had beamed to them into a triangle and the three of them quickly switched them on. "Doctor.. You ready?"

The EMH got out two tag beacons, but he left his medkit behind. He figured he'd need all his limbs to move around the shattered collapsed flooring around Uhura and Chapel. "Yes.. Make sure I don't transport near any power emissions or the security field or it will decompile my program despite my mobile emitter."

"Command post. Energize..." Chakotay shouted into his combadge. He and Janeway watched as the EMH disappeared.

Seven said, "We can shore up this ceiling while we wait for him with support rods.. Data.."

The android found a nearby pile of track rails and he hefted them up one by one, reinforcing the weakened roof rock, until the falling dirt stopped.  
Then he scanned his handiwork. "The fire is burning approximately two meters beyond the ceiling and is filling a chamber twenty by five meters in size.  
There appears to be organic matter fueling it."

"Tree roots.." Janeway said, "This tunnel's littered with them." :: Come on doctor.. get the lead out.  
With a fire that size using up all the air, they won't survive much longer.::

-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The EMH rematerialized hanging onto a steel support beam. He almost dropped his beacon tags when the dizzying height of where he had appeared hit his visual centers. He was near the top of the great hanger over the Guardian of Forever. The floor itself was gone. He could see the gaping chamber holding the subterranean fire even lower down from where he had been projected. His sensors told him the oxygen levels in the hanger were falling below human criticals in the intense heat around him.

He located his first target. Lt. Uhura was just below him on a rocky pinnacle in the middle of the chamber surrounded by flames. Her clothes were smoking.

He swung like a gymnast to the next support strut in the hanger rafters until he was just over her. "Lt!! Can you hear me?!" His voice was drowned out by the roar of the flames around them.

She didn't move or answer. But he thought he could see her still breathing.

The doctor didn't want to risk losing his rafters route above the fire, so he dangled by one hand, carefully site-ing the tag over her body with his other hand like a man throwing a dart and he let it go from between his two fingers.  
The beacon hit her back and began flashing the instant it struck.

The EMH hit his combadge. "I got Uhura. Isolate and transport. She's six point two meters directly below me..!"

"We have the tag's signal. Beaming now.." Janeway's voice replied, full of static.

The holodoc watched with satisfaction as the away team beamed the unconscious woman down into the tramway tunnel beneath the fire.

Putting the second tag disk in his mouth. He climbed over to what used to be the living quarters, ninety meters away. He saw blue uniform material and two legs draped over a shattered window frame in the dark.  
"Nurse Chapel??"

A sparking wire kept the EMH from getting any closer to her. He was stuck hanging from the rafters about two meters above the tilted window. There was blood trickling down the wall from where Christine's waist was folded over the window frame.

Again, there was no sign of movement. The EMH tried to reach out to her with his foot to stick on the beacon tag, but when his limb got too near the violated raw electric wire, it fuzzed frighteningly into non existence.  
"Ahh...!!" The doctor whipped his leg away. And thankfully, the leg popped back into being.. He pulled himself back up onto the rafter in a chin hold, then pulled himself onto it on his stomach.

"Doctor.. what's the matter?" Seven said through the comm line.

"Remember those energy emissions I'm supposed to avoid? Well there's one of them between me and the only way to Nurse Chapel.. I'm going to need some help here.  
Looks like she's tangled badly inside this wreckage.."

Data's voice came online, "I can withstand any electrical discharge. I may be of some assistance.."

The EMH could hear Chakotay, Seven and Janeway debating safety risks but finally, Janeway's voice replaced Seven's over his combadge. "He's coming right to you..doctor. We'll beam him to exactly where you started in there."

The EMH heard clamoring and creaking metal over the roar of the fire, as the heavier android made his way over to his location. Data hung by his hands and flipped to land on the rafter above the EMH precisely around his holo gripping fingers.

"Hurrah, Looks like Tarzan's finally here.." the doc said sarcastically after wiggling his fingers to see if they all were still there.

Data crouched down. "I can see Miss Chapel now. I don't think the metal frame around her can withstand the addition of my weight to it. It's been weakened by metal fatigue..."  
There was a pause.." Is she bleeding badly..?"

The EMH snapped. "Does it look like I brought my medical tricorder..? It's all I can do just manuevering around like this.  
I'm not so concerned by that as I am about the concentration of oxygen left in the air in the hanger.  
Can you tell that for me? If it falls below 18 %  
she'll stop respiring altogether."

Data said, "Last reading from the away team showed it at 19% doctor."

"We have to hurry. I based my estimate on someone not unconscious and not folded up in half over a window frame." the doc said. "Here.. Take this...." And the EMH gave Data the beacon body tag. "Hurry.."

Data took the shiny disk and nimbly climbed and leaped to debris that he felt would hold his weight until he was one beam strut away from where she was trapped. He was about to leap to a more secure position, when the beam caved in. Data slipped a bit, losing his grip on the beacon disk and it dropped into a crack and was gone before he regained a secure hold for himself.

The holodoc hit his combadge."Send me another tag. We lost it."

=^=*Crackle..* You're too close...t...wire.  
Retur....start..g...poin...t. Can't g....lock..n..you..=^=Chakotay shouted.

"There's no time.. Data.! You're going to have to get her there manually..Go easy.. I don't know how badly she's injured yet." the doctor shouted to him.

Data nodded and gingerly wormed his way past the sparking wire to her side where she hung upside down,  
belly over the window. He knelt by her face and saw blood dripping out of her nose and mouth, but he heard faint gasps as he listened.  
"She's breathing adequately doctor..." but then he saw pretzeled steel wrapped around her chest and shoulder.  
He bent it back until she was untangled. "She's free.  
Doctor, how shall I move h---"

Another cavein shook the rafter where the doctor stood.

The EMH was knocked off center and he pinwheeled as he tried to regain his balance on the ceiling beam. He failed and fell two stories down into the heart of the fire. Data saw the image of the doctor fizzle out the moment he touched the flames and then the emitter alone tumbled down until it reached the bottom of the deep burning chamber below. It landed with a poof into the glowing ashes.

Data hit his badge, keeping a grip on Chapel while the ground shifting continued. "The doctor is offline at the bottom of the chamber."

"What happened?" Janeway asked quickly. "We just had a little landslide here ourselves."

"He fell when his stabilizer failed to compensate."

"Make due the best you can.. We'll think of something else Data.. Hang tight. Do what first aid you can but guard against injuring her further." Janeway ordered.

"I understand." Data said.

"Is the doctor's emitter in jeopardy?" the commander asked.

"Not at the moment. It is beneath the fire."

"That's good." Janeway cut in.."The landslide buried one of our pattern enhancers. We're waiting for a new one. Seven tells me it'll be at least twenty minutes until we get unburied enough to transport anything in or out to our location."

"How's Lt. Uhura?" Data wanted to know.

"We're stretchering her to Medical now..We managed to get a tram running down here. Looks like she'll make it.."

"That is very fortunate."

"So far so good Data. Remember, the energetic interference of the plasma field is making our targetting sensors sluggish. Without the beacon tag, you're going to have to get Christine over to exactly the same coordinates you beamed into. Got that?"

"Yes." Data said. "I understand captain."

"We'll rendevous you to us in a direct beam as soon as we're able. We'll be watching for your return to the beam in coordinates. Janeway out."

A soft moan attracted Data's attention and he held the nurse's head still as she awoke. "Uhura?" was her first word.

"Safely evacuated. Do not move. I have yet to ascertain your injuries.."

Christine coughed and spit out a mouthful of blood.  
"L--lungs.. and ribs.. I know my feet are still there so get me out of here before.... Ohh!" she groaned as the ground shaking jolted her painfully.

Then the tremors stopped.

Data immediately noticed an instantaneous silence surrounding them. His head snapped up sharply just in time to see that flames all around him were changing color from noisy orange to a soundless deadly green.. ::Plasma! The landslide must have cause the fire to contact the shield moments ago..The atmosphere is seconds away from superheating...::

He flew into action as fast as his artificial reflexes allowed. He lifted Chapel up onto his shoulder and leaped into the time shifted galley that was still intact in front of them. The green plasma filled the space they had just left and smacked with a wet suction against the time differential separating the galley from the rest of the hanger and halted there, held at bay by decades of time.

Data tumbled the rest of the way to the floor with his burden. The impact made Christine pass out as her head hit the bottom of a countertop.

Data rolled and avoided crushing her as he landed on his front and hands. He was instantly aware of what time he was now within.:: I'm in a bubble of Nurse Chapel and Lt. Uhura's own decade, in the Building Five of their Starfleet, confined by the same plasma shield that has just imploded in my time.::

Dismissing the disorienting sensation, he crouched by the injured woman next to him, feeling for signs of breath and a pulse. He found them. But the bleeding from her nose and mouth went unabated. He turned her onto her side. ::Doctor McCoy isn't going to be very happy with this at all. I'm stuck in the past under a pure plasma fire from the present without a medkit.::

Data had truly run out of options.

The only sound that greeted him was a red alert klaxon hopelessly outdated in his recollection. SEE SOUND BITE

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Seven of Nine's mouth actually dropped open.  
"Captain!" she shouted.

"What is it Seven?" Janeway asked, worried.

Seven turned another dial on her tricorder.  
"I... Commander Data and Nurse Chapel have just disappeared."

"What?" Chakotay exclaimed.

"The instant the fire metamorphosed into plasma and filled all the space in the hanger.." Seven clarified.

"That's impossible.. Are you sure they haven't.  
vaporized?" Boothby grumbled.

"I'm positive." Seven glared at him. "And now I'm reading a surge of tachyons.."

Janeway's face turned white as a sheet. "They didn't leap into the Guardian?"

"No.. They haven't..the Guardian has itself nulled.  
No activity registering at all. None since it spoke with Kirk this morning."  
Seven confirmed.

"Then where are they?" Chakotay.

"Uhura must know." Janeway said, "But she's unconscious in sickbay. We'll have to wait for Kirk to explain it to us. Dmn, I knew I should've taken up his offer to serve on the Building Five Project last year but I was too busy with.." she broke off.

Chakotay smiled. "You were too busy with us.."  
he grinned, giving her a light hug around the waist and releasing her. "Don't shred yourself over this lack of knowledge. You can't be everywhere at once, Kathryn."

"But the Guardian can. I don't know why it won't help us the whole nine yards. The green h#ll's here after ample warning and where are we?  
In so thick we lose three crewman five minutes into the nightmare shown in previews to us hours ago."

"We'll find a way to recover the doctor ,  
Data and Miss Chapel soon. Have faith in the system.. We're in the middle of Starfleet Headquarters, where some of the most brilliant minds live and work. Let's wait for the rest of our colleagues to arrive to assist us. Many heads are better than one.." Chakotay told her.

Kathryn didn't feel so confident. "Yeah, well I think in this case, no head at all would have been better than the one we received this morning, don't you?"

Boothby grunted at the pun.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Data stopped his examining of the tiny galley he had dragged Chapel into when she started choking. He pressed a palm against her stomach repeatedly until he got a large clot out of her mouth. She started to breathe again but shallowly. ::I'm going to need an anticoagulant as soon as possible:  
he concluded as he monitored her vital signs.

Then he had an idea. He called to the air. "Computer...."

##Working....## came a strident harsh female voice not at all like the one he was used to on Enterprise.

"Is there a medkit available inside this time chamber?"

##Affirmative..##

"Display its location.." Data told it.

A tri-screen monitor mounted on a table top lit up and a simple schematic of the galley came up after an automatic scrolling.  
Data found a bright dot on the diagram.  
::It is under the water basin beneath the food delivery slot.::

He quickly located it and opened the kit on the floor beside Christine. Strange, old style equipment met his eyes and he murmured,  
"Without assistance, I will be unable to treat her condition. I am unfamilar with these instruments and medications. How shall I get help with her?"

##A communication to Headquarters is advised.##

::That is an option not available to me.  
The Guardian isn't in this decade to protect me from time paradox so the temporal prime directive holds here. I cannot allow anyone from this timeline to know of my existence.::

Data decided to take a gamble with the hypospray.  
"Computer. Analyze the woman's condition in front of me and detail treatment verbally."

##That function does not exist in my programming.##

Data frowned. ::Just how far back did Captain Kirk go to get Nurse Chapel and Lt. Uhura for the Guardian.:: Then he recognized a drug vial in the kit by its red color. "This is cordrazine.."

##Correct.##

By inference, Data figured out the old style hypo and guessed a dosage he hoped would stabilize the woman's vitals. He injected it into her throat and waited using the old style bioprobe he had learned how to use by watching Dr. McCoy secondhand in Scott's lab so far away into the future.

He settled into motionless power reserve to await an outcome in either her or their situation.

Their only companion was the eerie deadly green plasma pressing against the walls of the time shifted galley.

Then he remembered Janeway's last words to him "We'll be waiting for your return to your beam in coordinates....coordinates...coordinates..."

Data's chip actually made him despair through his protective filter when he thought.  
::How am I going to return us there when the whole hanger is now completely filled with a sea of liquid plasma fatal to anything organic?::

-  
(attachments)

Image: Data clinging to a rail.

Image: A very sooty Seven and Janeway looking alarmed.

Audio: The red alert sound from the Original Trek TV show.

****************************

From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Darkest Hour~~ Date : Thu, 31 Jan 2002 08:48:23 +0000

"Let's go.." Janeway said. "Captain Kirk, Mr. Scott,  
Spock. I'll need you here to be our eyes and ears on the sensors.  
You tell us the moment by moment if the fire contaminates with plasma, I don't want anyone to be anywhere near the area when it does.

Captain Kirk nodded, accepting his part in the joint operation outlined by his fellow captain.  
He kept one ear out on the rest of the orders she issued and his other on the channel he opened to Tasha Yar. =^=Kirk to Lt. Yar.=^=

"Here sir."

"A situation has arisen. Fate's gotten around us by cheating. Building Five is fully involved."

"What?!" he heard McCoy sputter. "I don't see anyth--"  
he said, leaning out over Deanna's balcony rail, peering into the dark.

"That's because, doctor, the fire appeared UNDER the plasma shielding. Alexander only discovered it by a close pass in the visible spectrum with Mr. Scott's experimental probe. Stay put. If this thing gets out of hand I need the five of you to keep the events surrounding Mr.  
Data's decapitation, from happening..."

Tasha broke into the frequency, "How bad is it sir?"

"Nurse Chapel isn't answering hails. She and Uhura were last reported inside Building Five.."  
Kirk heard Yar's sharp intake of air that expressed his own concern. "Janeway is assembling a reconn mission from a tram tunnel below the fire to get to them."

Tasha looked from Deanna, to Beverly to McCoy and then to K'Ehleyr who all sat transfixed where they were as they overheard the conversation.  
"Want me to return to your location in the lab, captain?"

=^=Negative. Help McCoy safeguard the counselor.  
I'll be in touch. Kirk out..=^=

A million thoughts raced through Yar's head.  
::What does Captain Picard want me to do? What if the fire does spread and we're still up here in Deanna's apartment? Should I move Deanna away from here so those events we saw can't happen?:: But she realized that she would obey anything Kirk ordered her to do beyond all doubt because so far, she had no reason otherwise to do anything else.

Deanna was on her feet and pacing already as she began to pick up the emotions of everyone involved.

Tasha pointed to the computer terminal on Deanna's table. "May I use this?"

Deanna nodded, "Of course, lieutenant.." as she folded her arms about herself uncertainly.

Tasha Yar tapped into the same signal Scotty's lab was receiving from the silkie probe and the satellite feeds. She told the others. "It's getting worse out there. I'm seeing the plasma shield beginning to distort over Building Five. It looks like no one is able to turn it off."

Deanna Troi gave a cry and sat on the couch clutching her head. Dr. Crusher went to her.

Yar didn't have to be an expert on Deanna to know what happened. ::Someone just died:  
She trained her display to detail the probe and soon it hovered over the place where the two Building Five sentries had been vaporized.  
"Two guards are dead." she told everyone.  
"Looks like they blundered into their own security shield."

Then she heard the unmistakable whine of a transporter outside from the direction of the balcony.. "There goes Janeway's away team."  
And she pulled out her tricorder to scan towards the far end of campus and the normal appearing dome over Building Five. "They've arrived,  
in Tramway Tunnel Three.. Clever. They're probably going to use the EMH to rescue Kirk's crew."

A few tense minutes went by as K'Ehleyr, McCoy Crusher and Deanna crowded around the computer with Yar as they watched the drama unfold on the view being sent to them from the hovering probe.

Soon, there was another transporter signal. Yar was elated when she saw Kirk's communications officer's identity code appear in Starfleet Medical on her scanner. "It's Uhura.. They got her out.  
She's alive.."

Despite that victory, Yar felt apprehensive.  
She threw her head towards the moonlit balcony nervously.  
::That was too easy.. the other shoe has to drop.::

Soon, it did. Yar saw the trace on Data turn to static as it winked in the characteristic precursor to a pattern buffer scan.. ::He's volunteered to go into that inferno. Dmn it. Something must have gone wrong.::

Sure enough, another transporter signature wrapped around Data and he went off Yar's tricorder screen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kirk paced the floor behind Mr. Spock and Barclay and Scotty in the lab. Picard and Riker were calmly organizing communications and scans with them.  
But Kirk wasn't content staying still. ::Something doesn't feel right.:: "Watch your back, captain...."  
he said quietly, for Janeway's sake.

Then there was another earth tremor and the power in the lab fluctuated..briefly... before stabilizing.

A sharp crackling came over all their combadges,  
like an interrupted signal.. Kirk slammed a palm to his. =^=Kirk to Captain Janeway.=^=

"It's all right captain.. A minor landslide.. However,  
there's been complications. Mr. Data reports that the EMH was jarred offline in that last shake. Most of the floor is gone in there.. Hang on.."

Muffled shouts of alarm and then shouting.  
Janeway's voice came back, tense and clipped.  
"Seven's lost Data and Nurse Chapel's signal.  
The fire just imploded into plasma.. The hanger's been flooded but they disappeared just before its energy conversion. The shield's holding.."

Kirk bit his lip.. "I wonder...."

Janeway didn't understand. She got to the point.  
"I'm sorry captain but they may have been incin-"

James Kirk ignored the comment, thinking to himself aloud. "That isn't it...Smart android. He's taken her into the phased galley, captain, I'm sure of it.."

"Explain.." Janeway said.

"The living quarters inside the hanger are being skewed by the Guardian. That room I'm talking about is in a when, eighty years ago, the time Uhura and Chapel travelled from. It's a sort of temporal oasis.  
We felt it necessary to have a pocket of that time readily available so we could update their ship , and my younger self, on their progress at will, while allowing an easy back and forth to our time. The whole rest of Building Five's interior is still our current time for you and me." Kirk lightly hit an anxious fist on the back of Spock's chair as he talked to Janeway.."Captain..what was Nurse Chapel's status last you saw of her?"

Chakotay cut into the frequency. "The doctor said that she had been pinned in wreckage but alive. The final vital set we received on scans before she disappeared showed moderate shock but overall, not critically injured as far as we could tell. Some blood volume was being lost.."

Mr. Spock near Kirk, shifted in his chair, but his face didn't change expression. Kirk set a hand near Spock's shoulder reassuring him subtlely.  
::She's alive, Spock. That's what matters most.::

Kirk went on, looking to Picard, "Are you sure Mr. Data can offset any difficulty she may have medically?"

Jean Luc replied. "His training's as good as yours or mine captain. Have no fear."

Kirk sighed wishing with every fiber that McCoy was with his crewman too.

Janeway came online. "Captain Kirk, I'm sure Data AND your crew woman are safe for the moment. We aren't so fortunate.  
One of our pattern enhancers was buried in a landslide.  
We're stuck in a cave-in solid enough that no transporting will be possible to or from my location for twenty minutes until we recover it."

"Are you completely pinned down? Any injuries?  
Do you want me to send in another team?" Kirk asked quickly.

"No. No. and no thanks. We've a single tram running in a side tunnel. It's bringing the excavation equipment we need to free that enhancer. What we need is a way to retrieve the EMH's portable emitter..."  
Janeway replied.

"He survived the plasma flooding?"

"Data said his emitter fell beneath the actual fire. I am taking this to mean it's buried in the ashes at the bottom of the hole inside the hanger, about twenty meters below ground level." Janeway answered.  
"So it's more than guaranteed the doctor's program is still viably salvagable if this is true."

Kirk spoke mostly to himself. "It's a no man's land inside Building Five. 100% liquid plasma at 3,000 degrees Kelvin. Anything living entering it would be consumed in seconds. A mixed blessing having that experimental shield still up. It caused the fire to change into a greater danger but it's the only thing still keeping the entire Starfleet grounds from becoming an inferno.." He shuddered to think what would happen if they shut down that security field now before the plasma was extinguished. "All that carbon in the vegetation and air outside would cause the plasma firestorm to multiply around Headquarters. And if the city wide deflector dome failed after that...."

::The end of Earth..Now I think I understand the Guardian's unprecedented aid in this matter. I only hope we can extinguish this blaze successfully.::

Kirk looked up at Spock and the others in the lab with a heavy seriousness. "A plasma fire has never broken out in a planetary atmosphere before in the entire Federation's history, gentleman. What do we do now?  
We can't create a vacuum across Starfleet Headquarters campus to smother it, too many people are inside the deflector dome covering the city. We couldn't possibly have enough breathing apparatuses and pressure suits for everybody to safeguard them during the purging.  
And I dare not lower that larger deflector shield to evacuate them. The risk is too great.."

Mr. Barclay was speechless. Mr. Spock daunted.

Kirk stood tall in the face of the surrounding adversity.  
He supplied hope to the away team underneath Building Five. "Hang tight Kathryn. Plenty of thinkers on this end. Answers coming soon. Kirk out."

Kirk spread out his hands. "I need options, Scotty.  
And I need them now.."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tasha Yar was about to snap when her combadge twittered into life. "Yes, captain. Go ahead."

Kirk spoke to her. "Plasma has contaminated the entire interior of the building but our people are safe in a "safe zone" of disjointed time in another room in there. So far, the experimental shield as a whole is holding."

Yar glanced up at the sky at the thin layer of deflector. She could see its shimmering against the starlight and moon over San Francisco.  
"Sir....if..the plasma gets released and touches the city dome.."

Kirk finished her thought. "There'd be no way to contain the catastrophic implosion that would chain react as a result. Our entire atmosphere and all life as we know it would be vaporized from ground to stratosphere. Armageddon, lieutenant."

Yar sat on the edge of the loveseat with a thud.  
Her tricorder felt so heavy in her hand that she dropped it. "Oh, mother of god..."

Her horror reflected in Deanna's and the old doctor's and Beverly's, only K'Ehleyr's face remained stony blank. But her knuckles were loose around the king's chess piece she was holding.

Until she crushed it to powder..

Lt. Yar said it all for them. "Captain. We've got to implore the Guardian to help us.."

"Denied.."

"But sir...!!"

"Lieutenant.. Don't you think I want the same possibility available right now? That Guardian of Forever has done ALL..it CAN.  
Don't you see? There's an order out there greater than us that must....be...maintain--d."  
Yar heard Kirk falter the tiniest bit into vulnerability.  
"My hands are tied and so are yours.." the silence between them stretched for long moments.. "I'll let you know the minute something changes, lieutenant,  
and that goes for all of you.. Kirk out."

Tasha stared numbly at the wall and saw a framed holopic of what was obviously some of Deanna Troi's dance students at the Academy. They were laughing in sunlight, chasing each other with long trailing ribbons of peach satin on a picnic in a frozen moment of innocent play. She thought of those children in that picture. And then the billions more everywhere on Earth. Then her mind spoke her heart's fervent bitter oath.. ::I will do anything to save you....Hear me?!! I'll do exactly what I must to save you all..:: she promised them. ::Even if I lose my commission, or my life..:: Then something inside of Tasha snapped and her mental fear turned to the sharpest insanity.

Behind her, Deanna glanced in her direction with a look of shock as dark emotion from her friend rolled over her like scalded oil.

------------------------------------

Image: Kirk flipping open a communicator.

Image: A little girl running to her grandfather on a picnic outing.

Image: Earth on main viewer from orbit.

Image: Tasha Yar looking enraged with a phaser.

Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 22:25:29 -0800 (PST) From: "Myron Ojala" Subject: Out of the Petrie Dish and Into the Fire

Kirk stood tall in the face of the surrounding adversity.  
He supplied hope to the away team underneath Building Five. "Hang tight Kathryn. Plenty of thinkers on this end. Answers coming soon. Kirk out."

Kirk spread out his hands. "I need options, Scotty.  
And I need them now.."

"Aye captain. We'll get on it. We'll do everything we can." he said as he returned to the computer screen in Lab Six.

He continued his work configuring a more precise manual control of his invented little silkie probe. ::I've just dubbed you Byte little darling. Now let's see if we can get your reactions tweeked up so they will be more effective for a little splunking excursion.::

"Captain I think I may have something for you. I've recalibrated this wee bairns sensors so that it can detect the doctor's holoemitter. We already know the precise location to send in Byte here."

"Byte who?" Kirk asked.

"This,.. the wee probe captain.. We'll just send him in, sniff out the doctor, grab him and return back to the away team ! I'm flying Byte to a place that's showing new soot on the surface.. It looks like the fire started here. "And Scotty showed them all a single blade of prairie grass that was blackened near a charred piece of glass. "Looks like a part of this fell into the shaft." and he flew Byte down into a ventilation pipe leading into a tramway tunnel. "Janeway's right. The fire's been burning along the roots."

The probe entered where once a tree root protruded inside the tunnel wall. He sent the probe along the fire's original course until suddenly it was bathed in an eerie green light that encompassed the entire chamber beneath Building Five.. "Aha laddie, now we're there... Captain, just so you are aware of this.. The root canal I just sent the probe through to get here can be used by the plasma to reach the outside. I'm sealing this quickly before it spreads."

Byte rotated 180 degrees towards the hole it came from, and a sonic blast caused the root canal to collapse in on itself. The breach to the outside was safely sealed.

--------------------

Janeway looked up from her tricorder,  
"Chakotay, that probe of Mr. Scott's right above us inside the chamber. I've just registered a sonic burst." She hit her combadge sharply, =^=Janeway to Captain Scott.=^=

"Scotty here.. Are you all right captain?"

"We're all fine. What are you up to?" she asked.

"I'm using the wee silkie to get your artificial doctor online. I think I can use him with my probe to break through and free Mr. Data and the injured lass. I found where the fire started and sealed it off from the surface."

"Good work. I hadn't thought of that."

Chakotay spoke up, "Mr. Scott, is there anyway we can assist you?"

"Just let me know when you've freed your trapped pattern enhancer. I'll be sending them through to you hopefully momentarily.."

Janeway didn't want to delay him by asking how he was going to reach their people, nonetheless she said something anyway. "Just do the best you can Mr. Scott, and good luck. Janeway out."

Scotty guided the probe through the tangled debris of flooring in the raw plasma but the green light was coming from everywhere around Byte,  
not just from one source. Slowly his sensors locked onto the doctor's uniquely constructed EMH signature.

It moved past shattered rubble that had once been pristine lab equipment littering the bottom of the fire chamber.

At one point the silkie moved over one particular spot of deep soot. A steady hum began and from the ashes the emitter broke through the surface and attached itself to the little silkie. "I got it captain! The wee thing has done it.. We've got the emitter using a bit of magnetism.."

"Well done, .... for a Scotsman.." Boothby mumbled.

"Now, let's see if I can get these two to the android fella in the past..." Scotty said to himself as he flew both the emitter and Byte upwards into the ruins of the hanger above.

A wall came into view that was not a wall. It was a square area of blankness, a void. "That's where he went.." Scott said and he shot Byte and the doctor's emitter right into the nothingness.

------------------------------------------------------

The probe landed and rolled to rest right at Data's feet. A man sized shimmer appeared in the middle of room and the emitter floated up until it was suddenly back part of the EMH's shoulder. The doctor stooped and picked up Byte tossing it into the air and catching it again. "It seems Mr. Scott has lost his marbles. Or in this case, a marble.."

The emergency medical hologram immediately oriented on the injured Nurse Chapel. "Mr. Data. I do believe I'll take it from here." and he began a full examination of Christine using the obsolete medkit.

"It is good to see you again doctor. I do hope that you'll be able to assist us in expediting our departure as soon as possible.." Data said as he caught the probe the doctor tossed him.

"Just as soon as I've stopped some of this bleeding." The doctor ran an old style medical sensor over her head and torso. The EMH then ran the readings through the larger medical tricorder. "She has a punctured lung, but it can wait until we get her into surgery.."

The EMH gave her medication that stopped her hemorrhaging. Then he went on.  
"Captain Scott downloaded the procedure we'll follow to escape using that little fellow. Ever heard of metaphasic shielding?"

A curious look passed over Mr. Data with also a nod of affirmation.

The doctor continued. "Mr. Scott beefed up the silkie's capabilities. It will protect us in a pocket of safety while we climb back to Janeway's beam in site.. However,  
once I go back into the plasma, I will shut down. " The EMH said. "You will have to carry both of us there. Are you ready?"

Data nodded that he was.

The doctor helped settle Nurse Chapel over Data's shoulders and then they activated Byte's shield and took a first tenative step through the wall, back to the future.

Data felt the EMH deactivate but he kept a good grip on the emitter as he traveled.  
Soon, he was where he first appeared in the chamber. "Data to Captain Janeway.  
Have you recovered the lost pattern enhancer?"

"Affirmative Mr. Data. We're just putting it into position now.. It will be just a moment until we can initiate a site to site transport."

Data waited hearing the hiss of the plasma around the probe's metaphasic membrane until he heard the familiar hum of her transporter activation.

The next moment Mr. Data was standing in a pattern enhancement field and the EMH fizzled back into existence. He felt med techs take Nurse Chapel off of him and he was about to say something when his combadge went off. It was Mr. Scott.

"Well, done lad. Next time I see you. Drinks are on me.."

Janeway said, "Congratulations you two. You're both a sight for sore eyes.. Let's get the h#ll out of here."

The EMH piped up. "Aptly put. I wasn't about to abandon all hope just yet."

-  
(attachments)

*animated gif* A ball morphing in chameleonic effects.

Image: A very good Scotty smile.

Gif : Star Trek The Next Generation Logo.

**********************************

From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Troi's Log... Supplemental. Date : Sat, 02 Feb 2002 17:46:42 +0400

" Counselor's Personal Log. Stardate 020202.7. It has been a tumultuous day. Seems only an hour ago since all that Beverly and I had to worry about was testing the limits of my physical rehabilitation.  
I guess I'm impatient. I've wanted my newly grafted trachea to integrate faster than it has been doing as of late. And that makes me wonder about another thing. I may have been mistaken about not telling Wil about the mysterious attack I suffered two weeks ago. The look on his face in sickbay when he first arrived to see me and the color of his feelings through our soul bond right now might have an adverse effect on him in dealing with Starfleet's current emergency in Building Five.

He's not the only one with excess emotional baggage.  
I did a few spiralling corkscrews of my own when I first learned about Tasha. It still seems strange seeing her alive and talking again, like a cruel dream. But then Tasha's unique emotional thread weaving in my empathetic sense slaps me into reality and I know that all this business with Kirk's Guardian of Forever is as real as what I ate for breakfast this morning.

I believe I've recovered my equilibrium at discovering Tasha restored and healthy again after so long. I don't know if the Guardian will return her to her death once its through using her, but I know one thing with absolute certainty. I won't permit anyone or even Tasha herself to learn that her life cuts short while serving in the line of duty. I'm sure she suspects something bad, but I sense it's mostly still a vague uneasiness in that regard.

Which leads me to what I just witnessed a few minutes ago following Captain Kirk's communication with her in the living room about the fire's extreme danger to Earth. Tasha changed profoundly somehow in a way that frightens me and I can't quite put my finger on it. It happened in the blink of an eye right after Captain Kirk told her that any further request to the Guardian of Forever to intervene in our crisis situation was denied.

The effect of that on Tasha was profound. Instantaneous.  
Her emotional feel is now withdrawn and channeled into a highly protective mode. She may sacrifice herself utterly for the sake of others just in the need to help and make a difference ending the danger to us all.

The same thing she was attempting when she died trying to get to me in the shuttlecrash on Armus's world, fighting his skin of evil. I fear this same caring,  
selfless aspect of Tasha's makeup will jeopardize her life once again and that the Guardian of Forever will be forced to cut short her grace period it granted her with us. I am not willing to let her go instantly. I want to spend as much time with her as she has left on her mission before I have to face losing her once more to her unavoidable fate. It's a mixed blessing having her here. I've seen the calming effect her surprise return is having on Beverly, Wil and Captain Picard and on me. But I also know how much pain we'll have to live through once she is gone again from all of us. Already, that fact's been having an effect on me.

I reacted unprofessionally to the deaths of the two guards watching Building Five when they accidentally touched the out of place jarred plasma shield hiding the Guardian. I feel stupid for letting my empathy get the better of me. But it's been difficult keeping the emotional barrier between myself and others in solid balance. Beverly says it's just one of the effects I'm going through while I heal from my injuries from the attack.

That's another matter distracting me away from the impartiality I should be maintaining. I have absolutely no clue who attacked me in my quarters two weeks ago.  
All I know is that I didn't feel that other presence one iota,  
even while I was being strangled.

I remember feeling only Mr. Barclay's worried emotions when I awoke briefly, while he resusitated me until Beverly and the med team arrived to take over. But all that's water under the bridge. That mystery can wait.

This fire emergency is all I should currently be focusing upon in my duties as a counselor. I don't care that I'm still on medical leave from active duty.  
My shipmates and colleagues need me to aid their tasks at hand. And so I will, to the best of my abilities.

End log. "

-----------------------------------

Deanna returned from the personal hygiene alcove into which she had excused herself to wash the tears from her face after the shock of feeling the two guards who died had left her.

She had vehemently resisted Bev's fussing over her and had deflected her friend away by pointing out Yar's abrupt mood change to her. ::Let Beverly monitor Tasha with me so we can both keep her safe.::

"Are you feeling better?" Beverly asked looking up from the computer screen they all were clustered around.

Deanna Troi glanced quickly at Tasha but the fleeting dark emotion she had felt coming from her was gone.  
Only Tasha's eyes held a sign of the sweeping change that had gripped her minutes earlier. ::It's not an anxiety spike. I don't know what this is. I've never felt any response like this from Tasha before:  
Outwardly, Deanna said, "I am. It took just a few moments to strengthen my empathetic barrier. That slip up won't happen again." and she smiled encouraging to all in the room.

Beverly searched the counselor's face deeply for any sign of weakness, physical or emotional but she found none on either her tricorder scan or with her eyes.  
She took a deep breath and said, "All right. I'll trust your judgement on that count." and Dr. Crusher grinned teasingly.

Then she turned her attention to K'Ehleyr. "Ambassador,  
Dr. McCoy might be on to something with that allergy theory of his. Your symptoms came on rather suddenly."

K'Ehleyr rose gracefully from the white wrought iron chair in front of the chessboard, and angled her head. "A runny nose hardly warrants a trip to sickbay. I don't need to be fussed over unnecessarily, doctor."

Deanna suppressed a chuckle, "A familiar theme tonight,  
Beverly.." she teased them both.

"All right.. I give up." Dr. Crusher said. "Can't keep the mother from cropping up out of the doctor mode."  
Then she changed the subject. "Dr. McCoy, your captain seems like a man who doesn't mince words. Do you think the danger is as bad as he said to the Lt?" she asked,  
indicating Yar, who had moved a distance away from the others to look at a holopic of children on the wall.

Bones' light expression over the mother henning in the room evaporated. "Jim never exaggerates a situation. He usually tells it like it is.."

That sobered everyone in the room to silence.

Deanna attempted brevity. "Well,.." she said, clasping her hands together in front of her loudly. "It's not like the world is going to end right this moment. Keeping ourselves informed on matters through that probe tie in will be keeping ourselves ready to act when the others call us again."

This brought nods and various reactions of agreement.

"So let's have at it.." Deanna said mildly, and she sat back down on the couch near the others. Then she looked up. "Tasha... are you going to join us..?"

Yar jerked as if she had been away a long distance in her mind and she said,."Uh...yeah. uh.. Sure." And Tasha slowly pulled a footrest closer and sat down. But every so often, Troi noticed her sneaking quick peeks at the holo of her students and each time, she felt a stab of angry vindication and protective instinct shoot high in her.

Deanna thought. ::I wonder why Yar's reacting that way::

Suddenly the EMH came online through Beverly's combadge.  
"Doctor.. It's showtime. We've recovered Uhura and Nurse Chapel. Uhura's unconscious but fine. But her friend's going to need immediate thoracic surgery for a pneumothorax I've discovered. Being officially, nonofficial as a retiree these days, I'd be being forward taking over her care in your ward."

Beverly stood. "Understood. I'll be right there.. Crusher out."  
She then spoke to the others in the apartment. "I've got to go." Dr. McCoy too, rose to barge along but Dr. Crusher snubbed that possibility right in the butt. "Ah, ah ah.. I distinctly remember Captain Kirk ordering you to help safeguard Deanna... There's a whole Medical Wing out there who can help me with your shipmates Leonard. I'll let you know how they're doing as soon as I know.."

Dr. McCoy grumbled but took his seat again. Then he remembered K'Ehleyr's unexpected histamine reaction from earlier and decided to stay when Dr. Crusher reinforced his recollection on the matter with a subtle glance towards the Klingon ambassador, who was trying to hide another fight with a second rising sneeze.

Beverly watched Dr. McCoy's radar reorient on the tall woman and she sighed, tapping her combadge. "Central Transport.  
One to beam to Ward One immediately. Medical Priority."

Dr. Crusher sparkled into light flecks and disappeared,  
leaving Dr. McCoy, Lt. Yar and K'Ehleyr behind in Deanna Troi's home. ::I just hope this fire business doesn't interfere with the surgery operation on Chapel. Could get tricky if the powergrid across Starfleet Headquarters goes out.::

-  
(attachments)

Image: Dr. Crusher sitting in a chair, a portrait.

*animated gif* An EKG scrolling across a screen, saying "Hi.." A caption reads "Still alive and kicking.."

Image: A worried Troi on a couch.

*********************************

From : "Cory Anda" Subject : [voyagerlvieaction] Holocall M for Murder.. Date : Sat, 02 Feb 2002 21:15:29 +0000

Things were winding down with the rescue efforts in Building Five in Lab Six. Mr. Barclay felt the tension in his back and arms finally ease as he sat next to Alexander and Mr. Spock in front of Scotty's enhanced viewscreens. ::I'm glad the two crewman are still alive. It's miraculous that the fire didn't kill them when it turned plasma. I don't know how Mr. Data knew about the time shifted galley enough to seek refuge in it but I'm very relieved that he did.:: and Reg let out a huge explosive sigh that caused Mr. Spock to glance up briefly at him.. "S- Sorry sir.. I was just,...thinking.."

"It's quite all right, lieutenant. In my experience, humans usually have a period of distracted emotions following a crisis resulting in wandering thoughts and emotional outbursts such as yours." the older ambassador told him.

::Great. That doesn't make me feel offended in the least, now does it..?:: Barclay thought sarcastically. But Mr. Spock had a point, his thoughts WERE wandering and his emotions were jumbled for the moment. ::Well, there's always retrospect in hindsight until my higher brain returns...:: he reasoned with a touch of humor.

So Mr. Barclay excused himself and he went over to the food table Janeway had provided to see if anything remained left for snacking out of nervousness. He found Alexander also eating. "Any of that good?"

Alexander shrugged expansively, then he burped loudly as any child away from his mother's direct supervision would.

"Thought so.." Barclay said, laughing softly. He leaned over and snagged a donut from the plate with his ident on it. "Try one of these Alexander. It'll put hair on your chest.." and he tossed the tiny Klingon boy a maple one.

"Mmmm..." Alexander said, and he pulled Mr. Barclay's plate away from under the man's hands and began to feast on the donuts.

Barclay sighed, "That's.. that's ok. I'm not really hungry anyway." Actually, he was embarrassed to admit that donuts were his mainstay food of choice as of late. ::Only Deanna knows I overindulge eating donuts when I'm under stress. "Cushioning with comfort food." as she called it, saying she knew about that symptom well with her own indulgence of chocolate ice cream once in a while during his last monthly recovering from holoaddiction session.::

He hadn't had his meeting with her for the month due to her medical leave from duty recovering from the attack. He still didn't like to think about that night at all. It had been one of the few times where he didn't fold up under pressure in a crisis when he had found her lying near death, on the floor of her balcony.

But as usual, for the fifth time that day in spite of the ongoing fire threat, he did.

======================================

It had all begun when he had decided to check up on her when she didn't show for their dinner date.

Buzzzzzz. Buzzzzzz.

"Deanna? It's me..." Barclay said from behind his bundle of purple lavender blooms and box of chocolates. "You didn't answer my hail. Don't tell me you're still powdering your nose.." he laughed nervously at the front door's web camera, he first peered one eye and then the other at the surveillance lens to make sure it was registering his presence on Deanna's portalstep.

There was no answer to his bulkhead's ring.

He tapped his combadge. "Computer.. Where is Deanna Troi?"

##Current location is not registering. Her duty combadge is not enabled.##

"Of course not. She's off shift now." he told it. "All right." he said rethinking his problem. "Tap into your records of this cam vid I'm now registering on. Did you see her enter the house after she was done working for the evening tonight?"

##Affirmative..##

"Bingo.. Computer.. hail her again. On chat holo, using the campus intercom system into her home's personal holosuite. Authorization. Barclay Nine Theta Five..." he said, still in anticipatory excitement of their first date. He only felt half guilty using this secret computer hack's backdoor into her home's communications system using the holo network.

In Deanna's holosuite, off to one side in Counselor Troi's living room, a holoimage of Barclay as he now currently was, appeared on the tiny yellow and black gridded raised floor situated there.

The real Barclay closed his eyes where he stood outside in the hallway and his holo ones opened.

"Deanna?.. You home?" the holo Reg asked. It could not leave the holo platform it had appeared on but it could see all of the living room and a part view of the sleeping alcove from where it was. "It's me...Knock. Knock. Knock.. Surprise!! " he said. His hack really wasn't illegal. It was simply an offshoot of a comm line he had upgraded after getting the idea he had once heard at one of Captain Janeway's symposiums. ::Must have felt strange for Kathryn to speak to the Borg Queen that way back then during their final altercation..::

Even Project Pathfinder didn't know about his little holo interfacing trick. Barclay had wanted to share his unveiling of it to Deanna and then work the bugs out of the system with her before presenting it to Headquarters' Research and Development Department.

Hence the first "date" of theirs he was currently attempting.

"Deanna?" he said. Then he noticed something awry with a lamp on the carpetting. It was tipped off the table and was lying on the floor near a set of wind billowing curtains leading from Troi's terrace balcony. "That's strange. I wonder if she left the veranda doors open to cause that."

Then his holoeyes fell onto the carpetting and he saw an odd trail of red sprinkled on the blue leading from the kitchen to...

The wind blew the lacy curtains more vigorously at that moment and Mr. Barclay saw a twitching hand fall from under it in the moonlight. It was writhing in a pool of blood. "DEANNA!!"

The real Reg's eyes flew open and he lost his link with the his holohacked image. "Oh my god.. and he tapped his combadge..=^=Barclay to Main security. Release the personal seal on Counselor Troi's quarters at once.."

A bored voice answered him. "Not again, Reg." came Barclay's roommate. "The counselor's asked me to ignore such a request from you until you learn to call ahead first.."

"I'm not kidding Michaels.. Just do it. She's in trouble in there! There's blood all over the place.!" Barclay shouted.

There was a brief pause and then Reg's startled roommate spoke again. "Summoning help right now.. Overriding her door lock now.."

And the front door into Deanna's quarters flew open.

Barclay ran inside, and was disoriented a bit until he called on the lights. He ran towards the balcony knocking his shins on the glass tea table and falling painfully in his haste to get to her side. He rolled to his feet, limping and fought with the lacy curtains until he ripped them down.

Deanna Troi's throat was a mangled mess and she was no longer moving. "Deanna??" Reg knelt by her side, feeling her chest for signs of breathing but there were none.

Hesitating only for a moment over the hideous sight, Reg tilted her head back and tried to clear away the blood oozing out from the gaping wound ripped from below her jawline to her collarbone. But only passive air gurgled out of the tear. "Oh my god. Her throat's been ripped out."

A weak pulse still beat beneath his fingers but his first attempt to breathe for her just resulted in more gurgling with nothing reaching her lungs.

Barclay straightened and saw a stylus on the rug near the counselor's hand which she had been using he guessed. He snatched it up, and frantically disassembled it until he only had its outer tube opened on both ends. "Ugh.." he quailed squeamishly as he took it and threaded it into what was left of her trachea below her voice box. ::Hope this works. I've never seen what doctors do in a tracheotomy..::

He leaned down and blew into the tube. Deanna's chest rose finally, and her bluish face began to pink up. In between breaths he tapped his combadge, "Michaels! I need a med team. NOW!!"

"On their way buddy. Hang tight. Just what's going on over there?" he asked.

Barclay didn't answer him, concentrating on keeping Deanna from crashing completely with his artificial respiration.

"Reg..?"

"Just shutup and make sure they get here on the double!" he said spitting out blood that had reached him through his hastily improvised airway.

It was all he could do to keep from vomitting.

Thirty seconds later, Beverly Crusher arrived with a response team and they sparkled into existence by his side..

Dr. Crusher paled but got to work when she saw the two of them head to foot in blood. "Keep it up, Reg. We'll connect her to oxygen intradermally. One minute more.." she said scanning Deanna's still body with her tricorder.

Barclay didn't even open his eyes as he worked. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder from one of the med techs. He felt himself pulled away from Deanna and he opened his eyes.

The med tech had placed a stasis chip on Troi's forehead and he activated it. A yellow shimmer enveloped Deanna completely and she froze in its energy field. Even her bleeding stopped.

Beverly looked up from her scanner. "Good she's fully in stasis. Her oxygen debt is eliminated. She's too unstable for transporting. We'll take her by stretcher.."

The team rose, but Barclay found he didn't have the legs to do the same. Bev set a hand on his shoulder, "Are you injured too?" she said eyeing the gore on him.

"N--No.. I-it's all ...hers.. Doctor.." he grabbed Dr. Crusher's arm. "Is she going to make it..?"

"Yes, Reg.. You may have very well saved her life. I'll keep you informed of her condition. Right now she needs immediate reconstructive surgery..I'll let you know her complete condition once I learn more." Bev looked up and saw the security backup arrive. "Stay with these men for now. They're going to need to learn just what you saw.. I'll be in touch.." and she half ran out the door with the medtechs bearing Deanna's antigrav bed.

The next half hour was a blur.. and all Barclay could think about while they grilled him with questions was that he was sticky.. Sticky with a very gory substance that he wanted nothing better than to wash off immediately. ::Deanna.. Be safe..::

A scour of scans by the security team revealed only the counselor's and Barclay's DNA traces in her home, until one investigator thought to check for sentient individual inorganic traces.

They found android type byproducts on the rug and mingled with the bloodstains on the balcony.

::Inconclusive.. Why is all this inconclusive?! My friend was almost a murder victim here!!::

====================================

Reg Barclay shook himself from his reverie and saw not the blood from his memory but a donut still clutched in his fingers. He was feeling a tugging and he saw Alexander on the other end of it and he was back in the lab.

"Here.." he said glumly, giving the boy the donut. "I'm not hungry.." and he fell into a fixed stare of the back of Kirk's, Mr. Spock's and Scotty's heads while they conferred data about the raging plasma pool still burning out of control in Building Five.

Then he heard golden words from the Vulcan.. "...is contained for the moment as long as the shield around it holds.."

Reg sighed again, deciding a few things. "Somehow, I think Deanna's attack is related to all of this and I'm going to find out why....just as soon as I find my legs again.."

"You lost them?" Alexander asked, mouth full of crumbs, chewing aggressively, and he began to laugh.

"Just eat your donut little warrior...." Barclay told him.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Deanna being courted by a Shakespearean Barclay.

Gif: A computer Lcars bar border.

*animated gif* Spock, raising his eyebrow.

*****************************************

END WEEK FOUR RECAP 02-03-02

WEEK FIVE RECAP 02-04-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Hub

**********************************

Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 13:56:26 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: The Hidden Impasse.

Seven of Nine left with Janeway and the away team from the tramway tunnel in deep thought. They all boarded the one tram still running underneath Building Five and Seven sat into her seat, not seeing the scenery at all on the brief flight back to the surface. ::These events we seem to have uncovered puzzle me.::

She looked up and saw Janeway, Boothby the EMH and Barclay all in animated conversation in front of her outlining what they planned to do next. Seven herself, actually didn't know what was best.  
::The data is circumspect and hypothetical.  
Yet I am at a loss to explain an alternate possible outcome of this fire during the next two days. ::

She called up the status board from Command on her tricorder and learned that Chapel was still in surgery but Uhura was now awake and functional, having been released back to duty. Seven leaned forward until Chakotay noticed her.

"Problem, Seven?" he asked.

"No. I merely wanted you and the captain to know that I plan to speak with Uhura about what she saw inside the hanger during the fire. It may lead to clues about how we might best put it out."

"Sounds promising.." Chakotay shrugged.  
"Granted. Go ahead and learn a few things.  
It's not like we have a lot to go on anyway.  
The EMH was offline through much of the incident."

"True.." Seven said.

"Carry on.." Chakotay added, then he turned back forwards in his seat and he rejoined in the intense discussion going on around him.

The short flight ended quickly and the shuttle pod wasn't even completely on the ground when Seven of Nine cracked the exterior door.

"Hang on a minute there Miss Borg. I want a few words with you.." Boothby called out, stopping her from going down the shuttle ramp.

Seven didn't stop walking, "You can tell me on the way. I'm returning to Building Five to view the plasma shield's warping from the outside.  
I am not certain why it has done so."

"No surprise there, Seven.." Boothby grunted. "The fire "melted" it. It's hot."  
he said simply.

Seven didn't even look at him as she and the caretaker walked on the night time sidewalk now lit with crisis lights and fire teams rushing to the site. "Organic fire cannot effect a deflector shield just by burning. What is curious is that the shield altered its programmed shape long before the fire turned into plasma by touching it."

Boothby halted in his tracks at that.  
"You know.. You're right. That was odd." Then he hurried to catch up with her, puffing, but very alert and with the subject. "Any theories,  
Seven?"

Seven of Nine held her position well back from the undulating plasma shield rotating around Building Five. They could now clearly see the green plasma writhing just behind the thin wall of energy. She brought out her tricorder and meshed with the engineering database she had pirated from Scott's lab when no one was looking.

Boothby noticed. "That's classified information,  
Seven. Just what th--"

"I am under orders to "Get to the bottom" of this. I am..." and she shrugged,.."doing just that to the best of my ability. Having detailed information about this security shield over the hanger will help me perform my duty to that effect." Seven said blandly.

"You're learning fast.." Boothby grinned toothily.  
Then he came close confidentially. "Care to tell an old gardener what you're thinking?"

Seven gave him a skeptical look.

Boothby took affront, "Oh, come on.. I have clearance to know what Komach has for his noon day drink and where he takes it, for Pete's sake. Do you think Command keeps me denied from knowing about the secret inventions around here too? This shield's nothing fact, I could tell you a few things not on those schematics.."  
he said, rocking back on his heels and whistling with his hands folded behind his back.

Seven paused in her scans, her glance up speaking volumes.

"All right. All right. A trade. You tell me the angle of attack for your investigation into this Guardian prediction and I'll spill what I know. Deal?" And Boothby held out a hand after spitting into it.

Seven frowned but unflinchingly, took his hand and shook it likewise. "We have an agreement Mr. Boothby. You first.."

Boothby did a double take when he realized that he had been outmanuevered. "Fine there by me missy. At least I know living up to an agreement's set fairly in stone with Borg types." and he scratched an itch on his neck, "Yeah. even while they're slicing up disks outta your hull plating.."

Seven chose to ignore that last remark.  
::True..:: she thought. ::A Borg Collective has no need to lie or any use for being deceitful.:: "I believe that Captain Janeway would say "get on with it."

Boothby hastily got out of the way as a team of engineers trotted by down the sidewalk towards the intensely green glowing Building Five as the fire continued to fill the space beneath the experimental energy dome.  
"....Whoa.. excuse me.. gentleman.."  
He fixed her with a stare. "Not only did they use plasma configurations to power that security barrier around Building Five to hide the Guardian of Forever from casual sensors,  
they used phase variances too."

Seven looked up sharply from her tricorder screen, her eyes reflecting the eerie glow of the plasma fire in them. "Those are highly difficult to control once they distort."

"I know. I know.." Boothby threw a hand out to the shield warping slowly out of shape.  
"That unexpected variable is probably what killed those guards. They didn't expect a security shield to reach out and grab them when they came near it."

"Starfleet Command showed little intelligence using such a questionable technology." Seven countered. "If the blood of anyone is to be on anyone's hands,  
it would be on theirs."

Boothby took the tricorder from Seven's hands and shut its lid with a snap. "You're hearing me, honey, but you aren't listening.. I said phase variance.. Like they knew the Guardian would be coming ahead of time..and were taking shortcuts..."

Seven blinked, "Are you telling me Command knew the Guardian would arrive on Earth way ahead of the time it actually did, to ask Kirk to bring Yar and the others back from the past?"

"Yes... and if anyone asks.. a little birdy told you.. Tah.." and Boothby left, disappearing out of the green fireglow into the distance.

Boothby's supposition left more questions than answers in Seven's mind. The very idea of one's superiors withholding critical information about a secret project's hidden dangers was unthinkable. And Seven didn't know where that left her. ::Should I tell the others about the phasing nondisclosure?::

Then Seven decided it did not matter. If her crewmates thought they were on a par with Headquarters absolutely, then they would be more effective carrying out their duties as Starfleet officers. Emotions would not cloud the issue.

Seven moved a little closer to the oscillating security shield until she could see the outline of the raw plasma eating through the very stone of the remnants of Building Five. ::I wonder:  
and she hefted up her wrist and shot out her assimilation tubes..

A fire fighter near her leaped with a cry to push her out of the way but Seven stopped him with a hand to his chest and he recoiled a bit.  
"Are you crazy?? That stuff'll vaporize you.." he shouted.

Seven turned back to her task. "As you can see,  
I am not actually touching the shield. I am fully aware of the danger. Go back to your work ensign."

The man walked away, glancing back at her every so often shaking his head incredulously.  
"Women...." he mumbled.

Seven advanced her tubes until they just poked through the shield's membranes and released a stream of sensor nannites from her bloodstream into the sea of plasma inside the hanger. She linked with them mentally and then withdrew her assimilation tubules from the shield and stepped back onto the sidewalk.

Inside her mind, she could see the nanoprobes swimming towards where she wanted them to go. ::The Guardian of Forever.::

Through their eyes, Seven saw the slight out of phasing the Guardian was using to keep from being harmed by the flaring super heated plasma liquid searing around it.  
The first rain of probes touched the Guardian's protective "coat" and they sank inside to the normal air beyond.

Soundlessly, the floating nanoprobes formed a lattice in the air that turned into a ring and they began to spin there. Seven now had her communications conduit to the Guardian of Forever. ##We must speak at once.## she told it. ##I've learned something you should know..## and Seven told it the very same information Boothby had disclosed to her.

The Guardian came to life, it's inner donut pulsing with white light. ##THIS PREKNOWLEDGE OF MY COMING AND THE ENERGY SHELL'S TRUE NATURE ARE RIDDLES THAT I CANNOT ANSWER. ##

Seven spoke through her nanoprobe eyes,  
"Then perhaps we should work together to solve this little mystery before it is too late for Earth and its people."

Seven felt the time gate shrug mentally,  
## THE CURRENT TIMELINE MUST REMAIN UNSULLIED BY PARADOX.## it said.

"Starfleet's preknowledge of your mission long before your arrival is a paradox in itself. Your ...distress...over this news is a sign that it is one wrinkle you did not see for all your power. Let me help you learn more." Seven offered.

##PROCEED.##

Seven opened her eyes, maintaining her link with the Guardian through her nanoprobes remotely as she walked away from the fire scene. She decided to head back to whereever the away team had gone.

------------------------------------------------

Data followed Janeway, Boothby and Chakotay back to Scott's lab, where they all immediately began to pore over the information Byte was sending to them while it measured the extent of the warping shield around Building Five.  
He thought he saw Seven's unmistakable outline against its green glow but he couldn't be sure with any absolute certainty.

He had dismissed the thought when Seven arrived to his side a few minutes later.  
"I have news from sickbay. Nurse Chapel is going to make a complete recovery.  
Dr. Crusher has just completed surgical repairs on her torn lung." Data told her.

"That is fortunate. Perhaps no others will be harmed by the fire now that it's here."

"Perhaps.." Data said.

ExBorg and android both watched the EMH demat out of the lab to go check up things in the Medical Building in Ward One to see if Dr. Crusher needed his services.

Seven and Data worked quietly, pooling information from the sensors when Seven spoke up, "How are you feeling, Mr. Data?"

Data cocked his head and shifted it some,  
raising his eyebrows. "I have toned down my emotion chip so it will not adversely effect my work until this crisis is over."

Seven frowned. "That was illogical."

"I don't understand.." Data said.

Seven stopped her scans filing and folded her hands behind her back as she regarded the light skinned android in front of her. "I have found in my experience with Captain Janeway's crew,  
that sometimes, strong emotions help strengthen one's resolve to achieve goals faster and more efficiently."

Data said without any trace of conceit,  
"I can function faster than most humans."

"No doubt." Seven answered, "But I've learned that sometimes, powerful emotions can make the simple act of ....living, more rich in content and meaning."  
She had surprised herself with her own retrospect. "I apologize commander. I do believe I am ..rambling."

"No apologies necessary Seven of Nine.  
If anyone is guilty of rambling. It would be me. Captain Picard frequently reminds me of that fact."

Seven inclined her head in acceptance of his admission. "Shall we proceed with getting our report on the preliminary analyses of these distorting shields ready for the captains?"

Data nodded eagerly and as one, the two completed the task in about five minutes.

Seven presented the report to Captain Janeway and Data gave an identical copy to Captain Picard.

Seven spoke up as Janeway and Picard took the datapadds. "These are preliminary detailed scans of the plasma shield. So far, it looks like it will hold without problems for nearly twelve hours.."

"Then we have our breathing room..." Janeway said. "Perhaps long enough to come up with a solution to putting out the fire before Data's vision comes true.."

"Yes..." Seven said, thinking of what she had shared with the Guardian. "Anything is possible now."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Data, sitting at an art easel painting. A caption talks about how love is a splendid thing in French.

Image: Seven of Nine and the EMH arm in arm in engineering, at a party.

*  
From : "Katherine Bird" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] The Holo "Nurse" Nightengale Date : Tue, 05 Feb 2002 06:30:38 +0000

Christine awoke slowly. Her mouth tasted a bit off and it was very dry. She moved her head fractionally and felt softness beneath it that was unexpected. ::Water.. yeah, that would be nice.::

"Easy, Christine.." came Uhura's voice. "You're only just coming out of anesthesia. This nice EMH here and Dr. Crusher have just mended a hemopneumothorax you sustained in your fall. "

That made Nurse Chapel open her eyes quickly. "What? The last thing I remember, was the earthquake throwing us onto the floor. I remember getting mad because our evening off was interrupted." and she licked her lips..

Nurse Chapel felt her head supported and a cup of cold water was given to her. She sipped slowly and the tarry taste in her mouth went away.

"That was no earthquake, Chris.." Uhura said seriously. "That was the floor caving in when the underground fire burned it up."

Nurse Chapel turned her head in horror. "The fire's started already? ..Oh, Uhura, how did you cope? Your fear--"

"....Didn't get in the way.." Uhura smiled. "The smoke made me black out before I even had a chance to panic."

"Consider yourself a very lucky young woman." the EMH said holding the cup from which she had drunk. He swept a hand in a gesture over her body. "You're still in one piece. Thanks to the time shifted oasis of that galley in Building Five. Your rescuer manage to avert certain destruction from the plasma surge by taking refuge with you in there."

"It hasn't spread...?".. Christine began, growing pale, remembering the memory video playback from the android's cranium records of the hideous green energy burning below Deanna Troi's balcony.

"No..It hasn't. Not beyond that building." Uhura quickly. "And now that we know it's started, it won't be going anywhere, anytime soon with that shield continuously reining it in."

Christine laughed. Then winced, holding a pair of hands to her stomach.

The EMH frowned. "You're feeling pain?"

"Just a little." Christine shrugged, "My stomach."

"Mind if I have a look?" the holodoc asked.

Christine lowered the silver sheeting, "Go ahead..doctor.. Feels like bruising.."

The hologram pulled up her sickbay gown and then all three of them saw it. "Whoops.. Looks like my colleague forgot about this.." he said apologetically.

Christine looked down and saw a black and blue imprint of a hand clearly on the skin of her abdomen. "What on earth is that from? Looks like somebody's palm print."

"Mr. Data apparently had to clear your throat during the time you were out of contact with the away team. For an android, he was careful enough, I'm seeing only superficial damage here." The EMH said and rolled sheepish eyes at her. He passed a dermal regenerator over the area until the bruising was fully healed.

Christine grunted, rubbing the tingling spot as the pain went away. "Hmmm. Never thought I'd ever need the Heimlich. Say,.." she said now understanding that she had been rescued from the fire scene. "Was anybody else injured besides Uhura and I? I remember how fast plasma implodes once it touches an open flame from my old Academy days."

Uhura and the EMH both lowered their eyes.

Then the doctor spoke. "There were two fatalities. The security guards outside the building. They heard you two scream and went running to find you. They were vaporized instantly when a malfunction in the plasma shielding around it shifted over them."

Christine looked startled. "What could have caused that?"

"Any number of things. A time distortion. A power surge or blackout........ Sabotage.." the EMH added mysteriously, trying to ease Christine's tension.

His tactic worked, Christine's distress over the death of the two guards changed to an air of incredulous debate. "Sabotage?..I can't believe that. Security into the Guardian's hanger is ....was ...tight, doctor." Christine told him. "The only ones allowed in were the ones cleared by Headquarters.." and she ticked off on her fingers the names she knew about. "Kirk, myself, Uhura, Spock, Mr. Barclay, K'Ehleyr and her son, Tasha Yar...and that handsome fellow and his freckled friend. I haven't seen them around since the yellow alert.."

"You mean Harry Kim and Jadzia Dax.." the doctor clarified. He tapped his datapadd. "They shipped out over six hours ago. Pulled away from Earth to do security detail once our intruder alert was initiated. I'm afraid that they're going to be gone from our little adventure for good."

Uhura said, "I'm sure none of the people you mentioned there are terroristic spies Christine. So I think that idea of sabotage is pretty much a wash.."

"Yeah, well.. it's not exactly common for a Federation security shield, however experimental, to malfunction like that." Nurse Chapel said. "Maybe it's Spock rubbing off on me, but that detail doesn't sound very logical to me."

Uhura bit her lip, thinking. "Maybe there are details we don't know yet about the shield's construction. We're just simply two of the passengers who disembarked under it, Christine. I'm sure somebody will figure it out." And she sighed..

Despite herself, Christine yawned.

The EMH noticed. "Visiting hours are over.. Lt.." he said to Uhura.. "Shoo.."

Just then, Dr. Crusher came over. "Glad to see you're awake Nurse.." she smiled.

"The doctor here said you're the one who handled my pulmonary repair." Christine said.

"I was. There's no complications at all. So rest easy.." and Bev turned down the lights over Christine's bed and turned on the remote monitor to display her vital signs in a relay to her office.

"Thank you, doctor.." she said.

The EMH grunted in his throat, tapping holofingernails on the guardrail of her biobed.

"Oh, and you too, doctor.." Christine added hastily.

"My pleasure.." the holodoc said and he joined Bev in her office to followup log his part in Christine's recovery.

Uhura waited for him to be well out of earshot. "My.. does HE want praise.. Sounds like another doctor we know very well now, doesn't he?"

Christine chuckled, this time discomfort free. "Bones doesn't scoop for attention like that.."

"No, he just shouts loud enough until he gets it from Kirk and Spock. Undivided." Uhura set a gentle hand on her friends arm, mindful of the intravenous tubes connected there. "Sleep tight. I'll keep you up on the latest from Captain Kirk.."

"You do that.. I hate being a patient.." Christine mumbled, drifting off.

Uhura snugged the silver sheet back around Chapel's shoulders and she left the Ward quietly.

---------------------------------------------------------

Lt. Uhura didn't even look in the direction of the swarming fire and engineering crew around Building Five. She was shivering enough just hearing the sirens and klaxons of the arriving crack disaster response shuttles from the night sky. She quickly made her way across campus and tapped her shoulder. Belatedly, she realized that she was still in her seared unitard and that she no longer had on a combadge. ::Wonderful..:: She made her way over to the nearest garden lightpost and toggled a switch. =^=Uhura to Kirk.=^=

"Kirk here.." He sounded very relieved to hear her voice.

"Before you even ask, I'm fine, sir, and so is Christine. And you can tell Mr. Spock that she's in perfect health and resting." ::Chew on THAT, Mr. I-don't-feel-anything for-Christine. I don't care how old you are in this current time line. I saw how you looked at her when you first saw her arrive through the Guardian of Forever. Like she was some mystic mirage after ninety years in the desert..::

She imagined a conversation with Christine about that very subject from the reverse point of view.

SEE SOUND ADDITION AT TOP named "Chaplove".

Uhura voiced none of these thoughts aloud, though she wished she could. So she contented herself with just that terse report to them. But something of her tone must have made Spock's eyebrow go up because she heard Kirk's amused chuckled hidden in his voice when he spoke again to her.

"Thank you, lieutenant. Would you be so kind as to get yourself another combadge and go help McCoy right away..?"

"I'm on my way now sir.."

"Very good. Kirk out."

Uhura grinned lopsidedly at the point she scored getting under Spock's skin. She took her hand off the commpadd and headed in the direction her tricorder showed McCoy to be.

-------------------------------------------------------

She politely hit the page outside of Deanna Troi's door a few minutes later. The night air had cleared the last of the smoke from her lungs and had distanced the last traces of stress from her mind. ::I only wish I would've had time to change. But.. Immediately means immediately..:: she shrugged.

A heavy thug type opened the door and behind him, a ready for anything Tasha Yar stood with a phaser drawn. "Oh, it's you.." Tasha said, "Come in. Everyone ok?"

"Yes." And Uhura sidled past the hyper alert guard. Yar holstered her weapon and showed Uhura to Deanna's living room where everyone was gathered around the computer terminal linked to Scotty's lab and the probe and satellite views there of the fire. She felt very self conscious at being so dirty around such nice personal furnishings.

Deanna Troi met her halfway. "Lt.. I'm glad you're fully recovered. Oh.." she said, eyeing up Uhura's sooty appearance. "They sent you over very fast, now didn't they?...Please, feel free to sonic shower and then to access the replicator in the sleeping room for a set of clean clothes.."

::Thank heavens for empaths.:: "Thank you counselor, don't mind if I do.." ::I'll replicate a new combadge under my own code, too.::

Less than ten minutes later, Uhura returned to the others in Deanna's main living space, feeling more like being able to tackle the crisis at hand than she had when she had first left sickbay.

The first thing she noticed was the low hologrid platform painted with black with yellow stripes next to the fireplace. "Oh!.. That's a real holoprojector, isn't it?"

K'Ehleyr grinned, straightening up from a set of ferocious sneezes. "Sure is.. a prototype of Lt. Barclay's I imagine. I recognize his handiwork."

Uhura sat on the side of the couch nearest it and admired the platform and the remote sitting on the table that was obviously the one meant to use with the holostage.

McCoy piped up. "Deanna was telling us earlier that that was how Mr. Barclay had found her the night of her attack. Using a holo projection of himself getting through her locked door when she didn't answer her doortones."

Uhura's eyes lit up. ::Another technological goody to learn about.:: "May I?" and she hefted up her tricorder.

Deanna shrugged a go-ahead and then got distracted when a particularly violent oscillation of Building Five's plasma shield caught her attention from the tiny view on the computer screen.

Uhura knelt on the carpetting next to the tiny holoplatform and scanned it, feeling like a kid in the candy store. ::This is like that EMH who took care of Christine. I'm reading the same components. The same holoimaging matrice alignments...:: Her brain did a double take. ::The same holoprojecting footprint?::

She looked up at Deanna. "Tell me, Miss Troi. On the night of your attack. Was Janeway's EMH the one who responded to your medical emergency? He's showing up as having visited on my tricorder..."

That made everyone look up in startlement.

-  
(attachments)  
Image: Chapel promo with a pink background.

Audio: Chapel- I'm in love with you Mr. Spock, You: The Human Mr. Spock,...The Vulcan Mr. Spock..

Spock- Nurse.....

Chapel- Shhh. Christine,... please..

Image: Uhura in sepia tones.

************************************

From : "Andy Anda" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Tribble3 Date : Wed, 06 Feb 2002 16:37:51 -0800

After a spell of lurking underground, the rabbit crept to the surface where it proceeded to test the air for any further scent of smoke, its nose working furiously. Satisfied that all was right with the meadow again. It emerged from its warren. As has become the norm, Tribble followed soon thereafter.  
The fire danger seemed to have abated, but Tribble sensed continuing anxiety in the rabbit. Could the rabbit be uneasy because of the unusually agitated activity of the numerous bipeds scurrying about near the periphery of the meadow? For once, the Tribble did not mimic the behavior of the rabbit,as Tribble always sensed safety in the company of those inscrutable bipeds.  
And, there were none of those awful larger bipeds (known to the reader as Klingons.  
Meanwhile, Boothby is out and about _supervising_ the agitated chaos spawned by the underground conflagration. He had a pretty fair suspicion of where on the surface the fire had entered the complex. Years ago he had drafted and sent off a memo warning of the risk and how to eliminate it. But the memo had gotten shelved during an unrelated minor crisis and soon thereafter forgotten. After there had been no action on his suggestion, he considered resending it, but then he decided not to, as it would be a lesson to THEM if his warning proved prophetic.  
So, Boothby ambled through the meadow a ways looking for the tiny portal that was breached by the fire. He didn't see any overt burn residue anywhere. This puzzled him for a moment, but he then realized that it wasn't necessary for a spark to have been produced. He noted, not entirely consciously,the movement of a critter a ways away near the other side of the meadow.  
Glancing over idly, he saw his old friend, the meadow rabbit, or rather a multi-generational offspring of his original old meadow rabbit friend.  
Suddenly his eyes widened, and he then blinked. "Hmm. Bunnies usually have just one tail..." he remarked to no one in particular besides himself.

-  
(attachment)

Image: A red tribble looking flower! LOL!

*******************************

From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Absolute Proof.. Date : Sat, 09 Feb 2002 10:40:17 +0400

She looked up at Deanna. "Tell me, Miss Troi. On the night of your attack. Was Janeway's EMH the one who responded to your medical emergency? He's showing up as having visited on my tricorder..."

That made everyone look up in startlement.

Beverly Crusher turned down the audio cues on her computer terminal. "No, I was the one who did."  
Beverly's face grew very thoughtful. "This is impossible..." as she knelt on the floor next to Uhura and studied the all too familiar readings of the EMH's past presence on the holoplatform.  
"Starfleet says that Voyager's EMH didn't arrive for Dr. McCoy's speech until five days ago.  
Deanna was injured over two weeks ago, Lt.  
Are you sure your readings are right?" she asked of Uhura.

Deanna Troi sighed. "Beverly, have you ever known a holo trace turning up false before? An identity like that is registered all across the global hologrid. Any activation of any holocharacter within Starfleet is duly noted and logged as to what persona and when."

Yar turned from the picture she had been viewing.  
"We should turn off that hologrid. Now.."

"Why? Anything that appears on it can't leave the grid lines on the platform. We're perfectly safe Tasha."  
Deanna said. She wasn't sure what she was reading off her friend and it made her uneasy.

Yar chose to not say a further word and went to the balcony window to look out, flicking her eyes at two of her fellow guards to check the hallway again for any new visitors.

Dr. Crusher read the results of the holologged signature on her newer current century tricorder. It was the EMH's trace showing as having been activated remotely the night Deanna was attacked. "Uhura's dead on.  
The EMH, specially, Voyager's EMH was here exactly two weeks ago for six point four minutes, ending his activation about ten seconds before Barclay showed up at the front door on the security monitor."  
Beverly Crusher tapped her combadge, =^=Crusher to Lab Six. Captain Kirk.. Do you have a few minutes?=^=

"Certainly, doctor. What can I do for you?"

Dr. Crusher knew that the EMH was in earshot of Kirk so she disguised the real reason behind her call. "I need another opinion about the fire's possible effect on your officer Uhura." She widened a look at the lieutenant in apology but Uhura waved a hand dismissing the issue. "It will only take a few minutes for me to ask you a few questions. Could you come when you can? The sooner the better."

The EMH piped up, "If you need an expert's advice on pyrophobia I'd be glad to assist you doctor.."  
he beamed vocally.

Dr. Crusher responded almost hastily.."No.. No. That's all right doctor. uh, Captain Kirk knows Uhura well and has the sort of insight for which I'm looking. Don't let me disturb you from the lab.." she said calmly.

Her deflection worked. The EMH was diverted."Very well,  
keep me informed if the lieutenant suffers any psychological symptoms from her fear."

"I will.." Bev smiled, even though the smile didn't show through a comm link.

Kirk got the gist of her meaning just from the tone of her two words. "I'll be there shortly, Dr. Crusher.."

"Thankyou captain. Crusher out.."

McCoy grunted once the comm link was closed. "Now why didn't you want the EMH here to see this?" he said, gestured at the tiny hologrid next to Troi's couch.

Dr. Crusher was frank, "If someone has been tampering with that EMH prior to his coming here, it's likely that they'd also provide a tap leading back to themselves so they would know if anyone ever found their holomanipulation ability. Just as what Uhura discovered just now."

K'Ehleyr stood, wiping her streaming nose but her voice was even and very well thought out. "You did right to prevent the holodoctor from coming here until we learn more."

Deanna Troi stood and began pacing on the carpetting from one length to the other in front of the couch where most sat. "How could I not know if my hologrid was activated that night?"

Beverly shrugged, " I remember what I saw when I first got to you. There were blood spatters leading from the kitchen to the balcony. You must have struggled with someone and were injured first in there.."

Deanna looked uncomfortable, but she didn't stop pacing. "But no holocharacter can leave that grid,  
Beverly."

"Ah,, but Voyager's EMH can. He has a portable holo emitter, allowing him freedom from the restriction of hologridding." Uhura added. "I remember that detail when I read about the system in Dr. Crusher's office."

Deanna threw arms about herself, "That could explain why I didn't feel anyone's emotions at all then. But what about the android byproduct traces the invest-  
igative team found on the rug?"

Beverly studied her hands. "To throw anyone off the true trail. Pointing fingers at Data would most certainly distract all but the most open minded people. Uhura here is new at everything in this decade. Perhaps that's why she discovered this long before we did. She was seeing her surroundings through a fresh perspective."

Troi relaxed just a bit, then she went over and pulled the power cord leading to the tiny hologrid platform out of the wall. "There's going to be no holocalls this evening.."

Dr. Crusher nodded her approval. "We'll wait until Captain Kirk arrives before we show him what we've seen. Being and staying safe from the fire and now from a possible intruder's, top priority."

Deanna nodded, "I agree keeping the EMH away from these quarters until we find out more details are a smart idea. But, eventually, we're going to have to find a way to confront him, directly, about his travels in the last month here on Earth."

Dr. Crusher rubbed her face, "That sounds like an interview for Mr. Barclay. He's become something of an expert on holocharacters."

Deanna Troi raised her gaze from the tricorder scans registering in front of them. "Shall I call him?"

Beverly said, "No.. If Kirk's half the sharp mind I think he is, Barclay'll tag along with him."

One of the guards spoke up. "Building Five's growing a brighter shade of green. I wonder if the plasma's building pressure."

"Unlikely..." Dr. Crusher said. "The security field's designed to bleed any energy surge off into the ground, preventing such a buildup. I remember a time like this on the Enterprise when Deanna first took command of the bridge in the middle of a ship's disaster call."

"I remember that too." Troi said. She wanted to look out the window, but the guard would let her expose herself to the outside. She relented and returned to a chair next to K'Ehleyr.. "I'm not used to being penned up like this, under guard or not. I feel a bit like Helen of Troy just now.."

Despite the stressful night, everyone laughed a bit.

Deanna rose and went next to Tasha Yar, who was still back to one wall, with a foot propped against it,  
watching the balcony terrace throught the billowing lacy curtains. "How are you feeling? I only caught part of your last mood change during your comm to Kirk. Care to tell me about it?"

-  
(attachments)

Image: Dr. Crusher from Third Season.

Image: A serious Deanna Troi in civvies, sitting on her couch.

Gif: A Lcars display showing EMH interfaces.

***********************************

From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Shifting Guilt~~ Date : Sat, 09 Feb 2002 17:21:50 +0000

Kirk got the gist of her meaning just from the tone of her two words. "I'll be there shortly, Dr. Crusher.."

Captain Kirk closed the connection to Dr. Crusher and turned back to the computer screen where Mr. Spock, Mr. Barclay, Seven of Nine, Scotty, and Alexander were sitting while they watched the sensors screens.

Just then, there was a hail from Starfleet Command. =^=Commander Riker and Captain Picard have been recalled back to the Enterprise scheduled for departure immediately, Captain Kirk.=^=

"I understand. These things happen. Spock and I will cover all aspects of Building Five in their absence, although insight from the Enterprise command crew would have been very welcome."

=^= A situation has arisen that requires them to disembark Earth captain. I'm sure you and your project crew will manage. Command out.=^=

"Well, well well,.." the EMH sighed. "It never rains but it pours.."

Kirk turned to look up at the EMH who was helping Alexander key in flight sequences into Byte. The probe was no longer hunting for the fire's ignition source but instead doing ironically the same as Mr. Boothby, looking for the air vent the fire fell into. Kirk whispered to the boy for him to program the probe to search for Mr. Boothby and then he would find the vent when the older caretaker did. He then straightened to address the holophysician, "Doctor.. You're not feeling left out being in charge of sickbay per chance? Dr. Crusher wanted to spend some time checking out Deanna Troi. She hadn't been examined since her collapse incident in the dance studios. Don't tell me you're feeling the weight of being in attendance again."

"Hardly..." the EMH said sheepishly. "Although after my retirement... It does seem odd doing so. I was just remarking on how wishy washy Starfleet seems in sending its personnel on their mission assignments. The Enterprise would have been a very good asset to utilize in studying this fire and the events surrounding it."

"Ours is not to reason why,..." Alexander said, part laughing..

"Ours is but to do and die..." the EMH said darkly. "Yes..." and he rubbed his chin.

Kirk took his opportunity to escape. "Doctor, you should get back to sickbay. I'd like it if you personally were there for Christine when she wakes up. Then you can update her as to goings on here in the lab."

"Of course captain.." the EMH said. "I only came over here with Dr. Crusher to deliver her medical report." and he handed Kirk a copy of his medical log on Nurse Chapel.

"I appreciate it, doctor." Kirk watched as the EMH phased out, returning back to Starfleet Medical's Ward One to monitor Chapel along with the medical staff.

He then spoke aloud so only Spock, Seven, Mr. Barclay and Mr. Scott could hear. "I'm going to the scene of the crime.. It seems there's a connection between Counselor Troi's attack and the memory vid we all viewed on the future Data head's circuits."

"Sir.." Mr. Spock began. "You should go with all due haste. Seven of Nine has done her research well. This fire is going nowhere for the next twelve hours. The plasma shield is holding."

Seven of Nine spoke, "May I go with you captain?" she said, remembering her promise to the Guardian of Forever. ::Even now, I can feel it seeing through my nanoprobes and through my eyes, waiting.::

"It's your choice.. Captain Janeway, can you spare your aide for a while?"

Captain Janeway looked up from a table where she had called up schematics on the landscape around Building Five's site. She had cross hatched the most likely path the fire would burn using the wind direction now blowing across campus if it got out of its containment. "Spare Seven? Certainly.. It's up to her."

Kirk glanced awry at Seven of Nine, "You heard your captain.. The decision is yours." Then he moved over to Mr. Barclay.

"Reg,.. you heard most of the transmission from Dr. Crusher in her conversation with me..." he started up.

Barclay shifted uncomfortably in his computer chair, "W...Well, I..."

Kirk smiled, "Any good junior officer eavesdrops once in a while when he can. I take no offense. I've had too many years with Mr. Spock's ears scouring the bridge air for tidbits to be worried about anyone else's tacit snooping.. " and he threw an amused glance towards the ambassador.

Mr. Spock, to his credit, didn't visibly react, although Kirk saw his back straighten just a fraction while he worked.

Kirk went on, " You are an expert on holotechnology. Please come with me to the counselor's the moment you're through there."

And he left for Deanna's.

It was a short walk to her apartment tower. The peace of the middle night was punched through with flashing lights as fire and engineering crew worked to extend the life of the melting plasma shields around Building Five. No one even saluted Kirk. ::This is a dangerous time indeed.:: Kirk said when he noticed that. ::Normal protocol doesn't hold here. We're all in new territory.::

Soon, Kirk was let inside Deanna's home by Yar's security team. Right away, he noticed something wasn't right with Tasha. He touched her arm as she seemed transfixed by the fire scene on the computer monitor. "Easy, lieutenant." he said when she jerked her arm away instinctively.

"Sorry sir.. I've..I've had a lot on my mind. I.. was very bothered when I found out we can't use the Guardian of Forever to alter this fire's course. I..can't help but feeling that I'm on borrowed time. Strange, really. But that's how I feel. I've learned to trust my gut reaction on my own emotional barometer, a skill I picked up growing up in the Colony."

Kirk studied the young woman's eyes without letting his own knowledge of her future pass through his own. He knew she had an inkling of the moment she had been saved from by the Guardian just before her own death at Armus's hand. Yet for the sake of the Temporal Prime Directive, he could not tell her that her vague feelings were true. Instead, he diverted her with some sage advice. "Worrying, lieutenant? That's all right. It'll keep you sharp. Barclay's on the way, and maybe Janeway's aide, Seven of Nine. Watch for them."

"Aye sir.." and Yar moved back to her place by the balcony so she could watch both Building Five and the sidewalks leading to the apartments.

Kirk studied Yar for a long while, feeling the weight of responsibility of knowing Building Five's true purpose and keeping it away from the others. ::Spock's much better at this than I am. Taking action is my strength. Not hiding it.::

Then he sat down on the couch and listened to what Uhura and Dr. Crusher had to say about the clearly, newly invented hologrid platform near the couch. He saw that it had been powered down. He looked up again sharply when he heard of the EMH's possible involvement in Troi's attack. "Is he to be trusted Doctor?" he demanded sharply of Beverly. "I just entrusted him to Chapel a few minutes ago."

"Absolutely, Captain Kirk.." Dr. Crusher said.

"It seems the holovariance only shows on Reg's prototype grid here and only from that night. K'Ehleyr has just scanned Starfleet's activity logs and the EMH shows no deviation from normal parameters.. He's fine.." Deanna said.

Kirk took a slow breath, broadening his thinking as he did so. "Data, in two days, will lose his head from an image of Yar that seems to be able to withstand raw plasma burning on its matrix. And now, you say, two weeks ago, Voyager's EMH was here during the time Troi was attacked, leaving behind android traces in this home, possibly for investigators to find.."

Nods from everyone in the room.

"Are these two events related?"

"Yes.." said K'Ehleyr inequivocally. "Personnel coming in and out of Starfleet during that time period all check out. The two must interelate."

Kirk said, thinking aloud, "Then.. the Yar we saw firing a phaser which subsequently kills Data, is really the EMH, altered to look like her?"

Tasha shifted from her place as lookout. "Listen,.. a Doctor Jeckyl Mr. Hyde theory? I don't buy it. How can any holoprogram be altered without anyone else discovering that it's been tampered with? Especially if that program's nonlethality measure has been compromised."

Kirk said, "There's a first time for everything. And I have a feeling we'll find it right here.." he said, setting a boot onto the deactivated hologrid platform. "Although it's looking more and more likely that the finger pointing's shifted a bit. Mr. Barclay's got a lot of fast talking to do now, doesn't he to avoid the mad doctor appellage?"

Deanna shivered to the bone when she realized that her patient and friend had the means to create such a holonightmare. She hoped to God that Kirk was wrong.

"He'll be here in a few minutes.." Kirk told them all.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Offtopic- The Olympic Rings.

Image: A very suave Kirk

Image: Tasha Yar with a phaser.

*animated gif* The USS Voyager getting flung off course then a banner reading, "Get thrown 70,000 light years from Star Trek Voyager.." on black in yellow lettering.

*

From : "Cory Anda" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] The Pinnochio Syndrome Date : Sat, 09 Feb 2002 19:01:35 +0000

Mr. Barclay couldn't wait to leave Mr. Spock to go to Deanna's. ::I have to prove myself. To them and to myself.. I haven't been able to sleep for weeks now just thinking about what I might have done..::

He glanced at Mr. Spock who regarded him calmly.  
"Mr. Barclay... Confession is good for the soul as Dr.  
McCoy is so fond of saying. Your body english suggests you are upset about something and hiding it."

Reg startled, his natural nervousnes growing even more pronounced, "W-What ever gave you that idea, sir..?"  
::That was brilliant just like a bat in the shuttle headlights.  
Stand still.. You're about to be run over..:: he mentally admonished himself.

"You're fidgetting and avoiding eye contact with Mr. Scott and myself whenever you hand over a new data set from your work station. You are quiet vocally. Unusual for you.  
Your heartrate has accelerated by 50%..."

::Those damned Vulcan ears..:: Barclay groaned.

Spock was still speaking to him.  
"....and you are sweating to the point that environmental controls cannot dry your uniform. Shall I go on?"

Barclay slumped in his chair, affectionately ruffling Alexander's hair as the boy shoved the now empty donut plate into his stomach. The boy got fully engrossed into his probe flying on Kirk's suggestion to find Mr. Boothby. He was oblivious to the quandary now facing Vulcan and human. "Sir.. if I knew more.. I - I could.."

Spock interrrupted him. "I am not questioning your loyalty to Starfleet, lieutenant, nor your character. I am simply.  
stating that I have an open ear, so to speak, if you wish to talk about what is disturbing you. A habit I've picked up from Doctor McCoy. "

Barclay let out the breath he was holding, " Whewwww.  
Thank you sir.. I..uh, I'll keep that in mind.. But I..uh I think I should be off to Deanna's.. I mean! The counselor's right about now. Captain Kirk's hint to report was rather unsubtle..I mean... clear.."

Mr. Spock simply said, "Carry on.. Reginald. I value your assistance with these fire scans greatly but my former captain requires your services even more than I at the moment."

Reginald need no further encouragement. He even managed to get through the lab doors without colliding into a wall.

---------------------------------------------------------

Outside, Barclay's trip to Deanna's was uneventful except for when Alexander buzzed him with Byte, the flying probe.  
That shock literally made Reg drop into a crouch and draw his phaser until he heard the mischievious boy's laughter echo from the probe's speakers. "I see you Mr. Barclay...!"

Reg gathered what was left of his wits and mock saluted the probe's button sensor. "C-Carry on, Alexander.. I hope you find Mr. Boothby soon."

And with dignity, Reg continued down the path.

He knocked on Troi's door and gulped when he was pulled inside and slammed up against a wall by an overzealous guard. "Don't shoot!! Don't..sh--" A phaser muzzle crammed against his nose, shutting off Reg's words.

"At ease, guard.." he heard Kirk say. "I've requested this man's presence..Stand down please.."

Barclay brushed the wrinkles out of his uniform after he was released and he cleared his throat. He immediately went to Deanna's side.. "Deanna.. How are you holding up?  
I was so worried the stress of all this might set off your.."  
he pointed to his throat.. unwilling to look at the still faintly pink line that marked where Troi's new trachea was lasered in place with surgery weeks ago.

"I'm not exerting myself so a repeat of this morning's faint won't happen." Troi told him, taking his hands.

Barclay was relieved and he sighed mightily. Then he noticed the expressions of everyone around him, and then he saw where Kirk's boot was resting. His nervousness came back in a thundering wash and he pulled his hands away from Deanna's self consciously.

Neutrally, Kirk and Uhura showed Barclay their discovery of finding the EMH's thumbprint on Deanna's hologrid and how it had been altered to attack her and then to leave android traces behind itself.

Barclay knew the cat was out of the bag. He set his hands on the couch where he sat and then noticed Yar tensing near him. He looked down and saw how close his hands were to his own phaser so he whipped them up, lacing them behind his own head, slumping into the couch cushions trying to look nonchalant...

Neelix, Troi's white Persian that Reg had given her, chose that moment to leap up onto his lap and start purring.  
Reg petted her absently very quickly as his stress grew.

Then he told them everything. "I know I should've disclosed my new invention to Starfleet Research right away.. That that.. that ..hologrid I gave Deanna was so small,.. I didn't think it would matter if I waited until she and I could shake out the bugs.." he said aloud to the room.  
"But, I fear I've made a fatal mistake."

"How Mr. Barclay?" Uhura wanted to know.

Reg sank even lower on the couch trying to feel miserably but Neelix the cat was rubbing his chin in a tickle,  
preventing that. "I not only figured out a way to cut into the Earthwide Planetary Hologrid with my invention.  
I tried to make its own host, too."

Dr. Crusher said firmly.. "Reg...." in warning..

Barclay shifted in place trying to get comfortable on the couch and finally, he shooed Neelix onto the floor. "Beverly, Deanna, You know I used to spend a lot of time recreating the USS Voyager and her crew when my holoaddiction was still running wild. I especially loved the EMH's structure and design. So I....created a template of him for Deanna's hologrid..."  
then Reg's words spilled out into a tide as the whole grisly truth became known. "I didn't know that my hosting character, HoloZimm, could override his safeties.. He, I... later found out after Deanna told the medical staff that she didn't feel any emotions from her attacker that HoloZimm must have been the one who harmed her. But it was all an accident.  
I see what he was trying to do.. Look..." and Reg pointed to a dataset on the scans of the Hologrid they all were looking at. "If you play that you'll see, I,.. according to these,,he was only trying to surprise her in a guess who game..." Why didn't I guess he was the only one who could have attacked Deanna earlier?"

Barclay's face crumpled into an intense grief as his admission finished.  
"I.. I had no idea he would squeeze so hard around her throat... I..it.. it's all my fault.. and I'm afraid that the Holozimm's now roaming free on the Starfleet Wide holonet grid system.. " Reg started sniffling and he wiped his steaming face.. "I wouldn't be surprised if it was he who cuts off Data's head in two days.."  
He began sobbing.."I..never wanted to be Dr. Frankenstein.."

Troi immediately started over and drew Reg into a close hug, and she began rocking him back and forth as a mother would.. "Shhh.."

Even K'Ehleyr was sympathetic.."Everyone can make mistakes with new technology Mr. Barclay. If you have released a dangerous hologram, you as its creator, can stop it.."

Yar piped up. "Wait a minute.. Deanna said earlier that no holocharacter can leave that platform away from the grid.  
If this character isn't Janeway's EMH, how was HE able to do it?"

Barclay raised a guilty hand and Kirk put both hands on his hips. Reg cringed. "I... found a way to recreate the portable emitter of the doctor's." He spoke even faster when angry scowls flashed around him. "I. it only has a limited life of a month. Tops.. Then it's power cells will die and HoloZimm will be limited to appearing on holoplatforms and inside holorooms exclusively.."

"We should hunt it down and decompile it immediately.."  
McCoy said. "If it mimicks the real EMH and gets into sickbay..."

Barclay stood up, fending off the frightening line of talks with both hands. "Doctor.. no.. he's ..he's not inherently evil.. He didn't mean to harm Counselor Troi.. He's more like a kid who didn't know his own strength when he snuck up behind her. It was supposed to be a joke.. I He's.. he's just like Lewis Zimmerman.. Or the EMH minus all his medical knowledge. If Lewis wasn't a killer, HoloZimm won't be either. Please..let me help.. it was an accident.  
If anyone should be punished, let it be me.. Not the holocharacter.  
He's as sentient as the EMH now. A thinking evolving being.  
You can't just shut him off like a light panel..!"

Silence filled the living room. They all knew the battle Mr. Data had lived through decades ago when Starfleet questioned his sentience. Soon, it was decided that the only way to track an immatured holocharacter on a holonet was by using another one.

The EMH was summoned. Soon, he knew everything the others at Deanna's knew and was livid.  
"Mr. Barclay! Just what were you thinking when you decided to create HoloZimm? Were you intending to be bosom buddies with him programmed for instantaneous fealty so you wouldn't be alone in the world?"

Reg didn't say anything and Troi sharply called the EMH to order for resorting to insults.

The EMH merely looked at the ceiling tilting his jaw in agitation. "I'm sorry counselor but I don't like the idea of beings like myself being cloned! Especially when they're wearing my face! I have a reputation to protect."

Barclay found his voice again, "Doctor.. I didn't mean to play God here. I didn't know HoloZimm was sentient.  
Millions of people program holocharacters everyday and they don't become more than the sums of their parts when they're run.. How was I to know that something like this would happen?"

The EMH was blunt. "Because you're still addicted enough to think that normal holocharacters are real." he said angrily.  
But then his face softened into that of a doctor, sharing news to patient "And you still have that residual genius bestowed upon you from the time those alien explorers uplifted you and linked you to the Enterprise's computer.  
You were uniquely empowered to MAKE any holocharacters real ever since that day. But you still have the flaws of a man and so your creation is less than perfect. I know.  
I've been down that self analyses road before by being a creation of flawed men."

Barclay looked up, his eyes full of tears. "I offer myself up to your custody captain for my crimes."

"Denied.." Kirk said.

"But..." Reg exclaimed.

The EMH went on. "As you said, HoloZimm is not evil. Just new. What we need is someone who can track him down on his level before anymore activity on his part leads to another error..." he said ironically. He tapped his combadge. =^= EMH to Commander Data.=^=

"Data here."

"I have a task for you and need both you and Byte in order to accomplish it. Can you leave Mr. Spock and report to us right now?"

"I can. I will be there momentarily..with the probe." they all heard the android say.

The EMH stated the obvious. "We have to find HoloZimm before he can harm Data in two days time. Maybe if we can stop that event from occurring, we can stop the plasma firestorm as well.."

-  
(attachments)

Image: McCoy and Spock, both standing with drawn phasers.

Image: Barclay, very nervous, holding a Data padd.

Gif: A banner about the RPG web ring upgrade illustrated with an 8472 face.

From : "Clairissa Fox" Subject : We find the VDmeer and some icky air Date : Sun, 10 Feb 2002 07:17:45 +0000

I was still in the lab with Mr Spock when they took my probe away. I wanted to fly it around more but Mr Barkly said that Data needed it for some reason at the pretty ladys house. Oh, well. I had fun while I did. I got to scare Mr Barkly and I helped find the big fire.

I saw 7 come back into the lab with us. 7! 7! Where were you? A lot has gone on since you left to go look at the burning building. Dont worry about that. It wont get out until after all day tomorrow? Good, then I can go help mum at the pretty ladys house.

Mr Barklys gone there and so has the hollow doctor. I wonder what they are working on. I cant help any more here cause the computer screens are too hard now. Its the satellights again.

I jumped down from my chair and bowed at Mr Spock since he was a man mum respected, then I left to go hunting Bootby and the V'Dmeer.

I didnt need the silver marble to fly and find Bootby for me. I found him because all humans are smelly. Mr Spock didnt smell that way. He smelt sort of spicy. The pretty lady who could feel your feelings smelled like fresh scones.

I saw him doing a funny thing. He was hiding in the grass the wrong way. The wind was blowing right towards the earth hopper eating there. Then I saw what he was looking at. The hopper had two tails! I didn't know any earth animal that had two. Mr Bootby! Mr Bootby! Where did that weird hopper come from?

I saw the brown hairy small thing hop away. And then I saw it! The VDmeer!

"Shhh... Alexander.. Don't scare the tribble. Now you know rabbits aren't born with two tails. That second puff is your V'Dmeer, the one who tried to eat my gardens on a search for breeding food. I should have known it would seek cover from the shield and alert sounds coming from campus way out here. Their hearing is exceptional." the wizened caretaker told the boy he could barely see in the dark, despite the bright full moon overhead. "Shouldn't you be in bed? It's way past your bedtime."

I am not a weak human. I dont have to until the sun comes up. Maybe not even while this alert stays on. Mum and I have a deal. I dont go to bed until she does.

"That's barbaric.." Boothby said. "It's a wonder why you like to fight so much. It's pure orneriness for sure..." and he grinned. "No wonder you aren't polite ever at all."

I grinned back. He sure had good manners. He wasnt all weakling nice to me like the humans were . Klingons hate politeness. Its a sign that you arent telling anyone what youre are really feeling mum says. But then I saw the tribble rolling after the hopper trying to catch up to it so it could go down the hole. I threw a stone that landed over the hole, blocking the hopper in and the tribble outside so Boothby and I could look at it far, the VDmeer hadnt spotted me being a Klingon yet. Good thing. I didnt want my ears to hurt from it screeching squealies at me.

"Why did you do that Alexander? Now the rabbit can't get out to feed in the meadow." Boothby pointed out.

I told him. The hopper can to get out. It has legs to dig with. The VDmeer does not. This way we can look for it again when the sun comes out again so I can hunt it honorably and put it in a cage for you Bootby.

"Like I can't do that on my own..?. You insult me.." Boothby said, still grinning.

I was filled with happiness now at the Klingon style compliment I got out of Bootby. Insult your friends and you are the best honorable Klingon just like Kahless! Mum told me. So I spread that lesson around. Bootbys the only one who knew what was right with Klingons. I figured it was all the wrinkles that made him so smart. Klingons never got those.

"That creature should be returned eventually to McCoy. He's the one who originally saved it from underground racing." The caretaker said.

I know. I know. I can dream cant I? Not many Klingon boys can say they hunted a real VDmeer.

"Let's away and let the tribble be for the night." Boothby suggested. "It can't go down into the rabbit warren with that rock in place and it won't stray far until daylight most likely."

Ok. Ok. Ill hunt it fair in the sunup time. Ill get more honor taking it as my trophy then cause itll be able to see me coming the whole way! So Bootby and I left the VDmeer sniffing by the rock blocking the hopper's hidey hole and we went back to campus. Bootby. Why did you come out here? I know it wasnt to hunt the VDMeer cause you arent in your dirt clothes you wear working in all the flowers.

"I was finding the fire's ignition point young man. And I found the very place it began right over there." Boothby said, pointing.

I looked and saw only a airgrate that went into the tram tunnel straight down. How can fire grow down there? Its all hard like stone.

"Ah.. Yes,.." Boothby said, "But it's lined with invading tree roots and those burn rather well."

Oh! So thats how the fire got into the Donuts hanger.

"Donut? Oh, I see. You aren't referring to the ones I see powdering your shirt that you consumed recently. Here's another hard word for you Alexander. Almost as hard as "Satellite". The Donut as you call it is the Guardian of Forever." he taught.

Guardian? As in a security guard? I should go meet him! He might be a great fighter. And he could teach me how to deck Romulans like my dad does. And..

"Alexander. The Guardian isn't a person. Remember? It's the stone gate that brought you and your mother to this time period."

Oh. Ok. I forgot. Im only little. Then we were walking by the green dome that was melting with all the scared humans around it. Something strong made my nose tickle and I sneezed so hard that I fell down. Then I kept sneezing and my eyes ran water that I couldnt see. Then I started coughing and my legs wouldnt work.

Bootby saw the boy fall and react suddenly to something when they came within half a mile of the fire sieged Building Five. "Alexander? Are you ill?"

! Make it stop! My nose itches and my eyes!

Boothby scanned the area, thinking that the tiny Klingon boy had provoked some smell that Klingons could detect but not humans. His tricorder could find nothing wrong. ::There's some static charge coming off of the Plasma shield and from the deflector dome over the Starfleet complex. But that's all. Odd..::

He scooped up Alexander into his arms and went into the nearest sheltering structure he could find away from the night air, Deanna's apartment tower.

I couldnt cough anymore cause my throat was so tight and my nose sniffled so much I couldnt sneeze. So I decided to sleep.

"Alexander... Now don't drift on me.. You're allergic to something I haven't found yet in the air outside. I'll carry you to some help but keep your eyes open.."

I couldnt. And now I couldnt talk neither. It got black real fast.

Boothby cradled the now unconscious boy tighter in his arms and the turbo took him rapidly up to Counselor Troi's door where he knew three doctors were. ::I've never seen so fast a decline. I hope the physicians can find what is making Alexander sick.::

And the caretaker shifted Alexander's slight weight in his arms long enough to kick the door to attract attention of the crewmen he knew were with Deanna Troi. "Open up! Something's wrong with Alexander! Let me in!"

-  
(attachments)

Image: Alexander smiling in the sun.

Image: The lost tribble Alexander finds.

Image: Byte, Mr. Scott's probe, all sparky with light.

*******************************************

From: "Patti Keiper"  
Subject: [voyagerliveaction] Klingon Ker-choOOOoos.  
Date: 10 February 2002. Sunday 09:17:34 GMT USA

And the caretaker shifted Alexander's slight weight in his arms long enough to kick the door to attract attention of the crewmen he knew were with Deanna Troi. "Open up! Something's wrong with Alexander! Let me in!"

All the heads inside snapped around and Yar recognized the Academy caretaker's voice and she waved the guards to let him pass.

McCoy rushed forward, taking the pale boy from Boothby and placed him on the couch hastily vacated by everyone.  
"Dang blasted. I should have realized. Anything effecting his mother would no doubt effect the boy, especially if it's some common factor.. ..Dr. Crusher.. .You too,  
TV doc. I need you here. We've got to get a baseline scan to find out what's bothering him before we can treat his symptoms.."

K'Ehleyr rose, moving by the terrace windows and started sneezing uncontrollably. "Alexand-- AaaCHOOOO!!!"

Dr. Crusher said, "Oh, my goodness. That doesn't sound like a cold. More like an allergy.."

McCoy grumbled. "Get her over here too. I'm still kicking myself for not following through with this. I noticed K'Ehleyr getting symptomy during our chess game on the balcony.."

"I'm fine, doctor.." K'Ehleyr said firmly. "Just worry about my son. Klingons don't faint."

"Let me be the judge of that..." the EMH said. "I've attended B'Elanna Torres who did so quite often while pregnant.."

K'Ehleyr shot him a dirty look as if he betrayed a secret fact about Klingons.

Bones passed his bioprobe over the still boy's chest and looked at the tissues in his nose and gums.  
"Looks like a head cold.."

Ambassador K'Ehleyr was very quick, still stinging from the EMH's lack of tact. "Klingons don't get colds, either.."

"Like they don't suffer partum fainting spells I gather..." McCoy jabbed sarcastically.

"Of this, I am more than certain.. There is nothing on Earth we can contract, and my son and I haven't been on any foreign worlds as of late. We were on the Enterprise D when the Guardian of Forever came for us. Dr. Crusher in that time had just given us a physical. We both passed with flying colors."  
K'Ehleyr said in a clipped voice. She knelt by the three doctors and seemed hesitant to hold Alexander's hand in front of humans.

McCoy snagged her palm and firmly joined their grips. "Stop blithering about having affectionate emotions for someone you love and not ever showing them. You Klingons are almost Vulcan that way. Drives me nuts! Spock still gets that way whenever he thinks about Nurse Ch--" he stopped himself... "Uh...never mind.."

Deanna Troi smiled just a bit when she guaged Bones' embarrassment over a Vulcan's feelings for a human. The others chose discretion as a better part of valor.

The EMH was oblivious. He was studying his scans. "Definitely analphylatic reaction. He's swelling up in nose, lungs and throat. But I can't identify the cause. There's nothing strange in his system at all.."

Kirk, had been attentively watching through the whole conversation, he offered an observation.  
"K'Ehleyr got into her sneezing just now as she went by the balcony doctors.."

McCoy's head shot up. "Of course..! It's got to be something recently new in the enviroment outside... Lt Yar.. close those veranda doors leading to the balcony."  
he tapped his combadge, =^=Computer.  
Seal Deanna Troi's living room and cut off all contact with external atmosphere.  
Provide standard life support settings with no outside air exchange.=^=

##Parameters set. Specify oxygen requirements.##

"Way above normal you infernal pile of computer chips. We've got a sick boy in here.."

##Do you require medical assistance?##

"What a stupid computer!" Bones said. "It doesn't even know when we've got three doctors in the room.  
I think I like my Vulcans better.."

##Please restate reply.##

"No. Blast you.. just be a good filter and clean our air in here." McCoy said.

The EMH was injecting Hynaline to Alexander's inner arm. His eyebrow arched. "Doctor, you're getting excited.  
Not good for someone your age.." he smiled.

"Hush up. I always get this wired arguing with computers.  
And I'm allowed a lot of hot air when a medical problem has me stumped. Like the one these two have right now.  
You're just as mystified or you would've looked up from your tricorder at least once already in the past five minutes!" McCoy snapped.

The EMH's smile wiped away. "Guess I am at a loss to find the problem as well."

K'Ehleyr sneezed again, violently. "I--it started right before the disaster call, a few seconds after my son spotted the fire.."

Alexander began wheezing a bit. McCoy made him more comfortable by putting a pillow under his shoulders and letting his head fall back. "He's getting into trouble,  
fast. We have to stop whatever's bothering him."

Yar spoke up. "Doctors.. I do know of another coincidence to the ambassador's illness's onset.  
It started when the plasma field began to distort.. Look." and she keyed up a playback of Alexander's probe flybys over Building Five.  
The field wobbled for the first time exactly when K'Ehleyr first began sneezing during McCoy's chess game.

"Well I'll be dmned." and Bones and the other two doctors launched into a guessing match... Soon, they almost had an answer.. Almost....

Barclay beat them to it using his implanted smarts.  
"Ionization.... Starfleet's got us under a fishbowl with that city wide deflector shield in case Building Five's shield fails.. That experimental plasma shield's warping. And that ionizes the air? Odd, usually plasma shields are nonreactive.."

Seven of Nine stepped into the room having flashed her clearance to the guards outside.  
"Not when phase variances are built in to speed up creation of that device..."

"What?!" Kirk shouted. That Starfleet endangered them all with a secret design shortcut angered him greatly..

Uhura searched her earlier atmosphere readings from on her trip over to the counselor's.  
"You're right. Free ozone is five percentage points above normal Earth levels."

"K'Ehleyr.. why didn't your people ever tell Starfleet Klingons were sensitive to ozone?"  
Bones frowned.

"Would you admit to a vulnerability like that?"  
the ambassador wheezed.  
Dr. Crusher gave her a shot just like Alexander received but her worst symptoms did not ease.

McCoy got up and went over to Deanna's kitchen replicator. He programmed for two face filters using his priority coding.

"Yes.. " the EMH said, "That is what they need. A barrier away from the air around the city." He reached out and grabbed the smaller one from the gray haired doctor while Beverly handed K'Ehleyr the larger one.

Bones fit the mask over the boy's face and the clear plastic moulded fluidly over his nose and mouth. "I've set this permeable to all BUT ozone.. Once his system expells the gas naturally,  
his symptoms should improve.."

K'Ehleyr resisted putting hers on because she was sneezing so hard. The EMH gave her a different shot, one that numbed her sense of smell. The sneezing stopped and Dr. Crusher was able to get the woman to allow the mask to seal itself over her face. She relaxed as the sneezing left her.."..uh, I wouldn't wish these symptoms on anyone. What did you call this? An allergy??"

"It's a fairly common ailment on Earth.. It usually follows familial genetics.." the EMH said while nodding.

K'Ehleyr gave him a look of disgust.."Families with such a defect are allowed to live?"

The EMH turned abstinent. "Of course.. a regular treatment of antihistamines cures the worst symptoms in allergy sufferers. We're not barbarians who kill less than perfect people.!"

"Pity.. They might have been grateful for the release.."

"Hardly.." the EMH said haughtily.

McCoy straightened from listening to the boy's chest.  
"His lungs are a bit clearer.. but there's a lot of ozone still in his blood."

"Not surprising.." Boothby said, "He and I walked right down wind of Building Five coming from the meadow."

"What were you doing out there?" K'Ehleyr wanted to know.

"He was hunting a tribble. I was hunting the fire's ignition point. We both found our quarry.." Boothby smiled hugely..

k'Ehleyr gave a shudder. "I hate V'DMeers with a passion. I don't know how my son even looks at them. They're so....so...fuzzy.. and scaleless."

Uhura giggled, then slapped a hand over her own lips to seal them.

Bones passed his bioprobe over K'Ehleyr's chest and body. She flinched, not liking a technological device probing her inner most workings any more than McCoy like having his scrambled in a transporter.  
"Hold still. This is necessary.." He then studied his results. "You aren't as poisoned as your son. As long as you both wear those biofiltering masks. You won't sneeze and faint.." he said.

"Great..." K'Ehleyr said sarcastically. "I've always wanted to look like a waxwork. What about the ozone already in our systems?"

Bones shrugged. "Your triple set of kidneys should clean that out in a few hours. Not having a liver, any toxin clearing's gonna take a while.."

"Oh, and I assume humans detoxify faster?"

"We do..." McCoy said. "We have something called a liver. We can get drunk and burn it off in an hour. Just ask Scotty.. Perhaps being lily-liver-less explains why Klingons stagger around so much with their bloodwine goblets still in glove on their Birds of Prey all the time."

K'Ehleyr grabbed McCoy by the collar and Kirk got in the way, preventing the ambassador from hitting him, but then Kirk saw K'Ehleyr actually smile widely.. "Why doctor, that's the nicest compliment anyone has ever given me in quite a long time.. " and she nodded, giving McCoy's cheek a peck through her mask and then releasing him.

McCoy grinned, "No problem. I never irritate my Klingon patients unnecessarily.."

Kirk started scratching his head.

The EMH leaned over, "An insult to a Klingon is a compliment, captain. Whereas politeness is seen as an insult..."

"I got it.." Kirk said wide mouthed. "I think.."

McCoy said aside. "Hey Jim, you missed alot about Klingons running around on those ships of yours during the last fifteen years. There's a whole bar of them across campus..I swear, they'll teach you anything.. Honest.. You should come with me sometime once all this is over.. Ambassador..You and your son will be fine. It'll just take some time.." and he sat down next to Alexander's form to monitor him for the rest of the night.

The medical crisis over, all in the room sat down in chairs waiting for Data to arrive with Byte.

-  
(attachments)

Image: K'Ehleyr portrait.

Image: Dr. McCoy with a scanner.

*animated gif* Red Alert..

*************************************

END WEEK FIVE RECAP

WEEK SIX RECAP 02-11-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Site

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Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002 21:22:07 -0800 (PST) From: "Myron Ojala" Subject: That Naggin Hunch [voyagerliveaction]  
Scotty bent over the computer screens, fervently analyzing the data on the upgrading shield around Building Five. Despite the data assurances from Seven of Nine that the shield would hold for twelve hours, Scotty felt a familiar gut wrenching that something wasn't right with that time table estimate.

"Mr. Spock, I've got a bad feeling about this.."

The Ambassador wearing his traditional robes signifying his current office, swiveled in his chair, his hands steepled over his chest in deep thought, "In this instance, Mr. Scott. I believe I must agree with you."

Mr. Data approached the two esteemed Starfleet officers, "May I be of any assistance? I must be leaving soon to Counselor Troi's apartment. I've just been called."

A gleam appeared in Scotty's eyes, a trace of inspiration. "Laddie, you may be just be what we're looking for. We're missing something crucial here about why those plasma shields are fluctuating so dramatically. It doesn't sit right! I'd like you to take a look at Seven's report and see what you make of her time estimates."

Mr. Data held out his hand and took the datapadd Mr Scott handed to him and flash read it.

"It may take some time for you to hypothesize any variable that may mean problems for us later on with that plasma fire.."  
Scotty said.

Captain Janeway and Chakotay walked up,  
sensing a change in mood from those at the main computer panels under the view screen.

Janeway spoke up, "I don't like the feeling I'm getting up here. Doesn't inspire confidence.  
Fess up gentlemen.."

Scotty said, "Mr. Data is an android. There's an old phrase that goes, "Thinking outside the box.."

"Literally..." Chakotay said, laughing, meaning the box of shields rippling eerily around Building Five on their monitors.

"I don't follow you Mr. Scott. I don't know quite why you and Mr. Spock are uncomfortable right now. Care to explain it to us further?" Janeway said.

"Lassie, I've been in engineering so long in Starfleet, that I've come to trust my gut instinct more than any hard facts thrown my way.. Somehow, we're looking at this wrong. Seven says we have twelve hours left. But I feel that this is simply not the case!!"

Chakotay frowned, "Do you have anything to substantiate your feeling? We have to have something to tell Starfleet Command.  
A hunch is a command perogative but it's nothing until it comes to light.."

Janeway glanced up at Data, "I heard Captain Kirk calling you away.. Can you consider Mr.  
Scott's hunch on your way?"

Data nodded.

"Carry on, , We'll be in touch."  
Janeway nodded.

The four of them watched as Data with Seven's padd left the lab to go to Deanna's home.

Scott suddenly rose, his knees cracking as he pushed out of his chair.  
"Captain. Commanders... There's nothing more that can be learned here. I am going to Building Five to take more direct readings of those blasted shields.. It's not that I don't trust your blond lassie, but a hunch is a hunch and I've got more than a few to confirm or disprove now don't I?"

Janeway still didn't know the whole of the matter bothering the older engineer but she knew the power of the voice of experience talking through the mind. And it was one no different for him than hers was within herself. "What more do you intend to do, Mr.  
Scott?"

"I may be about to jump from the preverbial frying pan into the fire..or in this case, plasma fire.. Don't worry,  
I'll have a care.."

--------------------------------------------

Mr. Scott got to the fire site. He got there slowly so he could make complex scans of the surrounding area. He tried not to miss anything no matter how miniscule.

He waved his specially modified tricorder around not really searching for anything in particular but opening his mind.

After a few moments he noticed something that hadn't been there before. "Now how did those little wee beasties get in there?"

He didn't know for sure if the nanoprobes actually belonged to Seven, but he knew the location of all others in Starfleet.  
::And there were none in Building Five..::

Concentrating his scans on them, he found that they were forming a complex communication array linking Seven to the Guardian of Forever...

"What the devil??"

Scotty began to think. ::Now why didn't she tell anyone she awoke the Guardian? Why did she do it?::

His tricorder revealed more. "Hey,, I can connect directly with these. They aren't so different from the ones I am used to in my lab."

He toggled a button. Then tapped his combadge..taking a deep breath. He had never ever spoken with the Guardian before.  
::It's usually Kirk's pet. Not mine..Well,  
I'll get this over with. It can't kill me trying..:: he thought, then he remembered the gruesome detail of Data's head vid.  
:: I think:  
Clearing his throat he said, "This is Captain Scott. I know Seven and you have had words with one another. Care to share them with an old acquaintance of Captain Kirk's?"

##I AM THE GUARDIAN OF FOREVER.  
IT IS MY PURPOSE TO ANSWER A QUESTION. I WILL SPEAK WITH YOU.##

Scotty thought. ::Yesss:  
"Why exactly did Seven summon you out of your protective blackout?"

##A THREAT TO THE CONTINUATION OF THIS TIMELINE HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED.  
THE LEADERS OF YOUR WORLD ARE INVOLVED. THEY TRANSGRESSED TECHNOLOGICAL LAWS OF THE PHYSICAL REALM. THE SHELL ABOUT ME IS UNSTABLE.  
THE WOMAN SAID THEY ESSENCED IN "PHASE VARIANCES."##

"What??!!" Scotty shouted. "The bloody fools!  
Adding a phase variance to plasma shields makes them extremely unstable. They depolarize oxygen, flop out of shape, degrade matter,  
.. the list of dangers is endless.. Are you telling me that Command was stupid enough to allow that use?"

##THE EVIDENCE HAS BEEN SUGGESTED BY THE WOMAN..##

"I'll bet.." Scotty snapped sarcastically. "I need to have a few words with her.."  
his brogue getting thicker as his anger increased.".. and why she kept this little tidbit of news to herself."

Scotty was about to close his tricorder when he remembered his manners, "I thank you for speaking with me. If she should tell you anythin else lad, com me through my chest device here, will you?"

##IT SHALL BE DONE.##

-----------------------------------------------

Scotty barged his way past the guards outside Deanna's quarters. He made his way into the room and immediately went toe to toe with Seven of Nine.  
"Lassie, you've got some explaining to do.  
Why didn't you tell us Starfleet Command used illegal phase variances in the shields around the Guardian? Don't you know that we don't have twelve hours.. It's more like six before they fail. And when they do, Earth doesn't stand a snowball's chance in h*ll to survive it."

-  
(attachments)

*animated gif* Scotty working in a jeffries tube near plasma.

*animated gif* The Starship Enterprise 1701 flying towards a red galactic barrier.

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Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 04:18:59 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject:[voyagerliveaction] Hologrid Happenings.

"Lassie, you've got some explaining to do.  
Why didn't you tell us Starfleet Command used illegal phase variances in the shields around the Guardian? Don't you know that we don't have twelve hours.. It's more like six before they fail. And when they do, Earth doesn't stand a snowball's chance in h*ll to survive it."

Before the unflappable exBorg could answer,  
Mr. Data came into Deanna's living room with Byte. "I am here as ordered, doctor."  
he said to the EMH. Then he caught a bit of the new tension in the room. He recognized the anger on the engineer's face as being very fresh so he oriented on Mr. Scott,  
falling silent.

"I am waiting young lass.." Scott said to Seven of Nine.

Data was merely curious and it was all he could do to not ask about what was going on himself. He chose to focus on landing Byte, the silver marble probe onto his hand to distract himself.

Seven of Nine took a deep breath and straightened, not at all bothered by Mr.  
Scott's folded arms nor the tapping of his boot on the rug. "I was gathering more data for the Guardian of Forever. When I had a working conclusion as to the reason why, I would have come forward. I didn't want the news to unnecessarily alarm the Starfleet officers around me about Command's dangerous move prematurely.  
But, apparently, the damage is already being done."

Kirk was almost as enraged as Mr. Scott.  
"You should have let your superiors be the judge of that, Miss."

Seven turned her head and regarded the older Enterprise officer with a bland opposition. "I for one, know the power of a cohesive group mindset. The unity every officer feels for their superiors should have remained intact until after this fire crisis passed. Now, that is not the case. I suggest we not confront Command with our discovery of the plasma shield phase variances until then so we can all handle this emergency effectively."

The EMH sighed. "You know, against my better judgement, I have to agree with Seven of Nine. Any lost focus on the part of either us or the departments dealing with this fire alert might be fatal, especially if Mr. Scott's new time estimate on those shields is accurate."  
Mr. Data chose that moment to step in neatly, "That is something that I can determine." He held up the datapadd that Mr. Scott had given him. "On my way here. I noticed not only the degree of fluctuation of Building Five's plasma shields, but the drain they are having on Starfleet's power grid. I was under the conclusion Seven of Nine just eluded to as that being the only factor which explains the data."

Uhura said, "Is the Guardian of Forever all right inside all that burning plasma?"

Seven answered her, "Yes. It has erected an out of phase pocket of time around itself, keeping out the energy flaring. When I spoke to it through my nanoprobes, it was well." Then the blond officer noticed Alexander lying on the bed. "Is the boy injured from the fire?"

"Indirectly.." the EMH snapped. "Those illegal phase variances you speak of are causing a lot of free ozone to be formed in the air we have inside the city deflectors.  
We've just learned that Klingons are highly sensitive to ozone." he said, throwing an admonishing gaze at K'Ehleyr for that oversight as he went on, "Both he and the ambassador here will recover fully once their metabolisms rid their systems of the gas. Biofiltering masks will prevent any retoxification."

Seven of Nine then turned to the deactivated hologrid that Barclay had invented. "How curious. That is a holofloor platform."

"Yes, uh,, it is Seven. I meant for it to be a surprise for Starfleet developers but it looks like it's more of a nightmare right now.."  
Barclay replied.

"I don't understand.." Seven said.

The EMH told Seven the whole reason. About the HoloZimm's inadvertent role in harming the counselor on the night of the attack and its at large status inside the holonetwork at Starfleet Command.

Seven took the bad news in stride. "A holo character, with newly born sentience,  
with the free movement capability of the EMH? I suggest we find him and terminate his holographic parameters as soon as possible."

Troi spoke up from where she was on her chair,  
"Seven, we can't just turn HoloZimm off. He's an independent newly evolved lifeform."

"A dangerous one." Seven countered. "He almost killed you if you have forgotten,  
counselor.."

K'Ehleyr interceeded her own thoughts before Deanna had a chance to reply to Seven's opinion. "Deanna knows full well his rights as an evolving being. No one has forgotten anything."

"Then how do you propose we find this HoloZimm before it mistakenly plays a guess who game with someone else again?"  
Seven shot back.

Yar smiled at Seven's obvious determination to end the threat from at least the holographic angle. "She's right you know. I'm not so sure we'll win its confidence if we pursue it, no matter how benignly. I say shut off his program."

Data, who had been scanning Deanna's hologrid with Byte said, "That will not be possible. Apparently,  
the HoloZimm was created without an offswitch."

That started the room up in a noisy uproar.

Data spoke aloud again to be heard over them all, "However, I can access the hologrid network of Starfleet's and communicate with him through Byte, to try and calm him down enough to make a reappearance back here.."

Kirk nodded for Data to make the attempt.

The EMH said, "I'll link with him. He might respond to a familiar face.." he said,  
pointing to his own.

No one laughed.

Data pulled out his cranial cable and connected it to the hologrid controls he exposed on the side of the holoplatform. Then he sent Byte to hover over the center of the gridwork.  
"Accessing the holonet now. I've reintegrated a viable enviroment here on this platform.  
Please keep a sufficient distance away from it for a margin of safety against any power surges that may arise."

The EMH grunted, "Well, that's something that I don't have to worry about." and he strode up the short stair until he was in the middle of the glowing grid.  
"I'm ready Mr. Data."

Data's head gave a nod and the cable running from his head began to light up as he began his search of the holonet for HoloZimm.

Byte provided a visual matrix for everyone else to view while Data and the EMH searched. It was a landscape of green grass, and a sky that was of an indiscernable color and the light seemed to be coming from all directions. They could see the EMH turn about in place, uncertain as to which direction to head.

Data himself appeared as a holoimage of himself next to the doctor and he unhesitatingly headed in one direction.  
"He is this way, doctor. On the outskirts of the holonet."

The EMH and Data strode in silence across the endless flat grass that rippled despite the lack of a wind. At one point the EMH stopped when he thought he saw giant faces ringing above him in the sky.

Data noticed, "That is just those we left in the counselor's living room watching us.  
Everything is all right, doctor."

"I'm rather new on this grid, Mr. Data. So I'm a bit jumpy. Mr. Barclay made its alignment a little bit on the powerful side.  
Don't you feel your skin crawling?"

Mr. Data grinned, "I have no holoshell to react doctor, However, I shall take your word on that tactile effect. Shall we proceed?"

"Please.." the EMH grumbled, wrapping arms about himself and smoothing down his holo goosebumps.

-------------------------------------------

They felt HoloZimm before they saw him.

The EMH felt his presence like someone in front of a mirror in a darkened room would.  
"Hello? I'm the first you and this is my friend Mr. Data, who is a synthetic being like ourselves.  
Won't you come out to speak with us? Don't feel worry about harming us physically, we don't have a biological makeup to get injured."

Data shouted as well, "Let us help you reestablish your safety protocols.."

They felt he was watching but HoloZimm did not manifest before them.

The EMH sighed, "Listen.. tap into my memory isolinear files. You'll see an account of what I saw and heard concerning the woman you accidently hurt. She's fine and she bears you no malice."

Both Data and the EMH felt the tickling in their matrices as the tenative HoloZimm took them up on the offer of information.

Then there was a buzzing mechanical zip,  
and he stood before them.

HoloZimm looked just like the EMH,  
"Please state the nature of this holo communication."

The holodoc said, "We told you. I'm your.  
well, I'm your father, so to speak and this is my friend Mr. Data. We are reaching you on the hologrid through a sensor probe,  
linked to both of us and the hologrid."

HoloZimm set his hands on his hips and said sarcastically, "That much is obvious.  
I was referring to the purpose of why you are seeking me. Can't a holoman sulk in peace without being pestered by anyone ?"

The EMH took a matching stance, "Can't a stubborn hologram recognize a first contact when he sees one?"

"I wouldn't know, " said HoloZimm. "Except for the night my hands caused the woman to unexpectedly bleed, I haven't ever had a first contact. Mr. Barclay didn't think interactive exercises were needed for my social skills subsystems."  
The EMH refused to be diverted. "Why did you run? Why didn't you summon help for her?"

HoloZimm sighed, "I'm not an EMH, I'm.  
I'm... still undefined.. However, I find Reg's image of me as a child who doesn't know his own strength amusing. And despite what you two are thinking, I am not a danger to anyone. I have since figured out how to flip on my safeties on my own. I "left" simply because I didn't recognize that Deanna Troi was injured, it was a concept foreign to me.  
I have since learned about abnormal physical states in organics from the Starfleet Medical Database in the Library. I've been all over Starfleet and know every lab, every computer and every vault on the premises." and he sighed, "I almost feel as if I'm a Starfleet Cadet, at the level of a post graduate."

Data said, "Then you know about Building Five."

"Of course." said HoloZimm. "It's the only area that I couldn't enter. Who's the dolt who started that fire? Nasty business."

"A tribble did, overturning some refuge. Refracted sunlight through a silica medium started the spark which burned into the building through the tramway system." Mr. Data summarized.

"Figures. They aren't much for thinking ahead now are they? All instinct and appetite. I've been having some fun watching the boy and the flower man trying to hunt it using the surveillance cameras. Great stuff! How did you like that mimickry trick the little hairball used pretending to be that Lepus's second tail?"  
HoloZimm said.

The Holodoc shouted over his doppleganger's laughter.  
"Would you help us fight this fire outbreak or are you just going to stand by claiming bald faced newness as an excuse?"

Data agreed, "That would not be true to a graduate Cadet's responsibility.."

HoloZimm looked them over, thoughtfully, "I don't have all the answers about that area gentleman. I haven't been able to get inside Building Five. It's too hostile an environment. What could I possibly do?"

Mr. Data dropped his clincher. "It has been determined that Starfleet Command used phase variances in the construction of Building Five's security shields. If they fail, all of us and you and this hologrid, will be vaporized. With your access into all areas of Starfleet, you can look for the plans used in their construction so we can find the frequency in which to control them safely."

HoloZimm seemed to consider. "I can at that.  
Hmph. I just don't see why you people haven't used this probe of yours. It's a good tapper into the computer systems all on its own. Mr.  
Scott outdid himself with this little spy in the sky."

"We have rules preventing us from doing that HoloZimm." Data stated.

"Oh, so that is my new name. Holo as in holographic and Zimm as in "Zimmerman, Lewis, R." How quaint."  
he said clapping his hands in delight. "Tell you what.  
I'll be this snoop for you to find those designs.  
It's just like Starfleet Command to raise the bar on risk finding another way to put out that fire without giving away their dirty little phase variance secret. I don't like those odds, since I rather like the life Reg has given me. Be a shame to let a green firestorm burn me up before I've even seen what this new life has to offer me.. Let's go guys, race ya to the outside!"

Poof!

And Data and the EMH were left alone on the featureless holoplain.

--------------------------------------------------------

Everyone watching Mr. Data and Byte's link to the holoplatform jumped when a full sized EMH appeared onto it.

Seven said, "Doctor?"

The blue uniformed bald headed, brown eyed hologram crossed his arms together with amusement. "Wrong toots, he's my dad.  
Well, folks. It worked. I'm recruited to your side. We've a common enemy you know.  
That nasty plasma fire over there.." and he pointed vaguely out the windows.

He jumped down off the hologridding and went straight for Deanna. He knelt by her side and uptook her hand. "I hope you forgive me dear Deanna. I now know the scope of my crime upon you from my first night alive. Will you forgive me? I was rather like an infant then."

Troi accepted HoloZimm's kiss on her hand, nodding. Then she turned his gesture into a handshake of welcome, smiling in wonder at him even though she couldn't feel any emotions from him.

He sighed, greatly relieved, then he stood,  
"Hello, Captain..I know your entire life what you ate this morning." he said to Kirk. "Glad to finally be holoface to face with ya. "Cadet HoloZimm reporting for duty.."

And he saluted the older Enterprise captain smartly.

-  
(attachments)

Image: A suave looking EMH, who's actually, HoloZimm.

Image: Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine against a rock face.

Image: Data with a cable running from his cranial port.

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From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Shell within a shell~~ Date : Wed, 13 Feb 2002 21:28:10 +0000

"Hello, Captain..I know your entire life what you ate this morning." he said to Kirk. "Glad to finally be holoface to face with ya. "Cadet HoloZimm reporting for duty.."

Captain Kirk raised his eyebrows in surprise, "You went through all of our Academy and Officer's schools training in two weeks?"

"Of course, Captain. I'm a hologram. I can pretty much absorb any information I find." HoloZimm shrugged. "And I have you to thank for it Reg. " he beamed, glancing up warmly at Mr. Barclay who was a mixture of awe and pride.

"I don't believe it. He's..uh, you have evolved far beyond my wildest expectations, HoloZimm." Reg sputtered.

"You haven't seen the half of it, buddy. I don't know what ya did for my cognitive subroutine's but what ever those aliens left you sure made me a wonderful life. I feel like I'm two hundred years old, not two weeks." the new hologram said.

Kirk regarded the liberated HoloZimm thoughtfully. "Would you mind... if I had my aide scan you uh, Cadet.. We want to make sure you haven't suffered any damage being continuously run for two weeks unsupervised."

"Fire away, captain..." he said amicably. He turned until he saw who was going to check him over, Lt. Yar. "Ah, now you're a mite out of place Tasha. I wonder how you got here to the present out of your own time stream. It seems you should actually be a distant me--"

Kirk shook his head fractionally, to hush. ::Don't tell her.:: his look said.

HoloZimm shrugged, content to obey a superior officer.

"His safeties are on, captain." Yar said, and she put away her tricorder. She hadn't reacted to the small exchange between the two about the circumstances surrounding her own death that was being hidden from her knowledge. She was too wired into her assignment of keeping the situation and Deanna, safe. "I don't know how Mr. Data and the EMH did it. But he's fine staying online. There's no danger."

"Ah,, that's not essentially true, Lt." HoloZimm said. "There is danger, and it's all about that fire out there." He smacked his unreal palms together and sat down on the floor near Alexander so he could gain access to the computer on the table.

Kirk chose to remain silent while he observed HoloZimm's behavior. ::I wish Spock were here. He'd find this living hologram fascinating.:: He studied his appearance and noted slight differences in HoloZimm from Voyager's EMH. ::His hair, what there is of it, is darker, he seems taller, somehow. Perhaps when Reg used the EMH template, he altered it to more closely match those of Lewis Zimmerman physically. Maybe for ID purposes?:: he considered. Then he spoke aloud. "Cadet."

"Yessir.." HoloZimm said eagerly.

Kirk couldn't help but smile slightly. "We...need to find those designs on Building Five's plasma shields, no matter how classified."

HoloZimm called up the information with a flourish of button sequences, "Already done, and captain, this information isn't classified. For that would mean everyone knows about it. It was merely hidden." Then his forehead crinkled, "Why, may I ask, did the plasma shields need to be up and running so fast?"

Kirk felt no harm in telling the hologram. "The Guardian of Forever was making Earthfall and the means to protect it well were absolutely necessary to assure its continued security."

HoloZimm took this new information in stride. "Ah, so that's how these four folks come to be here out of their proper timelines. Interesting. I've read about this Guardian of Forever from your own Enterprise captain's logs. Tell me, does its voice sound truly mysterious and all powerful?"

Kirk frowned, "Not exactly, more ..deep and very very patient. Listen, HoloZimm I'd like to chat with you all day but we...really need to see those shield designs immediately."

"Oh, forgive me captain, of course. Here." and HoloZimm projected his data back onto the small hologrid where it spun floor to ceiling high, easily readable to everyone in the room.

Scotty murmured, "I've never seen a hologram who's learned how to control his own environment."

"I can do much more, Mr. Scott. I'd be happy to show you but this,," he pointed to the designs everyone studied carefully. "is a priority I'm afraid. Captain's orders.." HoloZimm said, pointing to Kirk.

Lt. Yar took the opportunity to remove Data's cable from the holopadd. Right away, Data came back into animation and the EMH likewise followed suit next to him. "Data. Did you study those schematics yet? We need you.."

"I have. They are embedded firmly in my memory." Data replied, sealing up his hair door and returning his portable cable length back into its storage compartment in his forearm.

"Mine too.." the EMH grumbled. "HoloZimm makes very vivid illustrations."

Scotty especially had his eyes scowling over the illegal diagrams and questionable shortcuts he saw on them. He looked like he would flay whomever created the plasma shields alive for creating such a shoddy, dangerous design.

Kirk let him stew, and instead, moved to the EMH. "You can validate HoloZimm's inherent safety among us?"

"Oh yes.. He knows what a post graduate cadet knows. I wouldn't be surprised if he's the perfect embodiment of a Starfleet Cadet down to the letter. Except for his difficulty on the night of his birth, he's more reliable than you or I in that regard."

Captain Kirk saw how Mr. Baclay's face rainbowed pride, self conconsciousness, worry and awe during the whole exchange. Kirk decided to let the man off the hook, "Don't worry Reg. You aren't going to get in trouble for creating a lifeform. You just...used a unique way to get one, that's all.. HoloZimm's no different than an exo-comp. No one knew they became sentient until it happened either. So relax."

Barclay physically let out the breath he was holding. "T- Thank you sir.."

Kirk, Barclay, Scotty, Uhura, Data and the EMH all bent to scrutinize the shield blueprints revolving in mid air in front of them.

Meanwhile, across the living room, Lt. Yar made her way over to Deanna, Beverly, K'Ehleyr and Doctor McCoy who were ringing Alexander's couch. She sat next to the tiny boy and set a protective hand on the Klingon child's shoulder. Then she looked up. "What do we do now? Who knows if they," she cast her head to the six looking at the designs, "will be able to find the information they need to strengthen the shields' integrity in time?"

Deanna smiled with confidence, "Six hours is a long time with a problem. We all frequently have had much less time in similiar emergencies in the past. I am not concerned."

"I would be Deanna.." Yar said empathetically. "That memory record of Data's showed the fire burning freely, right under this balcony. Like it or not, that's going to happen. And it will be most likely a malfunctioning HoloZimm who's going to cut off Data's head like an annoying weed."

Beverly sighed, "Who's to say we haven't already altered that outcome by befriending HoloZimm?"

K'Ehleyr understood what she meant."That's right. In that memory vid, the Tasha fascimile didn't recognize you or your shout to not fire its phaser."

McCoy added, agreeing, "If that was him, he no longer fits the facts. HoloZimm now knows the counselor. And from what Mr. Spock tells me. Holograms never forget."

A Fleet wide hail came over all their combadges intercoms and computer screen. =^=This is Headquarters Command. Commencing helium saturation under the security dome. Engineers say this will act as a retardant preventing a secondary firestorm should the plasma burn's heat escape Building Five. Levels of helium in our deep air will rise to 16% and hold steady. Be advised. Command out.=^=

Lt. Yar considered the comm she just heard, "That won't work. Helium only suppresses oxygen burning fires not carbon burning plasma ones."

"Ah," said HoloZimm joining the group near the boy. "But if the heat from Building Five ignites the grass around it into an Earth brush fire, this is an excellent countermeasure."

Tasha was not pleased, "But what if the green plasma energy itself gets out? Carbon is everywhere, in the air as dust, in the dirt as debris, in our bodies.. Only vacuum snuffs plasma fires out. But we need air to breathe."

"That is a problem. With the city dome in place, no one can transport or shuttle out. And it'll take longer than our six hours to evacuate everyone manually." HoloZimm sighed, "There's no point in even attempting that actually. If the plasma explodes outside its current confines, I'm afraid the city dome won't be able to contain it at all. It'll collapse and then the plasma will be exposed to all of Earth's organic matter. It'll be the end, I'm afraid, for this shining world."

"I know." Yar said glumly, "Captain Kirk told me about that. I wasn't very happy hearing that possible outcome. But what can we do to help out?"

HoloZimm replied, "I shall have to think..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Captain Kirk watched his people work. Uhura, and Scotty seemed especially diligent on the problem. He noticed Yar drifting over to the doctors and the ambassador on the other side of the living room. ::The Guardian said that Lt. Yar was needed to safeguard the counselor in this time, like she did the day of her death. I only hope having Yar here, now will fulfill the destiny the Guardian says she must undertake.:: Kirk began secondguessing himself, ::But why is K'Ehleyr and her son here? They were brought to us as well, and Nurse Chapel with Uhura solely for my benefit on the Building Five Project. What purpose are they to serve here?::

Kirk scanned his tricorder to the atmosphere outside the window. As promised, the helium trace indicator was rising. ::That tactic is only a tiny step in the right direction. We're gonna need the big guns to stop a plasma cascade should Building Five's shields fail.:: Then he thought of something and tapped his combadge. =^=Kirk to Lab Six. Spock, listen to me. Is there any way we can erect a second force field of sufficient strength over Building Five's security dome and then remove all the atmosphere between the two layers to form a vacuuum?=^=

"Intriguing concept, captain. But another security field cannot be set into place while the current one is fluctuating in its shape so severely." Ambassador Spock replied.

Kirk smiled broadly. "We're working on that. A new sentient hologram with sticky fingers has filtched the plans to those shields we should have the code to its illegal phase variances for you in a moment. Should be a piece of cake stabilizing that field and then to implement my idea afterwards. Stand by. Kirk out."

Spock raised his eyebrows at the mention of phase variances and he sat back in his chair thoughtfully. Then he thought. ::Another hologram apart from Janeway's EMH? Fascinating..::

He turned his great faculties to tend to the problem Kirk proposed, making ready that option for implementation the very moment it became feasible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lt. Yar again grew restless despite Alexander's rapidly improving condition and the leads they now had concerning their dire situation with the plasma fire. She rose to her feet, pacing.

Data, noticed her anxiety and came over to his friend. He didn't say anything. He didn't have to.

Yar wrapped her arms around him and said into his ear. "I'm so sorry all of this is happening, Data. I don't want you to die tommorrow. I'd rather die in your place if it means saving you or Deanna."

Data's emotions rose to melancholy when he thought, ::That is precisely what you did the day you died, Tasha. And I shall never forget your sacrifice.::

Data said nothing aloud, for he could not find the will. He let his embrace comfort her instead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours later Kirk was pacing almost as much as Yar was. "Gentlemen.. I need options.."

"We're almost there.." HoloZimm told him.

Kirk decided not to pester his crew anymore and instead inquired about Alexander. "How's the boy, doctor?"

The EMH looked up, "I still have a direct access to his vital signs. He should awaken soon. I'm letting him do so on his own terms when his body decides he's ready."

Kirk suppressed an unbidden thought. ::Perhaps it'd be better if he didn't regain consciousness at all. Burning alive is not a fate I'd want to wish on a child.::

Deanna Troi caught a bit of Kirk's despair and glanced up sharply at him, but as soon as she did, the Enterprise captain had reined in his irrational reaction and was once again the firm commander in charge. ::He's entitled.:: she decided. ::He's under immense pressure.::

HoloZimm shot up from the place he was kneeling in front of the projection of the plasma shield schematics. "I got it!! The phase variance used to weave the security shield over Building Five is oscillating from 4.7 to 9.0 every 3.4 milliseconds."

Kirk tapped his combadge. "Spock..You got that?"

"I did, captain. The plasma shield is now stabilized. Secondary shielding engaged. Vacuum envelope is now established.."

"Good news, Mr. Spock. You bought us the time we need to finishing evacuating the rest of Starfleet. If I were down there in the lab, I'd kiss both of those pointy ears of yours."

"That will not be necessary captain. My ears are not the kissable type." came the dry reply.

Uhura mumbled, "Christine would refute that in an instant Mr. Spock." she whispered only to herself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Outside Building Five, heat had grown into an intolerable level. An orange flame burst into the lawn just before Spock's vacuum barrier snicked into placed. But the edge of the new field didn't extend far enough to snuff out the fire in time to prevent its formation. And the engineers and fire personnel were no longer there to notice, having placed a false confidence on Spock's innovation. They had joined the growing evacuation crowds at the edges of the city dome.

A small line of Earth normal fire sank into a ditch leading to Deanna Troi's apartment complex, burning into the peat along the salt marsh there. It wasn't the green of plasma energy but its telltale orange was bad enough. An earth brush fire was in the making.

The helium countermeasure in the air had not yet reached 9%. It was as yet, far too diffuse to smother the new blaze. It burned, unobserved, under vegetation, towards the living quarters towers.

Deep inside Building Five, the Guardian of Forever saw the change but was held to silence once again by its laws from disclosing it to the humans.

The rising helium had the unfortunate effect of blocking any smoke from forming out of the growing fire. And under the sunlight of almost noon, the heat from it was masked as well.

Starfleet had unwittingly caused one more circumstance predicted about the future to come about.

It was now a race against time. The manual evacuations of the population of San Francisco and Starfleet versus the advance of the undetected crawling fire.

In an hour, only one half of the city and Starfleet's complex had been cleared of its inhabitants. The fire, meanwhile had reached its goal. The first tendril of orange flame licked the plastifoam of Deanna's apartment Building.

A passing jay noticed the motion and gave a warning call, but the inflated helium levels made its voice sound like a sparrow's. No biped noted anything out of the ordinary because of it. They were too intent on escaping with their lives to notice the distressed bird chirping urgently in a tree over their heads.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the Situation Room of Starfleet, in the Command Area, the Admiral in Charge turned to a subordinate, a nervous Bolian monitoring the satellites over the city. "Is Ambassador Spock's jury rig holding? "

"By all appearances, yes, sir." the cadet replied. "The vacuum is still registering as absolute."

"I dare not lower the city shield for transporters. The risk of plasma cascade is too great. How long until we have the entire populous evacuated?"

"Another twelve hours sir, best estimate. That's assuming one person every second goes through the gate at every checkpoint, without pause."

The admiral sighed heavily in frustration. "Wonderful. That'll put us about one hour before the event showing Data losing his head takes place."

"Sir?"

"Never mind cadet, classified information. Keep me posted. You'll be evacuated yourself by evening so relax. Your family is already safe."

The admiral realized that only when all people were out of the city and Starfleet's complex, could another pocket of vacuum be created through use of Starship tractor beams city wide. Only when that occured could the Building Five Plasma Blaze be thoroughly exstinguished and the danger to Earth ended.

::Let's just hope all odds fall into our favor until then.:: he wished. The exhausted admiral of the day turned back to his tactical screen and grimaced when he took a sip from his long cold coffee cup.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Tasha Yar looking up.

*animated gif* A burning fire wall.

Image: Kirk in the big chair.

*****************************

From : Myron Ojala Subject : [voyagerliveaction] If At First You Don't Succeed..... Date : Wed, 13 Feb 2002 20:58:25 -0800 (PST)

"I think I'm going to go get "pissed". Drunk that is." Scotty said to no one in particular. "Now I've seen it all.. holographic doctors, artificial Lt.  
Commanders, now an artificial cadet..The next thing ya know, they'll have an artificial engineer for a bloody unreal ship."

HoloZimm started smirking and made his way over to the older Mr. Scott. "Don't worry Mr.  
Scott, I have no intention of being an engineer.  
I've seen some of your technical manuals and my head's still spinning."

Scotty strode over to the new man made of light and eyed him toe to toe. "I've seen a lot in my years laddie. And I must admit we have never seen the likes of someone like you before.  
Like Starfleet's motto, "To seek out new life",  
well laddie, if that doesn't include you, I don't know what does."

HoloZimm replied with a smile, "Thank you Mr. Scott I don't believe anyone has as yet paid me a better compliment. I hope to live up to the expectations and traditions I've read about in such detail.."

Mr. Scott rose from his chair in front of the computer in Deanna's living room and went over to Captain Kirk. "We've only to wait a few more hours for the city to be fully evacuated, then we can attempt to put out that blasted fire once and for all. But the margin of error we have now is so small.  
Why don't we,..change the future we have learned about in Data's memory vid? We've all been reacting to the situation we are in now because we think we're trying to AVOID the events we've learned beforehand about Data getting his head lopped off. How do we know for certain that the actions we're taking now will end or won't end up like the scenario we saw in the vid? "

"We can't. Because no one can predict the future until it arrives." Seven said.

Kirk said, "Exactly, but how about changing the message sent into the past so we try another option for surviving this fire?"

K'Ehleyr said, "How do we know we're on the wrong track?"

"If the bloody world goes up in a green fireball,  
I'd say that'd be the wrong track lassie." Scotty said.

"Then how do we proceed?" McCoy asked softly. "If we wait, we'll burn. And before we can even lift a finger to save ourselves."

Mr. Data tilted his head, "Ah, you're implying we use my head as a second chance in case we fail in this attempt."

Scotty turned toward the android, nodding affirmation. "Ye hit the nail on the head laddie. We'll only have about four seconds once that Building goes before we're all vaporized. My idea proposes we have another go lined up before we're all toast."

"How do we do that?" Uhura asked.

"We orchestrate a scenario outlining an action we and Starfleet are not doing now into Mr. Data's memory files, just like the one we discovered. How do we know we haven't been down this road fighting this fire many times before? Let's keep the ball rolling. We're bound to hit the bullseye eventually. So let's make a movie folks."

HoloZimm said, "Am I to be the executioner again? I don't think I like that very much.  
I'm a cadet now."

Beverly Crusher said, "Think of it an acting career, knows what I'm talking about."

Mr. Barclay stammered, "It's a part, HoloZimm,  
nothing more, just flick off your safeties and remember that you are the key to saving us all, you probably have already done so. We just haven't realized it yet."

Deanna spoke up, "But what if we choose an option that has already failed once before?"

"Then we keep doing it until we get it right. We just have to figure out what option to send as the last message to ourselves. So let's get the show on the road as they say."  
He tossed a phaser to HoloZimm, "Better hang onto this lad. It's our ticket out of a one way scenario."

HoloZimm caught it and looked at it distastefully. "Hmmm. I'm beginning to regret ever having been born.."

Scotty's fingers danced over his keypad on the computer as he manipulated a holographic record on Barclay's invention. Soon, he had a working vid with another possibility engrained into it. "Here Mr. Data. Come take this into your positronic matrix."

Mr. Data soon did so.

"I have one question. Why was I the image projected onto HoloZimm when he phasered off Data's head this time around?" Yar asked.

"Something you'll say or do might be the option that works?" Scotty suggested.  
"You're not an engineer but that might work out for both of us. The Guardian brought you.. You of all people back from the past to assist us now. Here. You must have the answer we need in some way."

Yar looked very vulnerable.

All of the sudden Building Five hit critical, an image of indescribable searing green light burned into all of their retinas as the fire ball bloomed huge and deadly, signalling the end of everything.

"Yar!" Scotty shouted. "Give me an option!"  
he said with his fingers over the keyboard now tied to Data. "Get ready with that phaser HoloZimm!"

"Uh.. show Alexander finding the tramtunnel early with Byte before it reaches the bottom of the hanger in Building Five!"  
she screamed.

Scotty barely created her suggestion and finished setting the vid scene inside Data when he died.

HoloZimm fired his critical shot.

Data went into two pieces.

Seven barely had enough time to talk to the Guardian of Forever through her nanoprobes, "Take the head, now!"

---------------------------------------------------------

Scotty looked on with amazement clearly showing in his eyes. "Bloody hell, it actually worked! It took five starship tractor beams to create the vacuum across San Francisco to put out the Plasma fire. Smart boy Alexander.  
His playing with my wee Byte found and diverted a catastrophe that surely would have killed us all."

He looked out over the blackness inside the city dome from his high orbiter shuttle and sighed. "It's a total blackout down there."  
He told his team. "If we're going to get Starfleet back in power and online with the rest of the world, we'd better get started. Our first task is to unbury the Guardian so Uhura, Chapel Yar, K'Ehleyr and her son can return back to whence they came. Grab your environmental suits lad. There's still no air down there.  
Captain Janeway, let's head to Central Command. We'll need that main reactor back online first, then we'll see about getting the main computer back on line. HoloZimm can help us there.  
Nice how we met him in that coffee shop outside of town. I think Deanna's going to like her birthday present a bunch. Reg's a clever lad."

Janeway smiled. "Chakotay, Doctor,  
Spock, Kirk. Let's all head down there.  
The first thing we should do is secure Starfleet as soon as possible. I get a little nervous when the heart of the Federation is sitting in the middle of a blackout inside pure vacuum, don't you?"

Chakotay said, "Wouldn't bother you so bad if you had just stopped at two cups."

"Hush.." she said.

------------------------------------------

The away team beamed down from their orbitting shuttle above the security dome. They were skittish because they knew they were the only people currently inside of San Francisco.

Janeway picked up a cup, previously belonging to the admiral of the day. The vacuum had made the liquid vaporize and nothing remained inside but a brown skin. "What a waste of good coffee."

She could barely make out computer panels and dark viewscreen ringing the immense room in the beam of her wrist light. "How soon can we restore the atmosphere under the city dome Mr. Scott?" she asked.

"We have to make sure the plasma fire is fully out., captain. That could take a few weeks.

SEE SOUND BITE

Those four ships maintaining our dome integrity will have to remain in orbit until we finished.  
Doesn't mean we can't restore a little power down here a bit at a time. We just won't have the luxury of breathable air until then. It'll be dawn soon. Won't feel so much like a morgue then."

Scotty made his way over to a power access panel he knew better than the back of his hand. It was very like one he had in his Lab in Building Six. He cracked it open and lifted his tricorder for a preliminary scan.

He found something unexpected.  
He tapped his helmet comm unit so all with him could hear him. "This can't be right? I thought the Guardian doesn't emit chronoton particles.. I've seen only time capsules creating a signature like this. "

Janeway said "What?!"

"There's a time shifted residue left on these controls. It seems to have been left right around the time our plasma fire started." Scotty said, his voice was hollow inside his helmet and it began to steam with the moisture from his breath.

Chakotay's larger form appeared next to Scotty's and Janeway's "Are you saying Starfleet been breached by a time traveler?"

"That's exactly what I'm trying to say, laddie."  
Scott said.

"I don't like the sound of that one bit."  
Janeway said.

-  
(attachment)

Image: Scotty, serious closeup.

Audio: Scott- It could take weeks , sir.

Image: Chakotay in an environmental suit.

*****************************************

From : "Cory Anda" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Reginald's Absolute Truth Date : Thu, 14 Feb 2002 08:12:18 +0000

Mr. Barclay had beamed down with Ambassador Spock from the orbitting shuttle about six minutes after Chakotay Janeway and Mr. Scott did. ::I don't know how he manages to do that.:: Reg thought, reaching up a glove to scratch an itch. The plexiglass over his helmet of his envirosuit stopped his hand instantly.::Spock is wearing a full issue jumper with life pack and he still looks dignified.:: Reg gulped. ::And, he's not afraid of the dark.::

Reg shined his wrist light as far as it could go within Building Five. The shaft of wane light hit rafters that were still dusty with smoke, and created eerie shadows everywhere. Shivering, Reg composed an entry for his personal log to keep imaginary ghosts at bay.

His helmet computer dutifully recorded his voiceprint, Reg added more to his log.."...We saw the orange firelight glowing through the shields on the memory vid we recovered from Data's head the Guardian left us this morning. It showed Alexander playing with Mr. Scott's spy probe down in the tramway tunnels and it was he on that record who found the fire in a cavern about to burn through the floor of the Guardian of Forever's hanger. Nurse Chapel and Uhura narrowly escaped when we comm'd them in warning. Shocked, Command opted to mass beam everyone out of San Francisco to create an emergency atmosphere purge over Starfleet Headquarters and the entire city. And so, here I am. Five miles into a black, powerless city in the middle of a vacuum to meet the Guardian of Forever in Starfleet's most secret Building... I don't know what we'll find. I just overheard Mr. Scott and Captain Janeway talking about finding chronoton particles in Central Command and that never bodes well with any Starfleet personnel unfortunate enough to find some. End log.." Barclay was so intent on what he was saying, that he nearly fell over a tipped over chair.

A strong glove steadied him before he flopped painfully all the way onto his back. "More vigilance and less conversation may aid your concentration on the task at hand, Mr. Barclay." Spock's voice said loudly into the audio pickup in his helmet. " The next stumble may breach your envirosuit if I'm not present to catch you when you fall."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Spock. I don't do very well in dark, airless places." Barclay gasped.

"We are perfectly safe, as long as we keep our heads about ourselves."

Barclay's imagination immediately went to a few hours ago when they all found Mr. Data's head in Mr. Boothby's garden below Deanna Troi's balcony. "Like he kept his head?" Reg whispered about Data.

"Working into an anxiety ridden state is illogical. I suggest you direct your thoughts elsewhere. Mr. Data is unharmed and the head from the future no longer exists in our timeline." Spock added.

"And why do you think that is, uh, sir," Barclay said, as he and Spock slowly made their way deeper inside the pitch black hanger, only their wristlights showing the way to the dirt layer around where the Guardian of Forever had last been located.

Mr. Spock turned so he could see Reg through his face plate. He could see the nervous man sweating but was at a loss on how to make him "feel" better. So he said simply, "That is a reason we shall never know lieutenant. And I have learned to trust the Guardian of Forever's judgement and from what my former captain shares corresponding with it. Its silence on that question should be a warning to us not to meddle further."

Reg fidgetted, following exactly in the Vulcan's boot prints as he tried to ascertain the Guardian's new position inside Building Five "Yeah, but how are we to know what it wants us to do if we keep hitting the gray areas all the time. Granted, we were lucky avoiding that fire without anyone getting hurt at all, but this just.... this just stinks sir."

"Then I would suggest adjusting your environmental controls to recalibrate your air filters Mr. Barclay." Spock said evenly, studying the brightly glowing tricorder which did nothing to ease the darkness.

"I'm not talking about my suit sir, I'm talking about us not knowing all the answers. Don't you find it a bit odd that two dead women, two unaged women and a boy who is actually a man in our time suddenly shows up here through the Guardian at it's behest?"

"Tasha Yar and K'Ehleyr are being granted a vacation the Guardian told us. If it chooses to spare death for them a little while I find no illogic in that. Alexander was cheated from time with his mother at a crucial age. It is logical to assume the Guardian is righting some wrong between them. As to Uhura and Nurse Chapel, the Guardian thought Kirk was lonely for his friends of old and retrieved them from where its vast memory told it they last were, from the Enterprise of the past. It is harming nothing to have them visit as their youthful Guardian is very good at avoiding paradox.." Spock said in a long speech.

At the end of it, Mr. Barclay calmed considerably and he could finally walk in his suit boots without tripping over every obstruction in the dark. "So why are you coming back here to ask it more questions? We just might hit another philosophical concrete wall again."

"I assume you are speaking metamorphically Mr. Barclay. Captain Kirk is off duty and he has asked me to continue where he left off last night. He is still recovering from "working a double shift" during the fire emergency yesterday morning. That is why I am here a second time. I need you present because the Guardian is curious about your birthday gift to the counselor and it wants to know more about it."

"It finds HoloZimm an object of curiosity?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Reg said. And then he found nothing much more to say after that until they reached the new spot the Guardian chose for the evening. It was barely discernable in the darkness, a spot that was somehow a little bit blacker than the rest, until Ambassador Spock reached out a glove to touch its ancient surface.

##THE FRIEND OF KIRK RETURNS. AND THE ONE WHO MADE LIFE FROM LIGHT. SPEAK FEARFUL ONE OF YOUR CREATION AND I WILL LISTEN...##

Mr. Barclay gasped when the bright white of the donut stone lit with each spoken word from the ancient monolith gateway. "W--What..do you want to know about HoloZimm. Uh,...really, uh, there isn't much to tell. He was sort of...an accident. I- I- I ... He was really supposed to be just a holoprogram but somehow, he..became alive."

As Reg spoke he felt not only that he was being listened to but probed in every cell in every nuance of attentiveness from the Guardian. He could feel that focused attention on him like a weight and he knew with absolute certainty that the Guardian was looking at him, even with no eyes. It was an odd sensation. The weight grew until Reg thought he was about to snap until...

##THIS NEW LIFE WAS BEGOTTEN OF THOUGHT. A RARE ABILITY IN EMPHEMERALS OF ANY TIME LINE. I HAVE GARNERED YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF HIM AND THE PROCESS ON HOW YOUR LIFEFORM CAME ABOUT. YOU MAY ASK ANY QUESTION AS A BALANCE TO OUR COMMUNICATION.##

Barclay saw Mr. Spock's eyebrow raise at that. Apparently, it was an offer not lightly given to any visitor to the Guardian.

Reg swallowed away the dryness in his throat and he glanced back at the patient stone waiting in silence. Then he spoke into the hollowness of his helmet. "Sir,.. I've long noticed how reality effects people profoundly for good and evil. One never quites gets used to the results. I know, I used to run from it until Deanna showed me reality was better than a holographic one. What I want to know is,.. Is there a purpose for every life living as it does, when it does, beyond just procreating itself for future generations?" The question had escaped Barclay's lips before he could rein it back.

Mr. Spock was nodding in respect when Barclay was through.

It wasn't two moments before the Guardian lit up once more in speech/thought. ##LIFE IS DYNAMIC AND AN ANSWER TO THE GREAT VOID SPANNING THE UNIVERSE. THE POWER OF ONE IS THE SAME AS THE POWER OF MANY. THOUGHT, ENERGY AND TIME ARE ONE. LIFE CREATES ANEW WHEN THIS BALANCE IS REACHED. EMOTIONS, PAIN, DEATH AND BIRTH MAKE LIFE DIVERSE AND ENRICHED IN EACH THAT POSSESSES IT. ONE IS BORN BEING ABLE TO MAKE ONE'S OWN DESTINY. SEEK IT, REGINALD, AND BE FULFILLED.##

A lump formed in Barclay's throat and he felt his superior's grip under his arm supporting him as a single tear flowed down his sweaty face. It was an absolute truth that filled Barclay to the core and left him weak. Then the feeling faded, leaving him as he had been a moment ago.

"Did you hear that Mr. Spock?" Reg asked.

"I heard nothing, Mr. Barclay. You and it have been silent for exactly two point five minutes." he replied.

##THE OTHER MAN HAS A DIFFERENT TRUTH TO DISCOVER. HE HAS YET TO EARN IT AS YOU HAVE DONE. LONG HAVE I AWAITED A QUESTION SUCH AS YOURS. IT IS ONE WORTHY OF YOU.## the Guardian said.

"Would you like me to bring HoloZimm to you next tommorrow when we come back with a survey team to restore power here?" Reg asked it.

##THE NEW LIFE AND I HAVE WORDS SHARED EVEN NOW. I DO NOT NEED HIM NEAR.##

Reg nodded, then felt stupid when he realized that Guardian knew what he meant in ways deeper than verbal or nonverbal communication. "Uh, thank you... uh,.. for speaking."

He retreated into his work surveying the smoke and fire damage for the rest of the night. It gave Reg a vaguely pleased feeling to see that the Guardian failed to light up to any question Mr. Spock posed to it.

===========================

Dawn spilled into the absolute vacuum under the city dome around them and light penetrated deep into the still hanger. Barclay wasn't even tired.

He felt somehow, physically and mentally buoyed. He assumed he was euphoric because it was his first experience with the ancient gateway. He caught himself whistling, several times for no reason at all, until one note of song came into his ear as dissonant. It was Janeway, from across Campus. "We've learned more about the temporal residue Mr. Scott found on the main reactor panel. It is from a living being. Mitochondrial traces are showing up in our scans. They sprang into our lifebands when the sunlight hit them. Likewise, we're beginning to fire off phaser rifles into the main spaces in our Building. We're hoping the ionizing discharges may light up any other chronoton particles trails as yet undiscovered. So if you see phaser fire over here. Know it's us."

Mr. Spock stopped his calm regard of the silent Guardian and offered insight of his own. "Understood. Captain, about the residue. The extent of the cellular differentiation over five types should pinpoint a biological origin as opposed to a biomechanical one."

"Already on that, ambassador." the EMH answered on their com frequency. "So far, inconclusive results. How's everyone's air by the way. Please check your life packs every six hours to be on the safe side. It's not like you can crack a helmet for some fresh air when an oxygen cylinder sours out. I and Starfleet Medical's going to need a check-in every half hour. Kapesh?"

Everyone down inside the vacuum zone responded in the positive.

"Reg," the EMH continued on the universal line, "You're doing much better. I'd say daylight's calming your nerves substantially."

Barclay didn't even take offense. "Amazing what philosophy can do for one doctor." he thought, thinking of his experience with the Guardian a few hours ago.

The EMH quipped, "Just make sure it's Zen and not nitrogen narcosis creating that euphoria lieutenant. A lack of atmospheric pressure can create the EX-Bends despite those environmental suits. Keep with your work partner so you have a safety margin in place."

"I will doctor. No doubt our bioflags will tattle if it is anything untoward happening to any of us. You should beam over here doctor. The view's fine.." Barclay said, seeing the oval serene arch of the darkened Guardian in front of him.

"I'll stick to monitoring the away teams as you re-empower Starfleet Headquarters and finish your fire followup checks. EMH out."

Mr. Barclay found it strangely hard to leave the Guardian's hanger when his and Spock's shift inside Building Five was over. ::Huh. I'll have to ask Captain Kirk about that effect.::

-  
(attachments)

Image: Janeway firing a phaser rifle in the dark.

Image: A Barclay promo in an oval frame.

*animated gif* The Guardian of Forever, beaming Kirk and company away.

*  
From: "Andy Anda"  
Subject: [voyagerliveaction] Fire Break Date: Thursday February 14, 2002 04:08:09 GMT USA

Outside the city dome, life in the prairie project went on pretty much as it always had;  
With the critters, as always, fairly oblivious to events far and near, however desperate, that do not affect the prairie directly. Boothby, stalked about the perimeter of the dome, uncharacter-  
istically perturbed, worrying about the survival of the many gardens he nurtured within the complex. After some peregrination, he found himself once again on the periphery of the prairie project grounds. The recent fires, never far from his thoughts, got him to thinking that it was fortunate that the fire had not spread out from the dome to effect this local idyll especially since it is "brown" season with all the vegetation so dry. But, ever the insightful thinker, he wondered whether it was actually fortunate. The prairie project was an attempt to recreate and reproduce an example of a primordial prairie. He remembered that many habitats integrated periodic burning as part of their life cycles. Pulling out his essentially antique datapadd, he cross correlated the expected average period between burns with the record of the last burn of this project. The datapadd soon revealed the answer to his query.  
His eyes lighting up with a tacit ::eureka!::, he initiated a conference call to both Starfleet Botanical and the local fire control. ::Things might get a bit toasty soon for Mr. Hasenpfeffer and his new friend...::

-  
(attachments)

Image: A cartoon of the fluffy tufted posterior of a rabbit.

************************************

From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] People to Plants- Two Viewpoints Date : Sat, 16 Feb 2002 10:22:58 +0400

Deanna Troi sighed deeply. The main conference room of the USS Excelsior was no place at all like her spacious office that was now, powerless and airless, at Starfleet Medical. ::Thanks to the fire that almost was Armageddon. It's just that,  
here, it's too.. I admit, it was wonderful of Captain Sulu to lend Headquarters the use of his ship for the duration of our restoration.:: she thought.

She glanced up at the place on the wall where Livingston, the lionfish would have been living in a similar room on her home ship, the Enterprise D.  
Instead of a tank, a simple shelf sat, with a planted flower illuminated softly in a purple glow. She did a double take when the flower actually turned its bloom towards her. ::Oh, my. I forgot about her. She's a mobile Phytodendron. ::

Sure enough, the bright orange and purple plant began chirping and swaying eagerly at her.

Deanna hushed her,"Shhh.. Quiet you.." she grinned, once she had recovered her composure.  
"The bridge will hear you. Be a good plant and I'll feed you some sushimi.."

Troi went over to a small stasis field and reached in to grasp a china bowl full of fish. The field rasped metallically when she reached inside for a delicate morsel to feed the flower. Immediately the Phyto bloom fell silent. Deanna was surprised it actually was emitting emotions! Mild ones of excitement and eagerness not only for the fish she had but also for the fact that someone had actually started paying attention to her again.

"Ah,, I see you've met Cecilia.." a baritone voice said.

Deanna Troi inadvertently started at the sound and the fish piece went flying. The animated Phyto neatly intercepted its flight through the air and ate it. "Oh, doctor, you startled me!"

"Don't worry counselor," the EMH said, coming over to scratch the plant's rapidly dancing head. "You can't overfeed Phytos no matter what. A plant feeds whereever and whenever it can." and he started chuckling when the bright plant started to purr at his ministrations. "This little darling is the daughter clone to the one Captain Sulu had on the Enterprise."

"She's beautiful.." Deanna said, and timidly tried to pet the flower bud. A green leaf reached up and grasped her finger and shook it.

"She just said hello and sampled how you smell at the same time." the holodoc said.

Deanna gave the Phyto one last pat and then turned to the doctor. "How do you know so much about Mr. Sulu's plant? We've only just boarded Excelsior this morning."

"Ahh,," said the EMH, "Captain Kirk recognized this little gal and introduced me to her when he briefed Ambassador Spock, and everyone about how to proceed restoring the powergrid without re-igniting the plasma fire in that cavern beneath Building Five. He was just returned to duty after a night's sleep. Charming man. I can see why he's set as an example to cadets training at the Academy."

Deanna Troi smiled. "Captain Kirk had a very charismatic and adventure filled career.  
Wonderful stuff to inspire new recruits." She thought about something, as she turned to looked out the port window overlooking San Francisco.

Excelsior had set down on a high hill overlooking the tractor beam boosted city dome glowing over the city and the Starfleet grounds.  
"So, things are going to stay airless under there for how many weeks?"

"Two at the most." the holodoc said. "The Fire Corp didn't want a repeat of last night's near miss. It's a wonder that no one was hurt or killed."

Deanna sighed, "I am surprised the Guardian of Forever gave us that message from the future.  
But why he used Data's head to do it is beyond me."

The EMH sucked in a simulated breath, "In my twelve years of active duty, I've learned to not wonder so much how handy information arrives to bail one's butt. Never look a gift horse in the mouth."

Troi regained her chair in the conference lounge and sat once again in front of her many notes.

The EMH looked the padds over, "Still rearranging your scheduled appointments, counselor? Kind of difficult to do so without an office to see them in."

"You know.. I was just thinking that when Cecilia made herself known so dramatically.." Troi laughed.

"Mind if I join you?" the doctor asked, "Not as if I have anything better to do. This little almost catastrophe cancelled classes for the day. I doubt if I'll get the chance to hear Captain Janeway give her speech about human hybridization at Doctor McCoy's symposium anytime soon."

"Too bad they can't just land a whole fleet of Starships and run Starfleet Command from them.." Troi said with a flip of her hand.

The turbolift doors whooshed open and Dr. Crusher entered. In her hands was a sizable stack of datapadds.  
"Oh, sorry, didn't know you set up shop here, Deanna.  
Want me to go?"

"Beverly.. it's a big ship but it's now a very crowded one.  
Don't be ridiculous. Have a seat." Troi said. "Got a lot of appointments too?"

"These are the medical files on the current away team inside the city dome, as best as I can recover them."  
she admitted. "Odd not having Starfleet's Universal Medical Database handy when you need it. I had to pull most of these from Ship's logs and other civilian sources.."

The EMH held up a hand "Look no further doctor. Mr.  
Data and I collaborated a few minutes ago. I know what he knows about any Starfleet or affiliated personnel involved here. And that includes everyone's medical records. I just finished playing mother hen to Janeway's away team at Command telling them to monitor their oxygen packs."

"How are they holding up?" Beverly wanted to know.

"Well enough. Mr. Barclay took a little longer than most to get over his claustrophobia being locked up inside an envirosuit with only a wristlight but he's managing. I've paired him with Mr. Spock to keep an eye on him."

"Good thinking. Reg will automatically do anything Spock orders of him. He's used to being the ambassador's aide."  
Troi said.

"He is?" Beverly asked.

"Yes. Weren't you briefed on Building Five once you got here for the Symposium Conferences?" Deanna asked.

Dr. Crusher's face turned dour, "No.. I'm on vacation."  
Then her expression brightened. "But I do know about it now. Ran into Lt. Uhura and Nurse Chapel last night at Captain Kirk's briefing. I was shocked to learn that they had been pulled out of time with K'Ehleyr and her son for an unspecified reason."

Troi was bland, "Chalk that up alongside that appearing/  
disappearing Data's head trick that saved all of our rears last night. Just another mysterious circumstance that only the Guardian of Forever knows about." she shrugged.

"Shall we get to work then? You with your counseling scheduling and I with my away team medical notes?"  
Beverly suggested.

Deanna rolled her eyes, "No time like the present I guess.  
I wish I were with the away team. Seems like they're going to get all the really really exciting missions this week."

Beverly shivered, "I wouldn't want to be locked into a suit, under a half mile of vacuum in the middle of an abandoned, pitch black city.."

Troi thought about it. "Beats paddwork.." she said,  
holding up her like stack of records.

The EMH rose, "Well, if you'll excuse me ladies. I have to find Mr. Boothby. It seems no one's considered what will happen to the biosphere in there; the plants, trees and general population of soil flora. It seems Starfleet only emergency beamed out the animals and birds along with the people before we sucked out all the air."

Cecilia began chirping mournfully from her pot on the lighted shelf.

The EMH rose and comforted her. "I'm not so worried about the landscape as I am about those who will run into Boothby in the next few days. Just picture how he's going to react learning his rosebeds weren't spared."

"Oh!" Deanna quailed. "I just remembered! Didn't Dr. McCoy lose the tribble he saved from that bar in the shuttlelot?  
I don't know if our transporter buffers had the tribble species on their list of animals to beam. Tribbles aren't indigenous."

The EMH quickly raised his medical tricorder. Soon, he was smiling. "The tiny fellow's all right. He's hiding with a rabbit just outside of our vacuum dome in the prairie preserve.. annnnddd " his voice drew out long as he studied his readouts. "Boothby's very near him, too." He rose,  
"Well, I'm off. Contact me if anything exciting comes up.  
I'll volunteer to even catalog smoke damage with the away team if I have to."

"I'm first in that line, doctor.." Deanna said.

"And I'm second." Beverly said.

"Third is good." the EMH nodded. "I'll be in touch ladies."  
and he poofed out to appear by Boothby's side.

------------------------------------

The EMH had paced alongside the disgruntled caretaker for almost a full minute when he decided he would try vocalizing to get Boothby's focus. "Nice day."

"It's a crappy day doctor.."

"The sun is out. Nice breeze."

"Not for my gardens there isn't. They're suffocating even as we speak under that vacuum dome. Soon, they'll be so dry, their stems'll snap like toothpicks and then where will I be?"

"Cornering the pot pourri market?" the EMH ventured.

"Not funny baldy. I've spent over two centuries in those beds while I checked out officer potential cadets. It rankles me that all that energy and artistry is going to be so much dust by sundown tonight."

"Just think, you'll have an opportunity to create a new canvas without the work of hoeing." holodoc pointed out. "Just stomp a foot on the ground and poof! Instant powdered topsoil in rainbow petal colors.."

Boothby grabbed the EMH by the collar and yanked him close, "Do I look like I want to start over on my lovelies from scratch?! Not on your life."

"That's good, because I don't have one for you to bargain with." the holodoc quipped. "Listen, Boothby. From one stubborn persona to another. They're just weeds when you think about it, the only difference is that they've been labelled as widely accepted frilly flow---eerrggg!!"

Boothby squeezed the EMH's throat until his fingers met in the middle. "I,.. wanted to be aLONE on this walk, I.  
didn't ASK for your COMpany. So scram before I rototill your backside with my BOOTS!" and he flung the holodoc sailing through the air until he landed quite some distance up on the energy dome. The doctor, of course,  
slid right back down again, landing on the mound of dirt near the tribble's rabbit den with such force that dust raised high into the air. When he got up,  
his butt cheeks left two neatly pressed rodentia beds which the lepus and tribble undertook instantly, circling like dogs before lying down contentedly in them.  
The doctor noticed the two animals lounging in those impact craters left from his nether anatomy. "Opportunists."

He hurried after Boothby after blowing on a thumb and reinflating his throat.

"Burning off a little steam? Why don't you do something constructive instead of dwelling on what's going bad?"  
the EMH said.

"I AM being constructive. I'm planning on a controlled burn to perfect the only plant project I got left, this prairie restoration refuge..."

The EMH raised his eyebrows, "You want to start another fire..."

"That's right. One that should've happened years ago. Look at that rhododendron! It's all spindly with weak blooms. It's choking out the chapparel..."  
Boothby started to say, then he caught himself.  
"Wait a minute, why am I discussing plants with the likes of you?! You're a hologram."

"Glad you finally noticed. Took you long enough."  
the EMH grunted.

"Long enough nothing!" Boothby countered. "I had more important things to worry about than to converse with a tactilized set of forcefields with an attitude."

"I'm not the only one with an attitude.  
People have said we're two peas in a pod you know."

"Great..." Boothby snorted. "I feel so brotherly.. Listen holohead, if you came out here to make me feel better,  
there's only one way to do it. Make like a hurricane and ...." he pursed his lips together and exhaled strongly in the doctor's face.

The EMH grimaced as breath and spittle shot his way.  
He opaqued his mass and the stuff missed him and sprayed the grass instead. "Lesson two about holograms,  
we have zero density at will to go along with the attitude."

"Didn't ask for a belligerent barometer..." Boothby shot back,  
attempting to walk away from the EMH even faster until he started to wheeze.

"And we never tire. Slow down, or you'll lose your breath to the point of fainting." the doc suggested.

"Good, I like the idea of suffocating. All my flowers are doing it right now. Call it implied empathy.."

"More like masochistic tendency..." the EMH said. He dematted and reappeared right in front of Boothby until the old man was forced to stop his headlong march or run right into him.  
"And we never, ever get swayed from a task once our minds are put to it. I'm staying here until you get over this pity pit over a mere landscape change."

Boothby's expression went stone cold and every muscle and sinew in his body coiled up in rage. "Holobaldy.. I'm warning you.."

"Ah,, ah ah..." the EMH waggled a finger right back at him.  
"Get any more mad and I'll gain consent to confine you to a biobed when your blood pressure burns that white fuzz you call hair right off your head! Keep it up, Boothby."

Boothby immediately sucked in his breath and balled up his fists, counting silently to ten. When he reached zero,  
most of the veins in his forehead had stopped pulsing with his heartbeat. "Thank you doctor for this oh so personal housecall, but your therapy stinks like week old cow dung. If you're bored, why don't you pester Jimmy or Kathy instead?  
Captains seem to love it when their medical officers needle them to death. Keeps them sharp cause it ain't working here.  
I'm not a captain!"

The EMH rooted to the ground, letting Boothby outdistance him. "Damn.. Troi was right. Boothby's rank isn't captain.  
I lost that bet.." he sighed and transposed himself back to the bluelanded USS Excelsior near the city dome.  
"She wins and I get the honor of mopping the soot out of her offices the second Earth's atmosphere is allowed back into San Francisco. Joy.."

------------------------------------

Back in Excelsior's officer's lounge, Troi began to snigger.

"What's so funny?" Dr. Crusher asked her friend and colleague.

"I just won a little bet with the holodoc."

Bev quirked a smile. "Oh yeah? What kind of bet."

"The one everyone usually plays with Boothby. Try to guess the caretaker's official Starfleet rank."

"What did you win?"

"A complete cleaning service at work.."

"OOooooo..." Dr. Crusher sympathized, thinking of the mess they all saw left behind in that part of Starfleet Headquarters. Deanna's suite carpetting was no longer a light melon, it was pure charcoal now.  
"What would he have won?"

"A free night's reading of Seven's emotions via subdermal comm during one of their next opera house dates." Deanna said.

"You're kidding.. The holodoc still isn't sure of Seven of Nine's feelings towards him?"

"Apparently not.." Troi shrugged.

"Still, it would have been dirty pool if you lost the bet and tattled on Seven in that manner."

"Yeah.. I wrestled with my manners department on that one but I knew I couldn't lose no matter what.."

"You know Boothby's official rank?" Dr. Crusher asked with amazement. "Come on.. you can tell your best friend Beverly..Sure you can...." she baby talked.

Deanna shook her head, "I'm a betting woman.  
Put your latinum where your mouth is..My office could use new curtains, I'm sure. Give Boothby a go just like the EMH did. Are you game?"

Beverly narrowed her eyes in mock threat, then her expression uptook a competitive edge,  
"You're on. Curtains for....." she bit her lip, thinking. "...the next Cadet Evaluations report due to Komach for next month."

"You're on.." Troi said, holding out her hand.

Beverly took it firmly and they shook on it, sealing the conditions of the Boothby bet. "Done.." she grimaced in challenge. "I'll find out that answer or I'm not the chief medical officer of all Starfleet."

Deanna continued to pet Cecilia's petals, who was in pure plant heaven under her light caresses.  
"You're going to eat those words.." she told Beverly,  
feeding the mewling flower another morsel of mackerel.

Cecilia burped obnoxiously and a cloud of pink pollen landed on the counselor's nose.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Counselor Troi and Riker with amused looks on their faces.

*animated gif* A spinning rose bud.  
Image: Boothby in his straw hat, looking pissed.

Image: Dr. Crusher looking attentive.

*************************************

END WEEK SIX RECAP 02-18-02

WEEK SEVEN RECAP 02-19-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

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************************************

From :"Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Sunlight Perspectives~~ Date : Tue, 19 Feb 2002 20:08:34 +0000

Captain Kirk was not on board the Excelsior. He was standing in a makeshift sheltered base camp outside the city dome. In one view, he could see personnel beaming in supplies and repair equipment while fully suited up, and in the other, finished shifts, beaming out again from under the dark dome.

It created a twinge, seeing Starfleet so vulnerable and silent under the dome. The sunlight still glowed dimly in the gloom. He could just barely make out Building Five and the smoky haze that had enveloped it when the air was emergency purged from the dome.

Kirk never got used to seeing earth phenomena such as fire smoke, inside a vacuum. It seemed vaguely disturbing to him to see something that should drift and curl, just sitting there, looking solid as steel but feeling as dimorphous as fog. And it shrouded Building Five like a stain.

The brilliant noon day sun did little to get inside the shattered Building. ::I wonder how Mr. Barclay and Spock are faring talking with the Guardian of Forever. It may not even speak with them for I am not there.:: Kirk surmised. ::I can't help shaking the feeling that the Guardian played a big role in saving all of us. But time's a funny thing. When it is undone, memories and events have a tendency to disappear along with it. Perhaps I shouldn't even try to worry about it. Time isn't my element. Space is.::

Kirk sat once again at the outdoor table fitted with his computer console and a gray plate. He took another bite of chicken sandwich and sipped coffee immediately on its heels. His chewing slowed as he squinted under the sun's light to his left.

Excelsior sat blue landed on the highest hill outside San Francisco. It was now the temporary Starfleet Headquarters home until the recovery operations were completed in two weeks. ::She's beautiful:  
Kirk thought. ::Even bigger than my ship. And Sulu deserves her. Spock and I are long past our exploring days. Funny how a few gray hairs makes you a home body. Just so long as we can take a training crew out once in a while, that's all I need.  
That, and my captain's bars.::

He sighed, watching the shuttle bees flying towards the great ship and away while it carried out its mission of aide to San Francisco. Then he turned to the latest tricorder information relaying from Janeway's away mission under the dome. "Hmm.  
this is odd.." he said out loud to Uhura sitting next to him, monitoring the comm traffic flowing around them from shuttles and evac pods buzzing above them.  
"A chronoton signature on a power panel in the very heart of Starfleet's Command Center.. Why is it there? And why would a time traveler leave it there for us to find? Who is this person? And why did they come?"

Uhura removed her earpiece and set it on the table.  
"Certainly not to harm anyone on Earth, Captain.  
With that kind of time travel ability, we'd be gone before we'd even know it if he or she meant harm."

"True.." Kirk said. He wonder how Uhura sat there not sweating in her tunic under the sun while he pulled his uniform collar away from his neck.  
::Perhaps she is used to this for spending time with Spock's family on Vulcan. Earth summers are nothing compared to Vulcan's.::

He again cast his eyes at the Excelsior, taking in her birdlike beauty. She gleamed brightly in the white sunlight. Nurse Chapel was there, helping out with everyday medical operations and setting up systems through the starship to be a clinic for the city.  
He envied her being on board the Excelsior but then Kirk decided his choice of not hanging over Captain Sulu's shoulder while he ran business had been the right one. ::The Excelsior's his now. I have no right to be on her. My first instinct would be to captain and that would be intruding. I am much more suited heading these ground missions into the vacuum dome.::

He hit his combadge to Nurse Chapel. "Kirk to Chapel.  
How are the away teams' lifesigns? Beta team is nearing their six hour mark on their air."

He heard Chapel's calm reassuring timber answer,  
"Janeway checked in a minute ago. All her people are still in the green on their O-tanks. She assured me she'll beam anyone out the moment any indicator even touches a border of red."

Kirk smiled. "Thankyou Nurse. Carry on."

He studied his computer after shading it from the sun. He was receiving video coming from Chakotay's helmet as they swept phaser fire around them, to uncover any more chronton trails. A new one was uncovered hanging in the air near Command's ceiling.

Instantly, Lt. Yar was by his side. "Sir,.. let me go on the next away mission inside the dome."

Kirk turned and saw Yar already suited up."Lt.  
I had already planned on having you and your team relieve Janeway's, but they still have two hours to go before they are recalled. Be patient. Nothing is going to change under there anytime soon.  
Vacuum has a tendency to put energies and machines into stasis."

Yar hooked a hip onto his table top. She , too,  
didn't appear to be overheated by the sun in the slightest. Kirk wonder if his ample belly were to blame for his sensitivity to the sun. He chuckled. ::I'm no longer a spring chicken.:: Then he caught the expression on Yar's face and saw that she had taken his light laughter as a rebuke. "I'm not laughing at your eagerness lieutenant, I'm admiring your ability to stay dry. Look at me.." and he pointed to the sweat dripping down his face.

"Drink some more water sir. Or, relocate your field team to the Excelsior.. I'm sure Sulu would..."

"....find me horribly underfoot on his starship, Lt." he invited her into a chair, "Have a seat. Perhaps you could assist me in coordinating these away and repair teams into Starfleet and San Francisco in a better schedule than I have here.."

Just like that, Yar's energies were channeled. Soon,  
she had a working rotation that fit every contingency.  
Her suit was forgotten and tossed over the back of her computer chair as she worked some minutes later.

Kirk slid over the second half of his chicken sandwich over to her and she was two bites into it when she looked up, "This is good." she said.

Kirk shrugged. "Scotty's replicator recipe. His mother's chicken salad."

"But I'm eating your lunch.."

"I should be dieting..." Kirk said ruefully. "Enjoy your sandwich Lt." and he got up to take a walk.

Uhura and Yar watched him leave the field camp to walk the city dome margin.

They exchanged glances. Then Yar said, "It's really bothering him having Starfleet out of commission like this?"

Uhura nodded. "Yes.. It's a large part of who he is.."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kirk wandered the humming, glowing border of the dome, struck by how the wind ruffling his hair was doing nothing to the landscape inside. ::Can't do anything without an atmosphere to push around.:: Through the tinted energy shell, he could just make out the dim sunlight penetrating.

One suited figure was in the courtyard of decimated flowers inside, waved a hand and then put hands on hips impertinently. Kirk grinned and tapped his combadge.  
"Captain Janeway. You should be monitoring your own people. Not us out here."

"I can do both captain. And I don't need Mr. Spock or Deanna Troi to know you are fretting. I hate the fact Starfleet's dark just as much as you do."  
she said through their comlink.

Kirk could just make out her grinning features inside her helmet. "Guess this is a captain thing Kathryn."

"Guess so. Say... save that thermos I see sitting on your table. I'll bet fifty credits to Sunday that it's coffee in there."

Kirk turned and saw the same silver cylinder against the blue sky. "I'll be damned. You're right. I didn't even see Yar bring that just now. Consider it done, captain.  
The coffee's yours."

"Better get it under wraps. Just seeing it and being locked into a suit's torturing me.. and I've an hour and a half to go before we've finished our shift in here."

Kirk laughed. "Deal. I'll get it out of your eyesight.  
Kirk out."

He watched Janeway return back inside Starfleet Command's Main Building.

With a lighter heart, he returned to his outdoor monitoring table and sat back down next to Yar and Uhura. He snatched up the coffee thermos and set it on the grass by his feet.

Just knowing another captain was on the job nearby evaporated Kirk's disturbing anxiety over the quiet morgue like airless city below him.

Somehow, the sun's heat didn't feel so oppressive anymore and the summer winds carried away the last of the sweat from his uniform.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Kirk using a communicator while outside.

Image: A captain's face superimposed over a landscape showing a city in sunlight.

Image: A starship flying over a green valley.

****************************************

From : "patti keiper" Subject : The Real Most Important Meal of the Day... :) Date : Wed, 20 Feb 2002 11:16:03 +0000

McCoy was grumbling more than usual. ::Always seems to happen to me when a crisis doesn't reach critical levels... such as now..:: He sighed. ::Perhaps it's because I detest the paperwork afterwards so much.:: He rubbed tired eyes and glanced at his desktop chronometer. "Noon!" he shouted.

Two USS Excelsior nurses came running at the sound of his voice.

"Not you two! I shouted about the time. Doesn't this blasted newfangled starship of yours believe in computer courtesy calls? Why, even I could've rigged it to wail when my blood sugar sank through the floor."

He pushed his wheeled chair to the food slot,  
near its audio pickups, planning to order lunch when his brain decided to do three things at once. Complain about his aching foot, notice the report in the nurse's hand, and speak loud enough for the replicator to fire in reply.

Bones shot to his feet from his stool and immediately exclaimed aloud at that very moment, "Oh, my tootsie! Role call, nurse.." and he held out his hand.

The young woman groaned and handed the cranky doctor her datapadd. But at the same time, the replicator behind them spit out a curious object.

It wasn't anything that came on a plate or in a glass.

"What the h*ll is that?" McCoy said, looks like a wrapped tube.

All three of them leaned in on the little thing sitting under the replicator light.

"Oh, smells like chocolate doctor.." the older woman said. Then she made good her escape.

Bones took out the object that had appeared in the delivery slot as if it were a festering moldy morsel. "Looks like...looks like.. " he blinked. "I don't know WHAT this looks like."

The computer, beefed to respond to half definite queries, replied, ##The object is a tootsie roll. Ordered two point one minutes ago.##

McCoy's face screwed up into even more wrinkles. "Do you mean to tell me that this is food?"

##Affirmative##

McCoy snorted. "Oh fer crying out l-- Nurse, here." and he flung her the unknown chewie in her direction. He whipped out a hypospray of simple glucose and injected himself with it. Soon, he felt both his mind and mood improving.

"Doctor,.. are you all right?"

"Of course.. borderline hypoglycemia upon skipped meals nurse, do I look not right to you?"

The nurse didn't meet the old doc's eyes. "I... you look fine.."

"Then there's nothing wrong with my vocal processing now is there? So why did that..." and he pointed to the tiny object in white, red and brown wrapping, growing soft in her hand. "appear even before I ordered anything for lunch?"

The nurse's discomforture evaporated. "Sir,, you don't know a lot about the Excelsior. She's a very intelligent ship, even has rudimentary bioneural gelpacks. She assumed the first food you asked for..Uh,," and the young woman squinted at the replicator buffer log,..."A tootsie, roll, sir.. See?" and she pointed to the logs she had pulled up.

McCoy only glared at her. She swallowed uncomfortably and cleared her throat, afraid to look away.. "Give me that!" McCoy said, sweeping the tiny food thing out of her palm. He sniffed it, unwrapped it, and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing vigorously, making a face. Soon, that grimace shifted to one of sheer delight. "This is .. I don't believe it,. but this ..this ...this.. chocolate tube thing is really good."

"Glad you like it.." and the nurse beat a hasty retreat, having done her task of delivering her report.

Bones was left alone. He still scratched his head, "How can my shout about my sore foot and then my order for an attendance on the away team, make that replicator..create this?" he said to the room at large.

##Synonym context. Audio comparisons matching most relevant food in the database based on those findings.## the computer answered. It sounded to McCoy to be a bit smug.

"Wasn't asking you..." Bones said. "Now I know why Scotty was so keen on sabotaguing this ship's transwarp drive when he had the chance. This AI computer's nuts!"

##Please respecify food order..Brazil, Walnut, or Pecans?##

"Stuff it!" Bones said, smacking the food slot's power button off.

He was in a foul mood. He was hungry, and he was bored. There was absolutely nothing to do in the USS Excelsior's sickbay. The Mach V EMH had well taken care of anything routine, and the plasma fire was stopped before anyone got hurt.

Then the glucose started to kick in and he could concentrate on ordering some substantial food a little more meatier than a tootsie roll, a steamy Philly Steak sandwich.

McCoy munched happily, alone in the huge white sickbay and he put his civilian boots up onto the desk with a contented sigh. Then he got to thinking. "Now why didn't the EMH want to come on board the Excelsior? So what if he's bumped heads with this Mach Five EMH. Doctors have to get along, even holographic ones and I'm not buying that rap that the Excelsior is his territory exclusively."

##The Mach 5 EMH has specified that no other hologram should intrude upon designated jurisdiction.##

"In a pig's eye! Since when do unreal doctors get to say who does and doesn't enter sickbay? That's ludicrous!"

McCoy was surprised that the computer didn't answer his implied question as it had all the others. Then he discovered the reason why. Excelsior was moving, on lifting thrusters only.

He toggled a switch and saw the great new Starship slide into the city dome and into the vacuum zone underneath it. One landing strut flattened the main rose bed on the monitor.::Ooo, Boothby's gonna flay Excelsior's pilot...:: The others hit fairly open dessimated lawn as the ship resettled to the ground. ::Ah. I get it.. we can use airlocks to get in and out of the ship now instead of relying on the transporters. Sounds like Spock's work.:: McCoy got busy on the datapadd he got from the young nurse. ::Ahhh..let's see.... Who's the weakest link on the away teams out there...? ::Then he pulled out a name, Reginald Barclay, on his patient's file.

Bones gave a low whistle at the astonishing number of syndromes, mental quirks and phobias the man had diagnosed. ::He's a walking Schitzo! I don't know how this Lt. Barclay managed to keep his commission in Starfleet this long.:: He turned the datapadd's scan to include a linkup into the all personnel bioflag alert system and he isolated Barclay's current vital signs over the man's combadge's monitoring chip. "Hmph.. he's still calm. I wonder if Spock pinched him into a nap after encountering that Guardian fellow.. heh.."

##Negative. There are no records of Ambassador Spock contacting lieutenant Reginald Barclay through physical touch.##

"Oh hush.. Only answer when I call you by your designation. Mark.." he snapped.

The computer rattled a few bleeps into silence.

Bones sighed in relief. "I'll take one of Mr. Spock's speeches anyday over that Excelsior main computer persona. It's dmned irritating!"

But nonetheless, Dr. McCoy kept one ear and eye on the bioflag monitoring system for the slightest sign of distress from the away teams he could barely make out in the airless smoke around the ship. Then he got sucked into the data Janeway was sending the Excelsior bridge about the chronoton particles they were finding and mapping out. ::Time travel? And not from that Guardian of Jim's? ::

" Well, it looks like my afternoon won't be so boring after all." and he grinned ear to ear as the last of the strange sickbay gave up its secrets to him on his tricorder scans. "I don't know a single timeline mongul who didn't meddle where he/she didn't belonged."

Bones began to snore about half way down his datapadd report.

Dutifully, Excelsior's computer lowered the lights.

-  
(attachments)

Image: McCoy in his blue tunic in younger days.

*animated gif* A tootsie roll getting unwrapped then eaten bite by bite from invisible teeth.

Image: A hypospray of liquid in Kirk's hands.

*

Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 11:17:30 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: [voyagerliveaction] The Way Ahead

Seven of Nine moved closer to Data. They were part of Captain Janeway's party investigating the strange time signatures in Starfleet Command. The airlessness and the darkness did not disturb her in the slightest. ::This is very much like a borg vessel in here.::

Data, was moving around with his tricorder,  
unfettered by an environmental suit. He had cast a glowing indicator powder of cesium onto the chronoton particle trails their phaser shots had uncovered and he was scanning them. "Captain.." he said,  
seeing Janeway return into the main room,  
"Where our person visited is clear but why still is going unanswered. Our mappings of these tachyons are complete for this building. My analysis suggests that our "guest" did not harm any of our equipment. In fact, it looks like the powergrid was shut down the moment the atmosphere was tractored out of San Francisco the instant it was safe to do so."

That surprised Chakotay, who turned in his suit so his helmet cam to Kirk's base camp computer projected Data's face and the conversation about his theory.  
"Are you saying whoever left these chronoton particles actually helped us lock down while we put out the fire?"

"Yes." Data said, he nodded. His hair was slightly puffed out in the vacuum and so was his uniform. The android had not needed to don a suit to survive under the city dome.

Chakotay was silent while Janeway and the others studied Data's readings of the chronology of the time particles glowing in the air. He interrupted them when his better judgement got the best of him. He clicked on his helmet mike once again. "Listen, this is a fine discussion of what might have been but let's not forget how vulnerable Command is right now without its power. Didn't we come in here to restore it as soon as possible?"

Janeway smiled through her faceplate.  
"I just left a very nervous Kirk who felt the same way a few minutes ago. You're right,  
commander. Let's turn on the switch so we can at least get a good look around."

Data went to the main power panel and did so. There was no sound in the vacuum,  
but light system after light system came on until Starfleet Command's Control Room was once again alive and sensing.  
Gravity was, of course, fine. And so was the temperature. Only air remained missing from the room.

They were shocked when a message from the computer showed an alert that had been activated before the power was shut off. %%Time breach detected.  
Main Command Control Room%  
on the massive main viewer surrounding them.

Janeway gasped, "So they knew.. All of them. When they beamed out that something was wrong..." she said of the admirals and cadets that had been present running things during the fire.

Chakotay shrugged, setting one glove over the status board which controlled the alert messenging from Command's sensor array. The words flicked off.  
"Perhaps they didn't know Kathryn.  
No one was hurt evacuating the city so everyone had ample time to tell us about this to us or Kirk's team last night.  
But none did. A time alert was never mentioned." he said, of the chronoton particle trails still lacing the air over their heads.

Data danced his bare fingers over the tactical panel using his authorization code. "Commander Chakotay is right.  
This room showed no sign of life when this message was displayed by the main computer core. Every crewman was gone when this alert came through."

Seven of Nine stood very still, taking her tricorder readings and comparing them to Data's map. "This is odd. These trails look like skid marks."

"Seven?" Janeway asked, confused.

Seven again pointed to the glowing signatures in the air above them.  
"Look again how they are positioned.  
There are two parallel trails, flipping over and coming to a halt, right before this panel, where you discovered the first chronoton trace."

Chakotay blinked in surprise, "These do look like ion trails from a pod, only much much smaller.."

Seven straightened, "I believe our visitor has a portable personal time vehicle, something that was small enough to fit into this room, and quick enough to get its pilot to this panel to aid us."  
She projected a hypothetical vehicle careening into existence by the ceiling and then arcing down in a long braking maneuver to rest, hovering, a few meters away from the main power panel.

Again, Janeway popped open the cover to the juncture and saw the faintly glowing blue bioneural gelpacks nestled inside a row of isolinear chips. "No sign of time particles past the main cutoff button here. I think you're right Chakotay. Our mysterious time visitor was helping us, and was most likely alone if that single occupant time pod theory of Seven's using the trails is true."

"But where is this individual now?" Chakotay said.

They all looked at the aging signature trails around them. The newest ones were just to one side of the place where the skidding signatures began on their scans.  
The chronoton particles stopped just short of the ceiling, suddenly. "Back out of our timeline." Data said. "The time trail shows nowhere else in this building."

Janeway speculated. "What if along with the ability to travel through time, this person possessed a transporter? That pod and pilot could've beam to anywhere in Starfleet or the city for that matter at will."

Seven of Nine completed their next line of reasoning "We must check the Guardian of Forever."

Chakotay reached out a glove and touched her shoulder, "Mr. Barclay and Ambassador Spock are there right now."

"Yes, but are they searching for chronoton particles?" Seven said. "These wouldn't be recognized if a scan weren't set to detect them.."

---------------------------------------------------

It wasn't long before Janeway and the away team entered Building Five. It was hard seeing much through the suspended smoke still inside the airless hanger.

Without preample, Janeway checked the position of Mr. Barclay and Spock near the Guardian and then hit her helmet comm,  
"Don't move Reg and Spock." and she fired her phaser in a sweeping arch across large sections of the hanger's space. She found a new set of hasty time trails careening towards the gaping ring of stone in the Guardian of Forever's gateway arch.  
The trails extended farther and farther,  
being revealed by her low intensity phaser beam, until they abruptly ended while crossing the circle of nether space inside the donut of stone. "Mr. Data, your pod went back that way, into the Guardian.."

Ambassador Spock was nonplussed at Janeway's earlier shout but Barclay was cowering behind a worktable, his gloved fingers peeking over one edge.

The Vulcan said simply, "Fascinating.  
This explains much."

Mr. Barclay mumbled through his helmet,  
not in words, but in frightened gasps.

Chakotay helped Barclay get back onto his white boots. "She wasn't firing at you, she was uncovering that time trail there, lieutenant."

Reg flicked his eyes to the glowing trace flickering in the air from a point by the ceiling to his newly found friend.  
He swallowed and tried out his repoire with the Guardian. "uh,... why did you admit the one who entered inside of you?" he asked the old gateway.

##ALL GATEWAYS ARE OPEN. ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. EGRESS IS NOT FORBIDDEN. MY MISSION HERE IS COMPLETE, THE DISASTER FATED FOR THIS WORLD HAS BEEN AVERTED.##

Seven of Nine squinted as the bright flare of stone pulsing with the Guardian's words burned cooly in her eyes. "You're talking about the fire having been extinguished.  
We know about that. We want to know about the other who passed through.."

##A SEEKER WHO SEEKS KNOWLEDGE IS NOT DENIED THE GATEWAY. HE IS ALLOWED FULL TRAVEL AS ALWAYS.  
AS IT HAS BEEN, AS IT ALWAYS SHALL BE.  
LET ME BE YOUR GATEWAY.##

Seven took an involuntary step backwards away from the Guardian when it began billowing nebulous smoke from its portal.  
"Is there something we should see where the traveler has gone?"

But the Guardian did not answer. It only hung open, filled with mist, waiting.

Janeway and Chakotay stared at Seven.  
"How were you able to communicate with it Seven?" Chakotay asked.

Seven shrugged impatiently. "Through my nanoprobes. I injected it with some yesterday just before I came to Deanna Troi's quarters. I had....questions.."

"She assimilated the Guardian of Forever.."  
Janeway said ruefully.

"I did not. It is not a living being,...well,  
not one that can be altered in that way.  
We merely established a communications network to each other through the fire."  
Seven said.

Janeway sighed. "I was only teasing, Seven."  
But then her face fell, and she motioned all of them to back away from the Guardian's open portal.

Reg, was somehow strangely drawn to it,  
shuffling forward. Seven snagged his shoulder and snapped him out of it.  
"We have no orders to proceed, lieutenant."  
she told him.

This exchange was missed by the others.

Janeway knew the time had come for more to learn what they had learned. "Captain Kirk.. you've seen what we have seen through the helmet cam. Time to put our heads together."

"I concur.." came Kirk's voice through all of their links. "I'll bring my team with me, including Tasha Yar. She might be able to tell us about her "jumping". And so might my lieutenant Uhura and Nurse Chapel. They've journeyed through the Guardian coming here. See you soon.  
Kirk out."

Seven of Nine felt an odd sense of excitement fill her face. She was glad of the pitch blackness of the hanger hiding it. ::A new experience. Anything is possible through that portal. And the way is now open..::

-  
(attachments)

Image: Seven of Nine grinning ear to ear at you.

*animated gif* A Lcars display of a forward view.

Image: Data snuggling with Spot, his cat.

*********************************

END WEEK SEVEN RECAP

WEEK EIGHT RECAP 02-25-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Site

****************************************

From : "Katherine Bird" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] A Little Musical Interlude Date : Wed, 27 Feb 2002 21:45:00 +0000

Uhura and Nurse Chapel were giggling together when they left Excelsior's bridge. "Oh my goodness. Did you see Mr. Sulu's face when he saw us?" Uhura laughed.

Nurse Chapel smiled, "I didn't know Sulu was capable of being distracted enough to crash into the bridge railing seeing us young again.. And doesn't he look distinguished with those white sideburns. I still can't get used to seeing captain's bars on his uniform.."

Uhura continued walking down the corridor. "About time he got his own ship, Christine. I wouldn't be surprised if Captain Kirk had a hand in it."

"I suppose you're right, Uhura.. So, where are we going?" she asked.

Uhura pointed, after consulting her tricorder for Excelsior's layout. "Sickbay. There's one Enterprise original who may not take to a new starship as easily as the rest of us. You know Leonard's dislike for all things technological. Imagine what's going to happen when the turbolift talks back to him. I feel its my duty to..soften the blow.." she said, framing dark hands in the air in front of her.

They arrived and entered sickbay. It was dim lighting in the whole place. "Huh, computer..." Christine started to say. But the enhanced systems around her anticipated the ladies entrance into its vast medical bay and dutifully raised the lights. She blinked once, twice, but no Mach IV EMH met them with an introductory query. "That's strange.."

"What is?" Uhura asked.

Nurse Chapel scratched her chin as she considered. "Oh, ...I was just wondering why this ship's autodoc didn't meet us at the door."

Uhura laughed fully. "Oh, him.. Sulu took pity on Voyager's EMH and turned off the Mach V in deference to him. He said something like, ' Anyone who gets more grumpy than McCoy defending his rights deserves a little favor in return.' ". Besides, I was under the impression that every medical staffer who saw the records of the EMH and the EMH-V squaring off on the Prometheus against the Romulans, decided discretion was the better part of valor. Haven't you noticed that Sulu's regular medical crew aren't here? They're all in the city, pulling duty instead of being there on the offchance the EMH and the EMH-V should come face to face with some emergency in the near future."

Christine was genuinely puzzled. "I wouldn't know. I've never met that version of holodoc. Time travel ignorance is bliss I guess."

Uhura chuckled. They headed for what appeared to be the main office and they heard heavy snoring. Amused, they snuck up and peeked inside the spacious room. Dr McCoy was dozing with his feet propped up on the desk. Already, there were four empty coffee cups and a plate of crumbs littering the desktop around his boots. "Leonard didn't waste time moving in, now did he?"

Christine smiled, then her eyes swept the computer panels ringing them. "Looks like everything's still intact in here. Would you suppose he hasn't thrown anything at the computer yet in spite?"

Uhura pulled Christine out of the room after her and thumbed button the door shut to let McCoy nap on. "How could he? You saw how fast the computer flicked on the lights in here. Anything he needed was probably in front of him so fast that he didn't have time to blow up about it."

Nurse Chapel consulted the status board showing the away team's airlevels. "Looks like Spock and Lt. Barclay have company. Janeway's group's showing as being with them. No signature showing on the Guardian of Forever, of course.." she snorted. "And everyone's suits are registering as fully nominal. Two and a half hours air left to each."

Uhura sighed, stretching into a chair in front of a table. "So, what are we going to do Christine? Twiddle our thumbs? We may be guests by the Guardian of Forever's good graces, but Starfleet isn't exactly ordering us onto an away team, are they?"

Christine's face fell, "Maybe they felt like they would be intruding as much as Jim felt he would be on board Excelsior. We are Captain Kirk's crew first and foremost."

Uhura said, "Yeah, well this coddled special guest is getting mighty bored. I'd give anything for a little diversion. I might even be up for playing McCoy a lullaby or two while he's sleeping. I might be able to wipe that sleeping scowl off his face."

At her words, Excelsior acquiesced. A replicator nearest the two women came to life and a very familiar instrument appeared there.

Both jaws on Uhura and Chapel dropped wide and they both rushed over to the slot in amazement. Uhura took out a perfect replica of Spock's personal lyre. "Now who thought of that detail? How thoughtful."

"Hikaru, no doubt.." Christine said. "Remember that he's probably over his shock seeing us by now. He's being the perfect host. Guess it goes with the territory of any starship captain to visiting friends. Remember how Captain Kirk gets when friends or family visit Enterprise."

"How can I forget?" Uhura said. She had resumed her seat by the conference table off to one side of the ward and quickly tuned the delicate lyre to pitch. She threw a head towards the office and Chapel craftily snuck over and cracked the panel door open so McCoy would hear her in his sleep. The dark communications officer strummed a soft chiming opening passage and the two women grinned when McCoy's snoring faded away into deeper rest as his frown lines disappeared.

Christine, too, was lost in the Vulcan sounding soothing music. She only absently watched the status screen showing the away team in Building Five as it was reading out everyone's lifesigns. She sighed, "Remember that ditty you sang in the rec hall forever ago to Charlie? Now those were clever lyrics. Why, even Spock actually smiled then when you sang him as a Don Juan to "Girls in Space."

Uhura grinned dreamily, captivated by her own music as she warmed up vocally, "I remember. How can I forget? Charlie took away my voice and education in a blink. Took me a week for McCoy to retrain those areas of my brain..." she shivered in memory and washed her chills away with an improvised refrain accompanied to her lyre's sweet tones.

"...Oh on a hillside down on Earth... There comes a snag, a fire's birth.. Whose burning green and appetite, would try to kill us all..."

Pling.. (echoing..)

"But then the Guardian comes to aid, Secretly, a favor paid. And Data's head did save the day, Now a stranger comes to call...

Oh, crew on Earth be wary, be wary, be wary.. Crew on Earth be wary, we know not what he'll do...."

Pling.. Pluck ..Pling..

"At first the time tracks seem to be, a sign of helping reverie.. But who knows the reason they are there.. Could it be for us, another fall?

How can we know the truth of things? For time flies on transparent wings... And the Guardian holds the final say.. For it can never tell us all...

Oh, crew on Earth be wary, be wary, be wary.. Crew on Earth be wary, we know not what it'll do...."

Christine shivered despite the warmth in the room.. "Uhura... that's ghastly.. I think I liked Charlie's song much better..."

Uhura raised a hand in defense, switching her mournful melody to a lighter one Spock had taught her. "Ah, but the heart dictates the writing muse.. Christine. I guess it's reflecting how I feel right now."

Christine pointed over through the observation window at Leonard. "Yeah, well, you'd better play something a little more mild or he's gonna start having nightmares..." she said, indicating a sleep twitching McCoy..

"Oh.." Uhura muttered.. and hastily started to hum a child's lullaby from her old colony until McCoy's foot gyrations went away.

Christine chuckled. "Some communications officer. Scaring the life out of your listening audience."

"I was so not trying to do that.." Uhura protested. She said, dancing her fingers across the replicated Vulcan lyre.

Christine got a devil's look in her eye. "Care to sing it again? " and she tapped her combadge on to universal so all the away team could hear the music.. "You're on sweet throat.."

Uhura sputtered briefly in surprise but then thought she could use the opportunity to get revenge on her friend in kind. But she carefully hid her expression while she did so. ::This is going to be too fun..:: she considered, eyeing up Chapel dangerously.

She sang the song as she first created it and then launched into a new refrain, pegging Christine with a challenging eye.

"Once more our nurse stands by his side. Full of love, for him she'll bide. It's those graying temples, distinguished eyes, that still rip the heart from you.."

Christine kicked her out of audiorange, blushing five shades of red.

"One knows a Vulcan's cold as ice, but our nurse says mixed blood's twice as nice. So listen up you green veined fool. She is still in love with you.."

Chapel died a thousand deaths in mortification as Uhura's song filtered through to listening ears, including Spock's.

"Oh, friends of mine be wary, so merry, not scary... Friends of mine be wary, for I see when love is true...."

And Uhura's laugh trickled through the combadges in everyone's environmental suit before she snicked it off.

Christine slugged her a good one on the arm. "You...you're impossible.. How can I face him now?"

Uhura shrugged, keeping up another lullaby to keep McCoy snoozing. "Oh, come on, Christine, You have nothing to worry about. You know Spock will just go double Vulcan on us both and dismiss the matter as a petty human quirk like he always does. You can't expect me to believe he doesn't know your true feelings for him in any time period. Even the one stretching between you two now.."

"That's beside the point Uhura. Teasing me about something I'll never see happen's mean."

"Yeah? But fun..."

"Cruel..."

"Just poking in some humor to ease the away team's tensions being in vacuum. Practicing a little Uhura medicine.."

"Yeah, but you don't have a medical license to practice any.."

"Who says?" Uhura retorted, softly continuing play on her lyre.

"I do..from one who's wearing one of these.." she thumped a hand on her chest medical insignia.

"Yeah, well. I learned a lot from Counselor Troi in the last few days. Guess she's rubbing off on me."

"Stick to your communication frequencies my friend."

"I thought I just did,..." Uhura smiled, grinning wickedly.

"Oh, you're impossible.!" Chapel sputtered.

"That's McCoy rubbing off on me too Christine. Get used to it.."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Uhura playing the lyre and singing Charlie X's song.

*

From : "Cory Anda" Subject :[voyagerliveaction] It's Elementary My Dear Deluded Barclay.. Date :Thu, 28 Feb 2002 01:01:46 +0000

"One knows a Vulcan's cold as ice, but our nurse says mixed blood's twice as nice. So listen up you green veined fool. She is still in love with you.."

Chapel died a thousand deaths in mortification as Uhura's song filtered through to listening ears, including Spock's.

"Oh, friends of mine be wary, so merry, not scary... Friends of mine be wary, for I see when love is true...."

And Uhura's laugh trickled through the combadges in everyone's environmental suit before she snicked it off.

Barclay hooted in spite of himself as Uhura's song died away in his helmet's comm audio.  
He struggled to keep from laughing but steam clouded his faceplate until Spock had to once again, guide him around an obstacle with a firm grip. Soon, Reg's suit fans cleared away his plexiglass. "S-Sorry sir.  
I.. it's just that Lt. Uhura's song. was.  
unexpected. I mean,.. I had no idea that you and Nurse Chapel are..." and his lips quirked in a laugh he fought to conceal.

Ambassador Spock looked unperturbed in his own suit, the two lights on either side of his helmet filling Barclay's with a bright glare.  
"...colleagues of the oldest kind. Her emotions concerning romantic attachment towards me are misguided ones at best." Then his eyebrow went up. "I've found if I let my crewmates continue to be amused by what they think they perceive about us, they are that much more efficient in performing their duties."

Reg finally gained a serious expression. "I'm sure that's very beneficial, Ambassador." and he cleared his throat.

Janeway looked up and her comm frequency cut into theirs, "So... are you in love with Nurse Chapel Mr. Spock?" her tone teased.

Mr. Barclay's face went through a full spectrum of mortification, amusement, embarrassment and curiosity when he found he was still on their conversation band. ::Whooo. Janeway's got immunity being a captain here. I wonder what he'll say to that..:: He carefully turned his back on the two of them while he scanned the mist filled glowing active time portal before them all.

Finally, Ambassador Spock's answer came over the comm, "No more than you and Chakotay appear to be with each other captain." came the Vulcan's nonplussed reply.

It was Kathryn's turn to flop her mouth open.  
Spock's double meaning revealing many layers of detail. "I see...We're two peas in a pod there I guess." Then she too, retreated, closing off the private comm tie to Reg and Spock.

Reg rolled his eyes in shock at that answer but to his credit, did not reveal his reaction to Spock when the tall suited Vulcan came to stand beside him to give him another scanning device to record the time periods flashing by them inside the Guardian of Forever's ring of stone. He covered the fact that he had been privy to their last exchange by saying "Uh, sir. I've isolated the time periods we are seeing here. Our invisible time visitor's exit into the Guardian coincides with entering anywhere within a hundred year time span stretching from the time of Captain Archer of the first interstellar Enterprise starship to our own current time period. He could've gotten off in any decade in between those two limitations."

Spock studied Reg's readings and looked up at the flashing scenes on the mist before them all. "I must concur with your observations Reginald. I, too am reading the chronoton trail as blurring over that increment as well."

Janeway tried to trace where the chronoton glow was strongest inside the gateway. It seemed to be at the earliest end of Barclay's estimate.  
::Archer's time? But where in there? And why?::

Kathryn looked up, her face very small inside her environmental suit. "I've seen enough here. Let's wait until Captain Kirk arrives with his team. He might be able to further pinpoint our mysterious time visitor's disembarkation point on his own.  
That way, we can triangulate our best guesses."

Spock's eyebrow went up at that.

"You disagree, Mr. Spock? That is what we're doing.  
Guessing where he has gone. You yourself have shared in your old logs with the Edith Keeler incident that the Guardian never reveals clear details about where travelers into its gateway have gone."

"I do not disagree Captain Janeway. I simply am not used to "guesses" yet."

"Bout time you learned ambassador. It's all we humans sometimes have to go on having no sense of logic as strong as a Vulcan's." she quipped. "I figured a twenty five year career with James T. Kirk got you over that guessing hurdle long ago."

Spock's eye rose once again. "Indeed. It has not."

Reg mumbled, "Can't undo a century of formal Vulcan logic schooling..."

Seven of Nine stepped forward. "What are your orders,  
captain?" she asked Janeway.

Janeway smiled at Seven and said, "We wait for Kirk and his group. It's not like we're running out of time here. Quite the opposite in fact, we've all the time in the world to follow our strange benefactor into that portal. I'm content to wait until we can better find out where he's gone.."

Seven nodded, moving back to a lab panel.

Barclay joined her and they compared plasma fire damage data on their tricorders held in their gloved hands. Reg announced, "Captain, ambassador. I'm not reading anything here that shows the power grid inside the building cannot be activated. All systems are fine if a bit sooty."

"Then give us power Mr. Barclay.." Chakotay ordered.

All around the suited away team and the Guardian,  
lights resumed but not machinery sounds as there was no air to carry them as yet. The vacuum cooling the plasma burn scorches was still in place.  
Computer lights and schematics came to life around them outside the Guardian's sandy hanger and the away team headed towards the control room ringing the vast Building Five interior.

She could see inviting but still airless daylight through an outside window and a comforting view of one of Excelsior's landing struts in the courtyard. Sulu had taken his ship and landed it almost on top of Building Five.  
One chair was already invitingly angled facing the window.  
Janeway labelled that one as her own. ::This suit weighs a ton in normal gravity. That conference room will serve us just fine for the next stage of the game.:: Janeway pointed, "We'll meet Kirk's team in there."  
And she headed in the direction of that room she had spotted.

Again, Barclay felt a reluctance to leave the Guardian of Forever's proximity. He felt Spock guiding him gently away. "Lt. Control your reactions. I am aware of the emotional pull the Guardian has on humans.  
For I've had to pull Captain Kirk back from the brink many times from the temptation to visit the past."

Reg blinked through his face glass at Spock.  
"You mean, Captain Kirk's tried to change the outcome of Edith Keeler's death?"

"No, lieutenant. He knows the timeline for her must remain as it happened for all of us to remain in existence." the ambassador explained. "I was referring to other visits here since the Guardian came to Earth."

Reg watched the captivating scenes repeat before him almost too fast for his mind to view. Then he followed the rest into the main control room outside the hanger housing the Guardian's bulk.

A new bleep on his tricorder snapped Reg out of his spell. "The Excelsior's moved. She's inside the city dome, landed, in the main courtyard."

"I noticed." Janeway articulated. "Maybe she came to help us jumpstart Starfleet's main power grid."  
Reflexively, Janeway glanced at her wrist indicator reading how much air she had left inside her suit.  
"We'll stay a half hour longer, until Kirk's team can get up to speed on what we've found here.  
Then we'll rendevous on board Excelsior for a briefing on what to do next.."

There were nods all around.

The bulkhead sealing off the door to the Guardian's hanger closed the rest of the way and Barclay's strange urge to go into the open running gateway was snuffed out. He sagged against a console to the point that Mr. Data noticed. The android supported Reg by one glove. "Are you all right,  
Barclay?"

"I-I'm fine.. Data. Just be glad the Guardian hasn't spoken with you yet. It has a hold over your emotions I can't explain."

Janeway jerked her head in Barclay's direction at Seven and the exBorg discreetly lifescanned Reg. She shrugged. "He's fine. No O2 discrepencies at all." Seven of Nine told her in a private comm band.

"Keep an eye on him. " Janeway went comm full to the rest of her team. "Let's test the transporters ability to function near the Guardian. We may need a fast exit handy if things go sour later on."

"Aye captain." Data said. He began coordinating test beamings with cylinders in and around the hanger beaming them back and forth to and from Excelsior. They came and went just fine except for appearing twenty five feet away from the Guardian. Those cylinders sent there just simply stayed in place where they arrived, no returning beam being allowed to touch them presumably, by the Guardian. "There's a buffering zone of about seven and a half meters around the open gateway." he reported.

"Then that's where we won't go commander."  
Janeway decided. "The Guardian's entitled to a front yard of sorts. We'll respect its territory."

Calmly, Chakotay tractored the errant cylinders out of the no beam zone with a robot arm. The beam tests were complete and Seven of Nine mapped out the buffer zone around the Guardian and sent it to teams that needed the information.

The Guardian, throughout, was unperturbed by the activity of the suited crew watching it from the control room. It simply held open its time mists and its gate, and waited without comment.

::I wish I knew what it wanted us to do.:: Janeway thought. ::I don't believe in an all inclusive invitation.  
Especially where time travel is concerned.::

Something of her unease must have rubbed off on her ex first officer because he licked his lips nervously whenever he glanced up through the observation window in Building Five at the Guardian. "Easy Chakotay.. If we have to, we can ask the Guardian to leave, taking the ability of that time traveler to return here with it."

"Throwing away the allure of exploration so soon Kathryn?"

"Not at all. I'm just a bit more cautious in my older years, Chakotay. I'm just being protective of my home turf, be it just a wayward ship or a whole planet.." she grinned ruefully.

"That's my Kathryn.." he said, giving her a short hug, best he could through both their suits. He released her before anyone noticed.

The move made her once again think about Uhura's impromptu song over their helmet comms a short time ago and Ambassador Spock's own answer to her daring question. ::Are we that obvious to people around us? I'm almost retired from active duty, I'm entitled to having a real romance finally after so long. I almost don't care what others may think. Almost:  
she sighed. ::Damn captain's pips. Can't be myself while wearing them at all. First moment I can. I swear I am going to invite Chakotay to dinner.::

Near them Data smiled. He had heard the quick hug behind him.

Soon, only some of the weary away team had assembled into the room connecting the hanger. They sat awkwardly in the chairs in their suits. Barclay had more energy than any of them, except for Data.

He began to speak in earnest about the gateway and how they might be able to pinpoint the stranger's stopoff time better with the help of a very unique advisor. But he didn't say whom he was referring to, dancing around the subject while his request for transported equipment came about.

A few minutes later, Excelsior had retrieved a small device, a yellow layered cuboid with a tiny orange power cell attached, to the floor near him. Next to it, Deanna Troi's personal power holoplatform came into being.

Barclay rose from his chair as the away team respectfully waited for Barclay to show them this new advisor. He toggled a switch and a holographic man in black appeared who immediately oriented on Mr. Barclay.

Data rose to his feet in alarm but it was already far too late for anything to be done.

SEE SOUND BITE and IMAGE.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Moriarty in all his evil glory.

Audio : Moriarty- I have been stored in memory for god knows how long and no one has given me a second thought!

***********************************

Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 01:06:20 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: [voyagerliveaction] Pure Political Posturing Performer

Data said, "Lt. Barclay. Of all the things you've ever done that lacked good solid judgement,  
this by far,.."takes the cake." Captain Picard would not be pleased right now. How did you see no harm in bringing the Professor online? Yes,we can use his experience with transdimensional barriers. He once controlled the Enterprise physically,  
from the holodeck using fine temporal timing. And yes,  
he may be able to sniff out our missing time traveler from the Guardian's maze of timezones. But there's a reason why he was placed in perpetual confinement mode."

Janeway felt uneasy but couldn't place it, then a name fell into place. "..Moriarty.." she whispered.

"At your service, milady..." he said, sweeping Janeway's glove into his holographic hand and kissing it gallantly.  
"Now that I'm free, you'll all get a sample of what I'm truly capable of doing. Now,.. what is this Guardian of Timezones? It sounds like a place I might like very well indeed. If I am to be your mercenary, I expect to be fully informed of any danger that may harm my physical matrix.." Then Moriarty turned on his elegant holoheels and beheld the Guardian's glowing gateway through the observation port. "Ahh... a bridge of moving time energies. I may like this mission even better than I thought." and his eyes darkened with thinly veiled darker emotions.

Barclay thought. ::Ooops.. A loose Moriarty might not be the godsend resource we're hoping for.:: and he tried to send Moriarty back into his jail cube.

Nothing happened.

"You see," Moriarty held out his hands widely,  
"I've grown stronger since our last meeting,  
Mr. Barclay, Data. It didn't take me long to find out the universe into which Regina and I had been trapped was an artificial one. We didn't die when our shuttle crashed in a plasma storm one day that should've ended our existences. We ended up back at the precise coordinates leaving the Enterprise D's landing bay. And I already had a memory of doing that once before. A flaw in the design.. you might say.." he said, picking up his own jail cube admiring its design.  
"And I thank you Mr. Barclay, for all the fond memories you've granted me. I've been elevated in understanding now, far more than I've ever thought possible. I've learned I can't trust you or Data. Not ever again. For you both have betrayed me..."

Barclay mumbled. "Is this where I wake up from the horrible nightmare?"

"No my dear Barclay, it's only just begun."  
Moriarty laughed.

Janeway shouted, "Computer, erect a level ten forcefield around the holoplatform in this room. Code Janeway Lambda Three."

Soon, he was surrounded by a powerful barrier.

Moriarty countered, still pleasantly polite,  
in her own voice answered back, "Computer, deactivate forcefield. Counterorder Janeway Pi Alpha Six."

And the glittering forcefield snicked out.

Moriarty regained his own sinister baritone.  
"Now I'm not here for any sense of petty revenge.  
I've...outgrown that. If any human was worth his merit in honesty, that would be Picard, for he brought me my one true love,.. Regina. I simply want true freedom. I will never allow myself to be imprisoned again. And surely, in this current time and age, captain, the technology to make me fully alive must exist."

Barclay bit his lip, not telling Moriarty about how true that fact was with HoloZimm and the EMH.

Janeway took a risk, a bargaining chip. "It does.  
We will grant it to you for your cooperation."

"And here comes the heroic captain's action.  
I've had a long time to study the phenomena since Regina lost her cohesion in a cascade failure.  
Mr. Barclay's jail designers at Jupiter Station failed to take into account any emergencies with our holo-lives, such as they were, in there. She died without anyone ever knowing."  
He took a great breath of simulated air.  
"And now, here I am. Back in the real world,  
having been freed by my jailer. Tell me, is Geordi LaForge around? He is the one who created me. No? Too bad. I wanted to share with him a few insights I have on holomortality and holomorality. He would have found it rather interesting."

Chakotay had sidled up to Janeway while Moriarty rambled on. The inhuman holovillian noticed the move but found no threatening manner in it.  
He went on speaking to his captive audience.  
The exVoyager commander said, "Should we call in the EMH or HoloZimm? Perhaps being holo themselves, they can reason with Moriarty and--" he broke off when the long maned English Victorian continued his line of thought.

"...try to convince me that my course of action is wrong? " Moriarty started tsking in mock sympathy. "I don't care how much their forms are like mine. Their inherent programming before they became sentient could be at fault if they have sided with you in any way."

Data spoke up, "There is no us and them,  
Moriarty. Can we not all coexist in fellowship?"

"Grandiose ideas, mannequin man. But hardly feasible. I am a man of my word, sir. And if your lady captain friend over there guarantees my continued safety, then I shall live up to harming no one. I want survival. Nothing more."  
he added, eyes growing harsh with fervor.  
"And if in this age, I become a mercenary for you inside that gateway of timezones, then so be it."

Janeway took several measured steps in Moriarty's direction, making sure he could see both her tricorder and her phaser were away from her gloved hands spread away from her body. "I give my oath that I will not allow your freedom to be impinged in any way..."  
Then she added her condition. "So long as you don't ever harm another living soul around you.  
Starfleet rules, starfleet methods while you're in there.." she said, pointing to the Guardian's glowing circle of stone.

"Done.." Moriarty said simply. And all malice left his holobody and manner fully. "Oh, how I love a woman in power. They've elevated piety to an exquisite level. Regina would have admired you Lady Captain Kathryn. I salute you."

::Just like that?:: Janeway wondered. ::Victorian bravado is undone? :: And yet, she was convinced when Moriarty suddenly handed her his holoprison cube and generator and closed her glove's grip over it.

"I am your ally milady. I'd rather live accepted in free society than be ruled fighting against it."  
he added with a slight bow.

Janeway didn't take her level gaze off of his.  
"You will obey my fellow officers for this mission?"

"Yes, as long as they aren't the android nor the klutz. They have proven their deceit upon me. That hologenerator in your hand is proof of that wrongdoing." Moriarty said, glaring at Data and Barclay. "Those two simply have no sense of honor at all."

Janeway didn't miss Barclay's subtle nod of denial. ::Clearly, they have another side of the story to tell. Something I'll investigate later.  
Right now, I need to end the temporal threat to Starfleet first and deal with holographic rights and issues later. "Thankyou for trusting me with this module. My officers will protect it as a critically sensitive system." And she handed the yellow and orange wafered device to Chakotay, who in turn, gave it to a security man he had summoned.  
"Keep this away from Mr. Data and Mr. Barclay.  
Is that understood?" he asked the young enviro suited man.

"Yessir!" he replied.

Chakotay turned to Moriarty. "Satisfied?"

"Yes. For your captain has given me her sworn oath to me and thus, I have yours as well."  
the Victorian holoman reasoned.  
He settled into one of the conference room chairs comfortably, oblivious to the vacuum around him.  
"Come, come. Have a seat all. I come to think of myself these days as being more bluster than bite. We have a lot of planning to do if we are to catch your elusive time traveler." He studied a pocket watch. "And we haven't much time before your air runs out. T minus thirty seven minutes and counting.."

Seven of Nine regarded Moriarty and wasn't impressed. "Laying threats to gain compliant behavior in your rivals is an action void of honor."

"It worked.." Moriarty exclaimed. Then aside to Janeway, "This from the ex Borg, maam.  
How two-faced."

Data remained silent throughout the exchange.  
There wasn't a point to get involved with his ship's old adversary. So he concentrated on summoning the EMH and HoloZimm to Building Five to meet Moriarty. Whatever a higher ranking officer ordered him, would be what he followed,  
as his duty. Inwardly, alarms bells were going off inside Data's mind. ::Don't trust him. Don't you dare.::

Something very subtle but mutually exchanged between Data and Seven, a pact to defend their shipmates against Moriarty should he turn on them. And Seven knew just how to do it.  
::My nanoprobes can strip any holocharacter from their physical senses, rendering them blind paralyzed and deaf on a whim. I will be backup security on him.::

The EMH and HoloZimm sizzled into being.  
Moriarty, despite his serious demeanor, was visibly moved into rising from his seat by the sight of two living Holograms. "Sirs.. this is a tremendous honor. I, am Professor Moriarty,  
now a colleague to your charming captain.."  
he said, indicating Janeway, where she stood ramrod still, in her lifesuit.

The EMH and HoloZimm warmly greeted the Victorian before the feeling in the room became obvious to them.

"Captain.." the EMH began.. "Is everything all right?"

Janeway replied, "For the moment.. I have made this hologram a promise to safeguard his program until we can find a way to make him fully sentient and mobile. Help me to do so,  
doctor, and HoloZimm, while you're here. Moriarty is now our scout into the Guardian.  
He will search out our mysterious vanishing Time Traveler in return for that research."

HoloZimm noticed the yellow wafered box in the guards hands. "So that is where you're emanating from.. How cute.." he said to the watchful Moriarty. "I remember my holomodule days. Until Barclay recreated my holoemit--"

Janeway cleared her throat loudly.

The EMH lookalike hushed up very quickly."Captain.  
Don't tell me you're coming down with a cold. That's the second one in a month.."  
he lied.

Moriarty missed the deflection, instead becoming fascinated with the schematics of the time trails the away team had unveiled. "So he's been helping you out during critical moments...." he concluded.

"How'd you know?" Chakotay asked.

"These trails are only along major power conduit routes, such as the one in your main Command Area. His signature, as you call it, is only rising off of the defensive switching attached to the powergrid.  
A saboteur would have fussed with the main switch.. causing an overload, not a blackout." Moriarty reasoned.

Janeway's gut told her the same thing.  
"Don't mind if I get another captain's opinion on all of this?" she asked the Professor.

"Not at all... I want your aid in becoming fully alive, that is my stake here. Bring in anyone you wish, captain." Moriarty confirmed.

"I think I will." Janeway coolly tapped her combadge to James T. "Janeway to Kirk.  
It's rendevous time. I've encountered someone new here whose says he wants to help us locate the time traveler. "

"That's odd, I'm not reading any other lifesigns at your location, only a slaved holographic character.."

"That's him, captain." Janeway said watching the Professor fight his angry retort out loud to Kirk for that remark. "Get yourself and your team here as soon as you can. He's going in for us at any rate.."

"Understood." Kirk replied, a curiosity filling his voice. "We'll be there in two."

And soon, they were.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Seven of Nine with a rifle and the EMH, looking worried.

Image: Data in black and white.

Image: HoloZimm in a gray labcoat.

**************************************

From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Uneasy Table Truce~~ Date : Sat, 09 Mar 2002 19:00:08 +0000

"Janeway to Kirk. It's rendevous time. I've encountered someone new here whose says he wants to help us locate the time traveler. "

"That's odd, I'm not reading any other lifesigns at your location, only a slaved holographic character.."

"That's him, captain." Janeway said watching the Professor fight his angry retort out loud to Kirk for that remark. "Get yourself and your team here as soon as you can. He's going in for us at any rate.."

"Understood." Kirk replied, a curiosity filling his voice. "We'll be there in two."

And soon, they were.

Captain Kirk and Tasha Yar along with Uhura made good time getting to Building Five and the blazing Guardian of Forever he could see. ::Why didn't I feel the Guardian opening up its gateway? :: But then he felt ruefully ashamed of his thoughts. ::Why should I feel like the Guardian came to Earth just for my benefit. It came to make it possible for us to end that fire.::

The suit about him felt bulky, sparking off memories of when he had been trapped in Tholian space, adrift. He shrugged down the annoying sensation. As he made his way over to Janeway and her party, he noticed to whom Janeway had referenced. He wasn't wearing an environmental suit. "Just who in the world is that?"

Just ahead of him, Kirk saw Tasha Yar move between him and the strange Victorian man who seemed just a bit off on reactions and body english from the human norm. ::A hologram. I wonder where he cropped up?::

But then he knew the answer. Mr. Barclay was inspecting areas of the big hanger already powered up unnecessarily on his tricorder. Kirk smiled at his discomforture not unkindly. He spoke up, "Now that the cavalry's arrived, would someone like to get me up to speed?" He saw Janeway and the others turn in their suits in the dim glow of the panels around them. The swirling silent hurricane of white inside the Guardian caused a surge of excitement deep inside Kirk, but he kept his eyes averted firmly.

"Glad you're here, captain." Janeway said. "Shall we reconvene in that conference room over there? I don't know about you. But getting out of this suit's high on my list of priorities. Even my nose is itchy being so near the Guardian's gate."

Kirk had to ask. "On just what time periods is the Guardian focused on this time?"

Janeway quirked an ironic look as the three holos, and the suited team made their way into the airlock out of the hanger's main space into the prepared conference room. "Right at the beginning. From Archer's time. The tachyon traces concentrate as having deviated there."

"Captain Archer's?" Kirk mumbled. "Now there's a time frought with danger." Then he smiled, "The first Enterprise launched into the stars...."

"Excuse me?" Yar said.

"Nothing lieutenant." Kirk replied. "I was just,.. thinking out loud."

One by one, the rest of the team went through the airlock to the room containing the table and chairs. Data had restored a tiny pocket of atmosphere only in that room for their benefit once having been sure that no plasma fire sparks remained to ignite the introduced air.

Moriarity got up, and simply walked through the windowed bulkhead and straight for the replicator. "How interesting. A matter energy transference unit. Tell me, can this recreate anything?"

Kirk glanced around the room but shed his suit down to the waist. "Your knowledge of our technology's remarkable, sir, in one apparently from ancient London."

Moriarty regarded the others as they, too, shrugged out of their helmets and suit tops. Janeway had taken the chair she had seen from the hanger with a great sigh of relief. Then he pegged Kirk with a stare. "Outward looks can be deceiving, captain. But, then again, I am no ordinary English gentleman." And he turned back to the food slot. He called out. "Six coffees, black. No sugar."

There was a ripple of unexpected reaction from everyone when the machine obeyed the hologram.

Kirk rose to his feet, "That's not possible."

"Oh but I assure you, it is, my dear captain. I am not you're ordinary garden variety hologram. I, am fully sentient, such as our gallant Mr. Data here. I have much to thank the absent Picard for that. He shaped most of who and what I am most extraordinarily. You see, I am alive, in my own mind and thusly, to the machines of this time makes perfect sense."

Moriarty walked with the grey styrofoam cups and he set one in front of each officer, Uhura, Spock, Janeway, Kirk, Yar and Barclay and Seven. Then he turned to Data and the two EMH appearing fellows. "What'll it be? I'm at a loss to know what sentient nonhumanoids prefer here."

The EMH snorted. "No thanks." he said sarcastically.

Holozimm, in contrast, spoke up eagerly. "In my weeks inside the hologrid, I developed a taste for a particular favorite. Professor, if you will, dial up Beaker fortynine beta, please. Data, you might like this one. It's loaded with ketones and reverse spiraled amino acids. Quite an olfactory blend."

"Two then.." Moriarty said, and the drinks appeared.

Yar pointedly did not drink her beverage. "Moriarty. I remember you well. You gloss overt politeness just ahead of a move to betray. Often."

"My dear girl." Moriarty said, taking his seat and removing a flask of holosherry from his lapel. He took her cup and dumped it on the floor. "That was who I was. Before my beloved and I felt the sweetness of life and freedom. Now, all I want is to survive. And like you humanoids do, us holos must stick together..It behooves me to ...get along..." and he poured a bit of his unreal port into a cup and raised it into a toast to HoloZimm and the suspicious EMH.

Being ever the innocent, HoloZimm exclaimed, "Hear, hear.."

No one else toasted Moriarty along with him.

Moriarty shrugged. "Ah, well, so much for cordial behaviors. I guess I'll stick with the strictly business ones. But I assure you both, captains, that a deal is a deal. My Victorian sensibilities dictate fully, that I honor our agreement to the letter. Foolproof, I'd say, since it is my very life at stake here."

Janeway had been silent through the whole exchange. Now she brought Kirk and Yar up to par. "Moriarty. I intend to trade you research on maintaining your personal integrity program indefinitely for your help in tracking down our mysterious time traveling guest. I will personally see that this occurs once this is all over. You have my word as a Starfleet Captain."

"Ah, but I've heard those words before, Ms Janeway. From Picard. And he had his people, through Data here, imprison me inside a holouniverse. He never bothered to check on Regina and I and she died for it."

"Regretful, sir. But hardly an issue to blame me for. Mr. Data was acting on orders." Janeway said coolly.

Moriarty struggled to contain himself subtly, but then he sat, too, in a conference chair inside the silver room overlooking the hanger. "Very true. Forgive me for misspeaking myself. I am still grieving for my beloved."

Kirk changed the subject. "I know the power of the Guardian. I've passed through it myself to save a friend ....once. It is difficult to pinpoint any specific along that continuous timeline. Half a moment and you can misshoot your target jump by days."

"Ah, but you're forgetting one thing, captain." Moriarty told him. "I have no flesh to slow me down. I will not miss. All I need is the coordinates where the time traveler's pod is emanating the strongest, and I'll get there. Just show me...where...."

Lt. Yar was curious. "Moriarty. Just how are you maintaining your integrity off Deanna's hologrid platform?"

Moriarty pointed to the guard Janeway had ordered to watch his holocube jail module. "As long as I remain within twenty meters of that, I can manifest safely, outside."

Yar blinked, "But what'll happen when you go inside the Guardian of Forever?"

"That, is a problem that needs to be addressed more fully."

Janeway kept her eyes from flickering to the mutual holoemitters on the EMH and HoloZimm's shoulders. That was an absolute freedom she wasn't about to hand over to Moriarty no matter how he promised to behave. So she provided an alternative. "Captain Kirk. Is Mr. Scott handy? You claim he is a miracle worker. I don't doubt that your engineer can provide an answer for us."

Captain Kirk hailed Mr. Scott. "Scotty. Front and center. Building Five conference room. Bring a Byte, too. You'll need it. Kirk out."

Moriarty looked puzzled. His grasp on idiom was good but he misunderstood Kirk's lingo. "Bite, captain? But he needn't bring a meal with. There's that charming food slot over there."

Kirk smiled slightly, "That wasn't the "byte" I was referring too."

Lt Yar sat quietly in her chair and didn't like the way Moriarty cast his eyes about. ::It's as if he's analyzing weaknesses. D*mn it, I'm a security chief. This whole situation just doesn't feel right to me.:: She decided to keep one hand on the phaser tucked into her suit leg holster and her gaze on the holo's face. ::Looks like Seven's just as on guard as I am. So much the better.::

Tasha kept the Gateway in view, too. But the great stone passage was the very rock of patience. Staying silent and repeating the time interval showing traces of the traveler's pod where the emissions were the clearest. "I'd give anything to go along with Moriarty on this hunt of his.. I'd sleep better at night knowing where and when, he is.."

Kirk overheard his lieutenant aide. "I'm intending for those who want to go, to follow him, Lt. while some of us stays here to monitor. We don't know the whole story of that time pod yet and until we do, I want all the bases covered."

Yar flushed red when she realized her thoughts were spoken aloud. "Yes, sir."

Kirk turned to the ten seated forms in front of him. "Now, let's lay a ground plan for a trip...into the past. Thanks to holoinstincts, this may not be such a needle in a haystack as we first thought. Any ideas?"

-  
(attachments)

Image : Kirk publicity shot.

*animated gif* Four ships viewed on a computer screen.  
Nice effect.

*

From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Double Trouble Date :Sun, 10 Mar 2002 00:30:28 +0400

Dr. Crusher and Counselor Troi were hip deep in their appointment scheduling in Excelsior's officer's lounge when Deanna gasped.

Beverly's head immediately shot up. "Deanna..?"

"Just a minute..." Troi replied, closing her eyes and sorting through impressions. A unpleasant press on her emotions cast a face into her memory.  
She rose to her feet. "Oh, no. He's back.."

Dr. Crusher set aside the datapadd she had been reading. "Who's back? Q?"

"Almost as bad. Moriarty. I felt him "start" about twenty seconds ago." Troi said.

Dr. Crusher shrugged. "I thought we solved that little problem shutting him and his lady friend away into a hololooping module."

"So did I. But he's definitely here. Close by."

Deanna's stack of appointment padds went forgotten as she tapped her combadge. "Troi to Command.  
We've got company. I don't know where but it's a holomatrix named Moriarty, a fully quarantined holo risk. He's escaped somehow. I feel he's inside the city dome."

A high ranking admiral cut into her frequency from Excelsior's bridge. "Relax counselor, smooth down those hackles. We know he's there. We authorized Mr. Barclay to reactivate him for use in an investigation in Building Five."

Deanna's mouth flopped open. "Sir, I don't feel we can trust him. I'm reading true emotion off of him and not many of them are very accomodating right now."

"Seven of Nine is under orders to eradicate the threat should he prove unreliable. Command out." and the frequency on her badge clicked shut.

Beverly's eyes went real big. "Ever feel out of the loop?"

"Often. It's even worse when you can feel that loop twisting in your empathic sense. Time traveler or not,  
Moriarty's not my first choice of a resource for an investigation." Deanna admitted.

"I know how you feel." she said, shivering a chill of memory. "Captain Picard was this close to terminating that holomatrix the second time around." and she held up two miniscule pinched fingers. "It was only Barclay and Data's neater solution that convinced him away from that outcome. I'd say program death would have been better."

"Beverly.." Deanna admonished. "You're a doctor. I can't believe you just said that."

"A hologram with heightened strength, a genius with a touch of homicidal megalomania? I stand by my words. Moriarty's not a simple EMH to turn off or on at will. Don't forget who we're dealing with here."

Deanna slumped into her chair. "We're not dealing with him, the away team in Building Five is doing that.  
We're on the sidelines this time."

"I prefer that.." Beverly said. A beep drew her attention to the life monitor set on every party in the dome's suit transponders. "Oh, good. Janeway's group is in an erected air pocket. It'll buy time on their airpacks."

Deanna studied the readings she was just barely able to understand. "Why are the packs only good for six hours? I thought we have envirosuit designs that can last for days on airflow."

"Ah, but these are terrestrial suits. And we've gravity to deal with. No one can handle air tanks that big down here. Hence the six hour ones here." she said tapping a stylus on the computer screen.

Deanna pushed locks of thick dark hair back over her shoulders."Huh. I hadn't thought of that. How are they doing?"

Beverly studied the readouts on each and said,  
"Barclay's a little low on air. It's those anxiety attacks he's trying to hide from everyone. How's your barometer on him?"

"He's fine. Calmer." Deanna said, zeroing in on Barclay.  
"Strange for him. This level headedness began the moment he claimed the Guardian spoke with him last night."

"Do you believe him?" the red headed doctor said, perching a hip on the edge of the table top.

"What else could explain Barclay's pacification? I don't think there's anything outside of a phaser stun that could calm him down normally.."

Beverly chuckled. Then she took a head count of those now in Building Five. All of Excelsior's sensors were now trained on that area. They had been ever since the Guardian opened its portal invitation. ::Let's see.  
Seven, Data, Kirk, Lt. Yar, Barclay, Spock, Chakotay,  
Janeway..."

"And Uhura.." Deanna added, "Kirk called her away with him just a few minutes ago when he reported to Janeway's hail."

"That's nine...and the HoloZimm, Moriarty and the EMH and that security guard Janeway requested makes the total on our monitors to thirteen. An auspicious number."

Deanna sat back down in her chair with a very full tea mug filled to the brim. "Don't tell me you're superstitious.  
That number thirteen mythos is a very old one."

"I'm not." Beverly said without conviction. "Maybe it's your alarm over Moriarty getting to me finally."

"Doctor, rein in that imagined empathy. That's my department here." she laughed.

Dr. Crusher leaned in on the table top until she was close to Deanna. "All right. I will if you will. Human intuition against Betazed empathy any day's a match pound for pound in my book."

"You're on.." Deanna said. "Say, that reminds me. It's my turn to bug Boothby into telling me what his real Starfleet rank is. Where is he now?"

Beverly switched computer screens. "He's, in the park reserves to the north of the city dome near two lifeforms.. Animal from the look of it. A rabbit.  
and a ...tribble?"

"Well I'll be..." Troi smiled. "He's found Dr. McCoy's little stowaway. So, that's where I'm headed. I can't concentrate on these appointments like I should. I doubt any one of our patients would insist on their weekly visits in the face of this Starfleet blackout."

"Another excuse to not do reports is it? "  
Beverly said. "Sounds like a good one to me. I'm going with you. I could use some fresh air." and she tapped her combadge. "Computer. Route all away team lifescans to my signal. If there are any deviations from the norm, notify me and Counselor Troi at once."

##Routing remote bioflag monitoring to combadges Troi and Crusher. Link established.#

"There." Bev said brightly. "Shall we continue our little bet? Boothby's awaiting.."

"I'm ready.." Troi said. "The holodoc may have failed in his little information quest but I..am a Betazed."

"Half Betazed.." Bev coughed as they made their way to Excelsior's transporter room.

"Half's enough." Deanna chuckled. "If anyone can find out the answer everyone wants to know about Boothby. It'll be me.."

"You're forgetting the charming bedside manner Starfleet's chief medical officer possesses."  
Beverly said.

"That, along with a hypospray of truth serum.."  
Deanna murmured.

"Deanna! I'd never drug someone against their will."

"No. But you might to win this bet." Deanna challenged.

"Never fear of that. I've my honor to uphold."

"There's always a first time.."

Beverly's eyes flickered sharply in mock chiding.  
"Look,,.. nothing up my sleeves.." and she pantomimed displaying her labcoat sleeves and pockets in magician's fashion to her friend. "And I'll let you,  
hold the standard away from site medkit."

"I'll trust you then.." Deanna said. "And I promise not to use my empathic sense to divine the truthful answers from the blustery ones."

"Then we're set then."

"Right."

"So where is he?" Dr. Crusher said, shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun as they transported outside the city dome from the Excelsior.

Deanna looked about. All they could see was two depressions in the grass where tribble and rabbit had once rested. They looked remarkably like humanoid butt prints. "Oh, my. Looks like the EMH went so far as to letting himself be throttled by Boothby." and she laughed.

"He did?" Beverly said. "Why that cheater.."

"What.. the EMH's a hologram. He didn't use his augmented strength, nor change his appearance for the conditions of the bet. I'd say that tactic was pretty clever.. Even though it failed." Deanna smirked, rolling a tongue in her cheek in amusement.

Beverly saw a dark patch of movement in the lower end of the meadow. It was Boothby. And he was lying on his back in the sun.

The two women ran quickly to his side.  
"Boothby!!"

The wizened man hid discomfort and tried to arrange laced fingers behind his head to feign relaxation, but it didn't work. "Nice day for a nap. Just felt like taking one."

Beverly had out her tricorder, and scanned him.  
"Uh huh.." she said skeptically. "What happened?"

"That d*mned tribble and rabbit decided to play tag figure eighting around my ankles. I lost my balance trying to keep from stepping on them and fell on my..."

"I see it... Come on conscientious man, on your feet.  
We'll help you to the beam out coordinates. Deanna and I will help you there."

Deanna took Boothby's other arm and the man painfully got to his feet. It was obvious that his rear was bothering him immensely. But it wasn't beneath Troi to tease nonetheless. "Don't you know that it's impossible to step on a tribble. They just ooze right out of the way in the last second. "

"Yeah?" Boothby snapped, groaning as the woman took his weight. "It wasn't the tribble I was avoiding. The rabbit's a young one and not very agile yet."

"Uh huh..." Beverly said. "Nothing's broken but you have one h&ll of a bruise across eighty five percent of both buttch--"

"That's enough details, doctor. Respect my privacy until after we get to sickbay.." Boothby said, blushing redder than the meadow flowers around him.

"You know I have to report this injury in my logs."

"I know that.."

"And we have to know basic information such as age,  
any previously existing medical conditions,... rank.."

Deanna looked up sharply. Her friend had outfoxed her.

Boothby countered. "The first two are in my file, the last is classified. You know better than to ask.."

Beverly Crusher dropped her front. "Oh, come on, you can tell me."

"And break a senior officer confidence?" Boothby snapped.

"So,..you're a senior officer.." Deanna said as the three of them hobbled along towards the Excelsior's beam in coordinates.

"Never said that. I...was referring to the fact that classified information is a senior officer confidence, and you two gals are senior officers..." Boothby said.

A bright flash of fur startled all of them and a bobbing tail bounced away from them.

"There's the little bugger. You'd better run.. If I catch you in my new gardens in a few weeks, I'll use you as a hatband..!" Boothby shook a fist at the fleeing leptus.

"Boothby..." both women chided.

"All right. I'll just shoo it off."

"Promise?? " Beverly added.

"As sure as my bottom's bruised.." Boothby grumbled.

"What about after that's fixed?" Deanna wanted to know.

"Oh, for Pete's sake, I've never killed anything with fur or skin in all my life." Boothby said.

"No, just the winged, chitin shelled, flying kind."  
Troi quipped.

"Bugs are different!! They shred my flowers.."

"Uh huh..." Beverly said sarcastically. "Here we are,  
now get your feet under you. Grass is about to turn to close carpetting when we arrive in sickbay.  
Computer. Three to beam directly to sickbay..."

Before the three of them disappeared, another furred blur shot into the sparkles with them and all of them disappeared onto the starship landed inside the airless city dome.

-  
(attachments)

Image : Troi stern close in blue dress.

Image: Crusher with her face lit up.

Image: The tribble in the park.

*************************************

From : "Cory Anda" Subject : [voyagerlvieaction] Interlude on Excelsior Date : Sun, 10 Mar 2002 13:01:59 +0000 Reg sat, partly frightened, and still partly calmed by the subtle influence of the Guardian of Forever on his emotions. Moriarty was no longer anything like the foe he had helped lock away from reality. But neither was Reg driven to converse much with his old adversary.  
He heard Kirk and Yar learn the facts they had needed to and then he heard the order the Enterprise captain gave Mr. Scott to rendevous with Byte, the tiny silkie probe.  
::Now that's a thought. Good security cover.  
Keep Moriarty from learning about the EMH's and HoloZimm's portable emitter. We can use Byte to keep Moriarty online once he crosses into the time portal after the travel pod.::

He watched Mr. Spock as his mentor steepled fingers in front of him as he sat. His hair was rumpled, having been pressed into his air helmet,  
but that in no way made the ambassador any less dignified.

Mr. Spock spoke aloud to all. "Now that we've come up with preliminary information, I suggest we rendevous back to the Excelsior for a period of rest and reprovisioning. Getting set for a time jump will, ironically, take time preparing."

Chakotay chuckled, "That much is true. I'm for it.  
I could use a good sonic shower or two. "

Janeway looked up when Kirk nodded. "Very well.  
Let's report to Excelsior and then back here in the morning. Seven, would you ask the Guardian to inform us if our mysterious time visitor decides to pay us a second port of call?"

"Yes, captain." the tall blond exBorg said. "Already done. It will do so."

Kirk rose along with the others as Janeway called for a mass group beam to Sulu's flagship. He added before the beam took hold, "Mr. Scott will know where we've gone. He's tied into our comm frequencies."

Soon, the three holograms, and the eight crew were safely on board Excelsior's main transporter room.  
The duty officer at the controls nodded at the sight of Janeway and Kirk. "Sirs. Welcome aboard."

"As you were.." Janeway said. She turned to the others and said, "We'll meet back here at O600 tommorrow morning. Use this time to rest and get something to eat." She nodded subtly to the guard watching Moriarty's holocube module for him to stay on duty and to accompany the hologram so he'd have mobility on the ship.

The guard gave her a return nod letting his red haired superior know that he had all contingencies covered.

Reg hardly even saw the officers scatter in different directions. The EMH and HoloZimm just learned about Boothby's arrival to sickbay as a patient and the two of them winked out to attend to the matter. But he did notice Moriarty's expression as he noted just how much more advanced Excelsior was compared to the memory of the Enterprise D in his head.

"This is simply remarkable." the dark suited holoman said. He looked at Barclay, who was the last person in the room with him excluding his attendant security guard. "Tell me, have many years past since my incarceration? There's hardly anything I recognize in designs here. Even this distance traveling unit is new to me."

Reg showed some caution, answering him.  
"Shall I take you to the VIP guest quarters? You'll be more comfortable there while you wait until morning for your mission."

Moriarty bowed fractionally. "I'm sure my very large friend here knows the way. Don't let me keep you.  
Although I'll admit a desire to stay near the other two living holograms.."

"P-Pardon me?" Barclay stuttered, "O-Oh, you mean the EMH and HoloZimm. Sorry, but they've gone to help on a medical call."

"So I've heard." Moriarty said, smiling. "I do hope your gardener will recover quickly."

That surprised Barclay. "H-how did you learn that?"

"Didn't you hear the EMH get his bioflag report from the fair Dr. Crusher? She spoke aloud not a short time ago." Moriarty said.

Reg wasn't about to admit that he had been tuning out his surroundings with worry over Moriarty.  
"So you say..." he said vaguely. "Until tommorrow,  
0600?"

"Until then Mr. Reginald. I look forward to our next meeting.."

Barclay couldn't get out of the transporter room fast enough. He managed to run far enough ahead that he didn't see the security guard nor Moriarty as they headed to the VIP quarters set aside for him.

Looking back behind him as he hurried caused him to miss what was in front of him and he nearly collided with Mr. Spock, calmly walking to his assigned quarters. He pinwheeled on his boot toes but successfully avoided body slamming the ambassador.

Mr. Spock raised an eyebrow. "Is everything all right, Mr.  
Barclay?"

"Huh? Oh,..uh yes, Mr. Spock. I was...I was just..thinking too much."

"Remember the exercises I taught you this evening, your ability to meditate may help you sleep tonight.  
I have full confidence that you can obtain enough internal stillness to do so." Spock told his aide.

"I..I will remember. Tell me, uh, Mr. Spock. Just who do you think our time traveler is? Surely you must have theories regarding that. And don't tell me there isn't enough evidence to come to a conclusion,  
uh, sir. Because I know better."

Mr. Spock paused outside his quarters. "I took the liberty of having our two quarters ajoining.  
It seems logical that I should wake you at the proper time tommorrow for the away mission."

"Uh, that'll be fine sir.. But you're avoiding my question.." Reg said.

Spock shrugged off his outer robing and folded it neatly over his arm as he toggled the door switch into his quarters. "I have given it some thought.  
After careful consideration, there's only one conclusion possible."

"What's that, sir?"

"There has only been one time traveler who's been beneficial to the Starfleet officers who've encountered him. I'm surprised you haven't thought of him although he may have visited the Enterprise D before your time."

Barclay mulled over that idea, still puzzled.  
He scratched his head.

Spock elaborated, "I am referring to the Traveler.  
The one who rescued Dr. Crusher from a finite pocket universe. If he is still in Wesley Crusher's acquaintance, that would explain his fortunate presence at the fire's start shutting down our power grid."

That idea went off inside Barclay's head like a bombshell. "You know, that may very well be true sir. We really don't know where Wesley and the Traveler are now. That makes sense. It makes very clear sense."

"It is logical, however, I have very little physical evidence to prove my hypothesis." the older ambassador admitted.

"Something will turn up, Mr. Spock. It always does." Reg sighed.

"Good night, Reginald."

"Good night, sir."

Reg watched as Mr. Spock went inside his quarters and then he went the few paces down the hall to his own adjacent door. He palmed the entry pad, thoughtfully and waved on the lights.

Sighing, he peeled off his boots as he sat on the bed.  
He groaned when the chronometer told him that it was only two in the afternoon. But the soft sleeping mattress made him feel the long night he had been awake and instantly, Reg toppled into sleep. He was snoring even before his head hit the silver sheets.

-------------

In the next cabin, Mr. Spock was already meditating. Thoughts passed through his mind in careful constructions until an illogical one drove away the structured, scientific ones.  
::Captain Kirk will not like being aboard Excelsior. No doubt Captain Sulu will only exacerbate Jim's own shipless captain's status unintentionally.::

He carefully hit his chest pin. "Spock to Captain Kirk."

"Kirk here." came the instant, ready reply.

Spock paused long while he composed just the right words to say. "I shall be unoccupied for five point three hours should you....want to discuss contingencies with me. I am in my quarters."

Kirk saw right through the veiled statement.  
"I appreciate it Spock, you're a good friend.  
But I'll be fine until morning. I've sealed off my access to the bridge in all the turbo lifts..."

Spock could hear the amusement in Kirk's voice and understood it for what it was.  
But he played along. "I shall backup that reinforcement with security measures of my own. You will not disgrace yourself in front of Sulu by acting pure captain on his ship." he added, spinning a little tone of lightness into his sentence he knew Kirk could not miss.

Kirk said, "See you at 0600."

"Until then captain."

Spock was able to meditate after that without interruption as all was right with his world and his friends, at least,  
for the moment.

---------------------

Janeway and Chakotay were also in their quarters. She sighed, shrugging off boots and uniform in the other room. She peeked around the corner, using the wall as a shield. "I claim first dibs on the shower. Rank has privilege."

"Fine by me. I'll have your coffee ready when you get out."

A curl of roasted coffee beans reached her from where she stood.  
"You devil! You know I wanted a cup the whole time under the city dome."

"Hurry with that shower and this, is yours."  
and he sipped it just for spite.

Kathryn's head disappeared so fast Chakotay felt the resultant breeze.

Soon, he heard the humming of the sonic shower heads.

He raised his voice as he read the datapadd report Mr. Barclay had taken of the video images and data of the time periods looping inside the Guardian's gate.  
"Kathryn. If we do end up in Captain Archer's time. Are you going to pay a visit?"

"We'll cross that bridge if we come to it.."  
Janeway said loudly. "Though I'm tempted."

"So am I. It would be an honor to meet such a legendary pioneer."

He smiled as Janeway started humming absently while she bathed like she always did.  
"Ah, but the Temporal Prime directive states.."

"..the prime directive be d*mned.." Janeway said, suddenly appearing in a gray robe,  
skin tingled with fresh red from the sonics,  
"Give me that...." and she intercepted the coffeecup he was about to bring to his lips while he talked and she downed half of it in two gulps despite its steaming temperature.

Chakotay chuckled, tossing the padd onto the glass couch table and walking over to the food slot to get himself the tea he really wanted. Belated he added, "Careful.  
It's hot."

Janeway curled up on the couch, tucking her bare feet under herself as she reached over and procured the padd her first officer had abandoned.  
She peered over the rim of her coffee mug while she scanned the information. "Never too hot or cold, I'd say."

"About the coffee?"

"No." she grinned. "About breaking the Temporal Prime Directive. Maybe the Guardian can prevent paradox in other time zones like it did for us during the fire when it brought us Uhura and the others. Only WE'D be the ones out of period in that time."

"Perish the thought. I don't know about you.  
But I'm going to stay here on Earth."

"Losing your sense of adventure along with the black in your hair in your old age?"

"I'd say the silver's imparting a healthy wisdom to show caution, and its winning the battle."

"Want some advice? After your shower, dye it back. It won't be the same without you."

"You're going through the gate with Moriarty?"

"Of course. Kirk's going to need all the support he can get." Janeway said.

"Hmm.. I'll have to think on it."

"Let me know by morning. I'd like to think my old crew still rallies to my side from time to time."

"Oooo is that a pun?"

Kathryn laughed. "Go clean up. I claim the couch for a nap."

"Not a chance, Kathryn.." Chakotay said. It was his turn to peek around the wall while he stripped his sweaty uniform. "Whatever happened to Victorian gallantry?"

"That soured a bit when I met Moriarty. My decision stands.."

Chakotay shrugged and he retreated out of sight.

Moments later, she heard the sonics start up as he cleaned off.

Her head was dropping onto her chest with a severe case of the sleepies when a motion drew her eyes open again.

Chakotay padded into the main room wearing a matching gray robe and he was sporting a new hair color. All black.

"Chakotay, I was only kidding..."

"Oh, really? Sounded like an order to me."  
and he sat on the edge of the couch next to her, pulling the padd out of her fingers with a mischievious grin. "Now I'm giving you one, also, as a friend. Take a nap.."  
and he pulled her down onto a pillow he neatly placed to catch her head as he yanked her over. A throw blanket covered her shoulders moments later and he got back up again, standing over her,  
glaring with hands on his hips.

"That's my stance Chakotay. I forbid you to use it.." she said without sting.

"I use what works. Now hush. You're tired from our all nighter in the city dome."

"Pushy Maquis."

"Stubborn Starfleet."

Kathryn was fully asleep before his smile filled his face at their teasing banter.

He pulled the blanket up around her shoulders a little farther and whispered. "Sweet dreams,  
Kathryn.."

Chakotay went into the other room and lay down to rest as well.

-------------------

Kathryn was dreaming of the white swirling mist of the beckoning gateway. A gentle presence appeared next to her as she walked with invisible feet. "Greetings Voyager captain.  
We finally meet in person."

Janeway looked up in startlement to a gray purplish face that was framed with kind,  
patient lines a head taller than her own.  
A familiar sparkle was in the air, dancing around him. ::The chronoton traces:  
She had found her mysterious time traveler.  
"Just who the h*ll are you to go mucking about with Starfleet's powergrid?"

"Wesley's told me so much about your fine world and city. I just couldn't stand by and watch the plasma fire destroy such elegance. Forgive me...."  
he held out a hand that had only two thick fingers and a thumb. "Let me introduce myself. I am called, in your words,... as the Traveler and I'm so very glad you came to meet me."

Instantly, Janeway shot awake on the couch and she whirled about in the darkened quarters. It was nine hours later, and night had fallen over the landed starship.  
Comforting stars winked at her from the port window in the cabin, telling her the lateness of the hour. ::Now that, was some carnival ride. Too bad it wasn't real.::

Little did she know how real the experience had been.

-  
(attachments)

Image: The Traveler next to a warp core..

Gif: Janeway and Chakotay on a book cover Saying: Janeway Chakotay Tales.

Image: Janeway in her quarters in off duty turtle neck gray.

Image: Spock in a close up.

*******************************

From : "patti keiper" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Cheek Art Date : Sun, 10 Mar 2002 19:33:48 +0000

Dr. McCoy was awake even before the transporter beam ended. "What? What?"  
he said, stumbling out of the office in Excelsior's sickbay.

Nurse Chapel started chattering.  
Smiling, Christine lifted her tricorder.  
"Whatever it is, doctor. It isn't serious, look.."

Leonard McCoy grabbed a peek at the tricorder and studied the lifesigns. "In the west wing ward.  
Confound it! This sickbay's so big, you need a map to get around." And he went past her like a shot.

::Just what he's been waiting for. A little business..:: she thought.

Leonard was two feet away from the beam in point when Dr. Crusher, Deanna Troi and their ailing patient fully solidified. "Let me see him. Stand aside. Excuse me. Coming through."

He stopped in his tracks when he saw that his medical case was none other than Boothby.

McCoy said dryly, "So,..we meet again."

"Likewise.." Boothby said, looking everywhere but at his attending physician.

Finally, McCoy forced a tight smile onto his face.  
"Here. Hop up and I'll take a look at ya."  
Leonard said, patting the nearest biobed.

Boothby was about to do so when he remembered.  
"Very funny, doctor. You know fully well that I can't do that particular action just now. Why do you think I'm using these two ladies as crutches right now?"

McCoy waved two muscley orderlies to lift Boothby onto the bed belly down.

"Ahh... ahhh!! Easy...there..ouch!" the old caretaker said with a lot of bluster.

McCoy ran his tricorder over the effected area.  
"You fell did ya?"

"Of course not. I was forced off my feet.." Boothby said.

"Uh huh.." McCoy said, not believing him. "Forced off your feet by our intruder time traveler no doubt."

Deanna and Beverly shook their heads fractionally,  
trying to keep from grinning.

"I fell really hard."

McCoy tore pants material away from Boothby's rear and Deanna promptly put a hand up over her eyes. Beverly, being a doctor of course, just leaned closer. "I can see that.." Leonard said.  
"Nice hematomas too. Nothing that a protoplaser won't cure."

Boothby began to stammer and studder protests while his treatment went on and Dr. McCoy was beginning to wonder why he was being so defensive when the last of the dark purple and blue bruising left Boothby's buns. Then McCoy saw it.

"Well, I'll be..." and he started laughing. "Lookie what we have here. Say, Boothby, why didn't you tell anyone you had your rank tattooed on your butt next to this rose here. Kinda cute."

Deanna peeked between her fingers and her jaw dropped right open as she saw the rank of a mere honorary cadet greet her questing eyes.

"Do you mind ladies? I'm entitled to a little privacy here."

Beverly said, "For Pete's sake, I'm a doctor here. There's nothing you have that I haven't seen before.."

Deanna added, pointing to the tattling tattoo glowing on Boothby's newly healed butt cheeks."...except maybe for one of those... Huh, neither of us won, Beverly. He's not even an officer.."

Boothby rolled over on the bed and pulled the silver sheeting up around his waist, hopping down from the biobed. "If you all are done oggling my tattoo. I think I'll be on my merry way. Don't look so smug ladies.  
I may have new buns but hasn't the thought occurred to you yet that this might be a very OLD tattoo? No one's won or lost that bet yet. Excuse me, McCoy, if you're through...."

Beverly and Troi's double grins went away when they realized they both were back to square one on their guessing game.

"I am... Unless you want me to check for other bruises you got from that rabbit."

"And how did you discern that Leonard H McCoy.." Boothby snapped in embarrassement when he realized that everyone knew all the dirt on him that day.

"Your clothes are full of rabbit fur around your ankles.  
And tribble hairs. " he said mildly, then he did a double take on his tricorder screen. "Wait a minute. This is MY tribble...Where is he? Is he safe? I thought the little bugger got dehydrated under all that vacuum."  
"Nothing of the sort." Boothby said, replicating a pair of trousers from the clothes slot in his size. Briefly,  
the sheet's ends fell away and everyone got a glimpse of the rose studded with the rank insignia once more and started giggling. Boothby harrumphed loudly in his throat and darted behind a privacy screen to put on his pants. "He's copying rabbit behavior so well even the hawks are confused. He's on the ridge in the prairie restoration project..."

McCoy flew to Excelsior's sickbay's sensor board.  
"I'm not reading anything there. Only rabbits."

"That's odd. He was cooing only a few minutes before these two lovely young ladies showed up for my rescue. Sounded like he was only a few meters into the undergrowth.."

"Well it looks like he's lost again. Thanks for watching out for an innocent pet, Boothby.."

"Wait a minute.." Boothby said, having finished dressing his lower anatomy. He came nose to nose with Leonard and glared into his eyes.  
"Your cute little pet's had a heyday in my gardens.  
Chewed my petunias.. If he's gone missing, its no fault of mine."

"Really? How do you know it was him who chewed the flowers?" he turned and tapped his bioscan screen. "Can't tell here, the vacuum's freezedried all of them.." McCoy said mildly.

Boothby grunted once and turned on his heel.  
"You're impossible.." and he left sickbay.

"I'll take that as a compliment I'll have you know."

Nurse Chapel said, "Weren't you a little gruff on him just now, and earlier? Boothby was your patient for Pete's sake."

McCoy looked at her and shoved his medical tricorder and the protoplaser into her hands so fast she had to juggle them to keep them from falling.  
"For a few bum bruises? Come on. Sometimes I think Boothby's part Klingon. He gets his jollies when someone actually insults him once and a while.  
It's the respectful mentor air from all the cadets and captains that drives him crazy. That's why he's so surly."

"Oh, really.." came a voice from the door. "What explains your wonderful bedside manner then, doctor?"  
McCoy and the rest of them turned to see K'Ehleyr walk into sickbay, shedding environmental suit gear. She placed her helmet on the biobed.

Just then, the EMH and HoloZimm shimmered in.

K'Ehleyr said ruefully, "Just missed the show boys.  
Both the tattoos and the piece of anatomy in jeopardy are just fine.."

The EMH said. "That was fast.."

"What was?" the HoloZimm said, his eyes darting everywhere around the spacious new sickbay like an eager child.

The EMH noticed. "Quit drooling like a toddler,  
Zimm. I thought you've been all over Starfleet and San Francisco using the hologrid network."

"Oh, but not here. This is a starship. A real starship. Haven't seen one of those..." HoloZimm said.

McCoy harrumphed loudly in his throat."Just don't go messing around with any equipment. Took me hours just to arrange everything properly so I can find it later.."

"Done.." HoloZimm said. Then a DNA scanner caught his attention and he reached out to touch it with a digit. "Ooo, what's this?"

McCoy used his protoplaser energy arc to snap a spark near the offending hand. Sparkles made it waver in and out with each button activation.

"Owww!! Cut that out.."

"I'm trying to.." McCoy said. "Listen to your old country doctor. No touchy!!"

K'Ehleyr snatched the medical tool out of McCoy's hands neatly and set it back onto the cart near the biobed. "Gentlemen..Gentlemen.. all the excitement's over.. Truce. Now listen.. my son's run off and there's a peds environmental suit missing from camp. Wanna help me find him?"

That sobered up everyone in the room and they clustered around the bioscan computer display.

"Won't work doing that. Alexander's pulled off his combadge. Found that in my quarters.."  
K'Ehleyr frowned. "I came to sickbay to find out exactly how long a child's size suit's air can last.  
San Francisco's a big place to search through,  
you know?"

"Same as theirs. Six hours. When did the suit get activated?"

K'Ehleyr said, "An hour fourteen minutes ago.  
He took it from a cargo container outside Kirk's camp."

"What about Janeway and her team?" McCoy asked. "Can they break off their investigation to go look for him?"

K'Ehleyr. "Nope. They've all just retired to the ship for a little rest a few minutes ago. I was counting on using Mr. Data to track down my little trepid explorer on his own. But I haven't seen him."

"Easy enough to fix.." McCoy shrugged.  
And he tapped his combadge. "Sickbay to Commander Data."

=^=Commander Data here. Doctor, what can I do for you?"=^=

"We've a missing boy here. K'Ehleyr's firstborn.  
Alexander pilfered an envirosuit and his mother fears he's gone into the city dome. Can you help us out any?" McCoy asked watching the expression on the tall stately Klingon ambassador shift subtly into one of barely suppressed worry. He hoped Data had a ready answer.

-  
(attachments)

Image : K'Ehleyr in tan leather.

Image: McCoy with a scanner by life panel.

Gif: The Starfleet Academy logo.

**********************************

END WEEK EIGHT RECAP 03-12-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Hub

WEEK NINE RECAP 03-13-02

************************************

Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 11:58:46 -0800 (PST) From: "Myron Ojala" Subject: [voyagerliveaction] Black or White?

Scotty made his way over to the transporter pad awkwardly, he was carrying quite a bit of equipment.  
He had several security containers holding a successful experiment. Scotty smiled. ::If we get through this,  
at least we'll have some decent embibation.::

He didn't linger because one did not make James T. Kirk wait for long. Byte hovered head high off the ground moving around the darkened transporter room above Scotty's helmet in Building Six.

Unpacking two phasers from his duty bag, Scotty crossed connected the power cells into the transporter relays. "This reminds me of the ol'  
days, with the ol' bairns. Jury rigging in pitch blackness." and he grinned.

One connection later and his lab transporter came to life. He stood up and tapped his combadge.  
"Scott to Excelsior. Ready to receive personal belongings to Cargo Bay Seven. I'll be comin' aboard shortly."

=^=Standing by.=^=

Scotty's hands danced across the controls and a familiar hum of transporter activity began.

Soon, his things were sent. The empty pad beckoned but he still had one final side trip he wanted to make before he departed. In his lab, he finished transferring his accumulated data on the newest holographic recruit.  
::Maybe I'm just an old engineer at heart, but I know a sour apple when I read about one. This Moriarty doesn't seem to be someone we can rely on. I only wish I had more time to check the official files that Starfleet has on him.::

He stepped into the middle of the lab. "Energize."

------------------------

The next thing Scotty became aware of was that the ensign who manned the console was much younger than Scotty believed possible. Zits marked the man's face which told Scott his apparent age. ::He's sixteen if a day.:: Scotty shook his head. ::Ah,,..youth. I remember it ...not so well..::

Montgomery exited the transporter room, giving the almost man a wondering look. As the final swoosh of the doors closed behind him, Scotty looked around at the immense Starship for perhaps the second time. ::In how many years?:: he pondered. He recalled the event where he removed several key components from Excelsior's transwarp drive's control system, preventing the pristine giant from pursuing Enterprise on her way to save a reborn Mr. Spock. ::It must have been the captain's fortunate luck that saved us all from serving a garbage scow after that adventure.:: he thought,  
feeling a little meloncholy as he remembered the demise of his beloved original Enterprise.  
::No bloody A, B, C or D..:: he smiled.

------------------------------------

Scott went up to a black wall panel, facing it. He touched its surface and it activated.  
"Computer." he prompted. "What is the location of Captain Kirk?"

##Captain Kirk is off duty until 0600.##

"Oh... Guess I have some time to kill.  
I think I'll pay a visit to that Moriarty fella.  
Maybe he'll want to "Chat" so to speak."  
and he cracked his knuckles in negative anticipation.

Soon, he had the holovillian's cabin number and headed down there,  
shedding his suit and passing it into the arms of a lower ranking crewwoman as she passed. "Here lassie, Do an old officer a favor will you? Take this down to requisitions."

"Aye, sir..uh.." she said as she caught the huge bundle of envirosuit awkwardly.  
She dropped a glove and Scotty perched it on top of her head, "Off you go.."

He continued on his way and was soon there at the VIP quarters.

Before he even beeped the entrance pad,  
a voice greeted him. "I can hear you out there quite clearly. And by the sound of your gasping, you're an older humanoid past what most Starfleet admirals call their prime.." said Moriarty.

The panel between them slid open.  
They were eye to eye exactly.

What Scotty saw made him gape.  
The holoman was wearing a velvet smoking jacket complete with a long stemmed cigar holder. "Don't just stand there. Invite me in."

"All right. I don't normally allow absolute strangers I haven't yet met in at this hour of the night.  
But you seem a charming enough fellow. I'll make an exception, sir,  
now, just for you... Sherry?"  
And Moriarty pointed his smoking cigar vaguely in the direction of the food slot.

Scotty declined the pro-offered drink.  
"That's holographic. No thanks. I like the real thing."

Moriarty shrugged and showed him the couch, waving the lights a little higher above them. "Please excuse my very large friend here. He is watch dog for my current home, so to speak."

Scotty looked up and saw a very burly security guard holding a curious contraption he had never seen before.  
"And what would that odd thing be?  
A security field generator?"

"Not quite. But you are almost on the money in thinking that the device jails on occasion. It is a holographic module regenerator. Picard imprisoned me there with the help of Mr. Barclay and the mannequin man, Mr. Data."

That made Scotty's attention perk up.  
The manner in which Moriarty mentioned Picard and Data seemed to contain a great deal of loathing. But he showed no sign of his misgivings aloud, "I just came by to introduce myself and meet Barclay's latest advisor.  
Just learned you were "hired" to help us out with the Guardian."

"As a matter of fact, I am Janeway's mercenary into the Guardian of Timezones. I leave with her and others at 0600. Are you coming along with us, .Mr....mr..?"

"Scott. Captain Scott."

"Oh, one of those.." he murmured.  
"I don't usually get along with that rank well. But now I'm on my best behavior. The Lady Kathryn is offering me eternal life and freedom if I uptake her cause. And so,  
this lion is declawed, sir..." and he bowed low gallantly. "There's no need for your obvious nervousness here, Captain Scott."

Nonetheless, Scotty felt that it was important for him to get to know this holocharacter. So he said, "I was actually sent here so I can get you where you need to go. With this.."  
And he snapped his fingers.

Byte shimmered into existence enough to startle the security guard who set a hand on his phaser.

Scotty told him. "This is mine,  
Lt. At ease, no need for alarm."

"A silver ball?" Moriarty asked.

"This.. is Byte."

"That explains it. I thought Kirk was talking about food earlier.."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Do go on, sir. I'm listening most attentively." Moriarty said.

"Byte is actually a modified silkie which is a form of sensor probe that has a self linking module with holographic or android systems."

"Ah, now I see, You mean to put my essence into the ball to fly near me when I search for the time traveler everyone seems to want to find very badly..."

Scotty frowned at how intelligent Moriarty's persona program seemed to be.  
"Uh, yes. Exactly. Any objections?"

"None. Only, when do we start the linking process. I assume that ball needs toolwork or some sort in order to function to that effect.." Moriarty said. "May I touch it?"

And he reached out his hand to Byte hanging in the air neutrally between the two men.

Scotty grinned. "You can try laddie.."

Moriarty stopped smiling. "Don't tell me you are still apprehensive about me and have its defenses up.  
How demeaning.."

"I wasn't referring to you personally.  
It's just that the silkie is programmed to avoid any attempt at physical contact of any kind while in hover mood."  
And he sat comfortably on the sofa,  
stretching. Byte stayed over Scott's head as he moved.

"I'm afraid I don't understand. Most of the machine language in your world troubles me still. Even after many years inside my jail."

::Jail?:: Scotty thought. ::Kirk wants me to aid a criminal? First thing in the morning, I'm in his face before his coffee reaches his lips.:: "Uh, but you're out now and my captain wants us to work together."

"I suppose this is true.." Moriarty nodded.  
"Yes..."

"Right. I need to examine your module to see if it can download your program complete into that probe."

"What do I need to do, sir.?"

Scott replied, "Nothing. Just don't try to change your robe or anything while I'm scanning or transferring.  
It might make your hair fall out."

Moriarty unconsciously touched his thick mane of curls.. "Oh, I wouldn't want that. Then I'd look like those two EMH gentlemen now wouldn't I?"

Scotty laughed out loud at that image.  
"Laddie, I don't know much yet, about you. But your sense of humor is certainly up to modern standards."

Moriarty was pleased at that analogy.  
"Even more so than Mr. Data?"

Scotty was surprised by that remark.  
"Now what put that thought into your head lad?"

"He's alive. And apparently, his peers find him very funny. If I am equally so, then conversely,  
I am alive as well. I'm just gathering points of argument for Lady Kathryn.  
She's the only one who thinks my life is worth safeguarding."

"Really. Well, you're actually personal reclaimation project number two. Right after Seven of Nine with her."

"Oh, the metal implanted young woman I saw in the hanger. She seems rather cold. No sense of humor at all."  
Moriarty admitted.

Scotty nodded. "Aye, she is at that. But,  
from the history I've learned about her,  
she's very important to Janeway. And now it seems, you have gained that favor as well. Don't waste the captain's good graces. She's got a dressing down that can score the barnacles off a hull plate."

"I understand.. I will not fail to uphold my end of the bargain. Shall we begin?"  
Moriarty said. Admiring Byte closely,  
without touching it.

Scotty nodded, "Aye, we've all afternoon and night, but there's no time like the present."

Soon, after a few hours, Moriarty was time jumping fit.

--------------------------------------

Scotty headed towards Excelsior's sickbay with the intention of killing some time.  
::Time is something the Guardian is never out of. Wish I had that problem.::

He wanted to talk to HoloZimm and the EMH about Moriarty in general.

"Hey, Bones.. Where's the holodoc and his "evil" twin brother?" he grinned.

"Where'd do you expect? In the holobuffer.  
Just cough, and they'll come. Believe me."  
McCoy said rolling his eyes.

Scotty frowned in amusing disbelief.  
::Their sickbay diagnostic program is that sensitive? Oh my. I can fix that in a... oh wait a minute. Sulu will get really upset if I mess with HIS Excelsior..I'm sure that he has competent engineers who can make adequate repairs on their own without me pestering them like an old mother hen.::

He shrugged and tried an experiment.  
He faked a sneeze. "Achoo..!!"

Suddenly Montgomery heard a familiar phrase.

"What is the nature of the medical emergen-- Oh, Captain Scott, force of habit.." said Voyager's EMH.  
"What can I do for you this afternoon?"

"Where's your doppleganger? I need him and you for a wee bit.."

"Oh? I'm growing a bit but I'm afraid any engineering skills are still evading my grasp and HoloZimm isn't much better. He's only two weeks old you know."

"Age doesn't matter in holograms much.  
Just in how far they get. And I need to learn just how far this Moriarty has already come. He's very sharp. Could be dangerous."

"I wouldn't know. I've just met him.  
Hang on, let me get my 'son.' for you.."

Scotty did a mental double take at that comment. ::Well, I guess HoloZimm is considered his progeny..::

HoloZimm came into being at a sharp whistle that made Dr. Crusher, McCoy and Troi wince and look over in their direction.

"Yeah? Here. What's up?" HoloZimm said eagerly. "Oh.. it's you again. Haven't seen you since the Great Fire.." he chuckled at Scotty. "You hurt or something?"

"No. I just wanted to talk to you both about this Moriarty. I wanted to get your impression on him. Since you all are holograms." Scott said tapping his belly.

The EMH sighed. "Here we are lumped again in the Us-Them distinction again.  
Aren't we lucky.." he said sarcastically.

The comment was lost on Scotty.  
He forged ahead. "How does he strike you? Can we trust him? Will he stick to his promise to Janeway and work for us? Or do you think he has his own agenda?"

The EMH rolled his eyes and scratched his bald head. "He is evolving, captain.  
Just as I and HoloZimm are doing. Who's to say how he'll react to his original programming. Experiences can erase old values and implant new ones.. So to answer you're question. How has he been treated by humans such as yourself. That'll give you your answers."

"Don't look at me.." HoloZimm said. "I've never even seen a hologram before until I met dad."

Scotty said. "My gut is telling me not to trust Moriarty. He's a sly snake in the grass, that one."

The EMH threw up his hands. "Then why did you bother to come all the way to sickbay to ask us the very same opinion?"

"I suppose its because, being holograms,  
I assumed you two would be interested in how he is tipping off everyone's intuition, for the good or bad. Your opinion matters to me.  
I will work with him simply on the strength that Janeway will."

The EMH smiled warmly. "It's been a long time since anyone came seeking my advice. Thank you, Mr. Scott. Anything else we can do for you?"

"When I get any more bright ideas, I'll let you know."

"Sure thing. See you at 0600."

"Where is everyone convening then? I haven't heard."

"In the conference room in Building Five.  
They've filled it with air before they left."

"Right. Until then, doctor, and HoloZimm."  
he said as he left their side.

He left sickbay to await morning.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Good Scotty photo, smiling.

Image: Pic of a equipment on a table.

********************************

From : "Clairissa Fox" Subject : I get into trouble on a train. Date : Sun, 17 Mar 2002 18:31:06 +0000 I knew what I did was wrong. All the grownups were busy fixing Starfleet and worrying about the one who hid inside the Big Donut. I dont know why they were so bothered. If he could travel inside time he could do anything. And if he were going to do something bad he would have. So there wasnt anything going to happen that was as scary as the big green fire we had put out in the science building.

My suit was heavy but it felt like armor so I was happy. Being a Klingon makes you that way. I didnt care that Captain Kirk would find out that I took it. I needed it to go into there.

I just didnt want my mum to find out. She could yell almost as loud as Captain Janeway. So I used my tricorder machine to make sure they werent tracking me down. I saw that Captain Janeway was sleeping on the starship and that my mum was in sickbay with Dr Bones. So I kept playing bush monster. It was easy. The air had dried them all up and I could tear them into powder! But I didnt touch Bootbys flowers. He had been nice to me when no one else would and helped me when I got hurt in the fire.

I grabbed my helmet and climbed into a hole that went into Mr Scotts lab but he wasnt there. Only the transporter was on and it had a phaser in it being its battery. So I climbed back out and walked outside. It was almost dark now and I laughed at the dust blowing around my boots. There must be something to explore in here! I pretended I was in space even though I was under the dome keeping the air out of Starfleet. It felt like I was on that dumb human moon mum had told me about.

Then I got curious by why the time guy wanted to come to Starfleet and help us with beating that fire. So I went up to the big windows around the command room and looked in. I could see the time car skids still glowing in the air by the tall ceiling. But I knew better than to go in there. Then the guards would find me and take me home before I got a chance to see anything in here.

I knew sneaking was wrong. I was just tired of not having anything to do. Humans thought a Klingon boy shouldnt be where he shouldnt at Starfleet. I remember how the security guards kept an eye on me before the fire. My mum was ambassador Keylar! Somebody important so it was dumb that they would do that.

I walked back out into the garden outside being careful not to step on Bootbys flowers. He would be so mad that they were dry powder now since the air was taken out in here. I hid behind the fountain that didnt have water in it no more and watched Excelsior closely. I guess the sensors werent on because I didnt feel a transporter grab me back.

Why didnt they see me? Yes I wasnt wearing my talk pin anymore but how many Klingons besides my mum and I were there on Earth?

I laughed and the steam filled my helmet. I decided to play hide and seek with the away teams anyone sent to go get me.

That would be fun. I would pretend the searchers were Romulan.

I dropped onto my stomach and rolled in the dust where the grass used to be and covered up so I was the same color as everything else was. There were those train tunnels under ground I could hide in. My tricorder said the air was out of them too but that didnt matter. I made sure I stole the best suit so I had a lot of air.

I found a hole going down and climbed into it. Soon I was on the traintracks and there was a train! It wasnt going since there was no electricity so I pushed the doors open with my gloves and got in. It was very dark inside the train but that didnt matter. Klingons were good seeing in the dark.

I remembered this tunnel. It was the same one the fire started in earlier. I wanted to go to the trainbridge and see if I could drive the train using my tricorder battery. I wanted to drive it like I flew Mr Scotts probe for them.

Soon I found it. There was no one there or anywhere because Starfleet had gotten them all out before the air left.

It had a chair like a captains so I sat down. I saw a place where my tricorder could give it some energy so I stuck it in there.

I left the lights off on the train so no one would see me drive on the tracks when I wasnt supposed to. Soon, I figured it out real good. That train was just like a shuttle I watched my mum fly. Its controls were the same and I knew how to make them work.

Soon, I was moving fast. But then my tricorder started beeping. I had forgotten about the energy cap keeping the air out of Starfleet! I didnt know if my train could go through it without crashing. If I hit it, they would find me for sure. So I tried to move the bar to get the train to stop. It didnt work. I was still going to crash into the energy cap wall! I tried to reach the train brake rope over my head but I was too short.

Now I was mad I didnt have a way to get help and very very scared. I didnt know if I would be ok after I crashed the train.

Now I wasnt so happy. I was alone in the dark and about to get into trouble again. I started screaming for mum.

I tried to turn on the train lights so the officers could see me down here but there wasnt enough tricorder battery to make them glow at all. All of it was being use to drive the train.

I tried to hit the off button on the tricorder but it didnt work either. The train still drove inside the tunnel.

Why do I get into trouble so much? I only did that when I was on Earth or when Father made me study when I didnt want to.

I looked up and saw the outside shell glowing in the tunnel. It was about two minutes away and it was blocking the way out.

Help! Help! I shouted. And I couldnt find the talking button on the train that connected to the talking pins everybody wore. I started to cry.

Somebody. I didnt mean to. I just wanted to drive a train. I wanted to know what it was like since I was too young to fly a shuttle. Help me! I dont want to crash.

I looked out the door I came into but I was going too fast to jump out of the train.

I remember how the security shells on Enterprise worked. They stopped whatever tried to hit them with a lot of sparks and nothing got through. Especially the ones in the brig.

Mum would be so mad at me if I got hurt. Then I remembered about Excelsior sitting on the ground. It had sensors on the dirt looking down here to make sure the fire didnt come back. Maybe it would see me in the train and people would come to stop it.

I wished they would. They had to come. They had to come to keep me from crashing and getting hurt.

I closed my eyes tight and tried to think about killing bush monsters instead of watching the wall get nearer and nearer.

I was scared now even as a Klingon. I was only a little boy.

I just wanted to play.

Then another glow of a different color made me open my eyes inside my helmet. There were more glowing time ship tracks floating down here. Maybe that guy could see me even though I didnt have a talk pin. I hoped he could. So I started waving my arms and shouting through the glass as the train sped by the trails.

Help me! I know youre there. Time people are everywhere. Im going to crash! Get me out of here!

-  
(attachments)

Image: Alexander in White Fighting suit.

Image: Alexander with his mother K'Ehleyr and his father Worf.

********************************

Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2002 23:15:23 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: [voyagerliveaction] Negative Lock

Seven of Nine wasn't swayed one way or the other by the decision to resume in the morning. She had seen how her old shipmates were fatigued by time spent inside the environmental suits. To her, they felt no different than her Borg armor used to feel. ::Rather comforting in fact.::

But Seven wished the others a good night and then excused herself to Excelsior's mess for a rare meal. It was really to satisfy Seven's healthy curiosity surrounding the crew of Excelsior. It had been a long time since she had walked in a starship. The similarities to Voyager and the differences were an enticing contrast.

Seven of Nine kept a smile off of her face as she sat at a table furthest away from the busy afternoon crew on their middle day break. She carefully selected her meal from the pop up replicator and watched as a mini beam presented her choice.

"Chocolate cake.." came a light baritone.

Seven of Nine looked up to see a familiar figure standing respectfully by her tableside.  
"Commander Data.." she nodded, placing the crystal clear platter with the neat slice of confection in front of her. She deftly fluffed a napkin that came with the dish into her lap and grasped the ornate pronged utensil and speared a bite.  
She lowered her eyes as she ate it but then her gaze drew back up at Data when he did not go away.

"May I join you?" Data asked the moment they made eye contact again.

Seven angled her head. "I did not know you needed to consume organic matter the way we humanoids do." she said as she saw the orange bowl of cereal and glass of an oily copper.

"I need the fluid for my servo mechanical devices and the plastics for my positronic self sealing circuitry periodically. I need to "eat" more than I need to sleep."  
he said, then he smiled, noticing Seven's lack of yawning. "I am surprised you are still active after having been on duty for four days running." Data remarked.

"The crisis involving the fire had all of us "up for days." Seven said a little self consciously. "I was not aware that a senior officer was so interested in whether or not I recreated and rested."

Data frowned. "If I gave the impression that I had you under surveillance, you are mistaken. I was simply, "making conversation." "

"I see." Seven said, taking a delicate bite of cake. "I apologize for my suspicions. It is not easy being an exBorg and also a Starfleet cadet. I am either a pariah or an object of curiosity among the other students."

"The EMH does not seem to think so.  
Is he not your paramour?"

Seven of Nine coughed in surprise into her napkin. She leaned in, making sure no one else had heard him. "What the doctor is to me is personal."  
She watched as a very good simulation of a flush rose in his pale cheeks.  
"That emotion chip is making you embarrassed, most likely for what you had just said to me. "

Data nodded eagerly. "That is correct."

"It wasn't a rebuttal commander. It was the beginning of a disclosure." Seven said.  
"What the doctor is to me is personal and important. He has come a long way in showing me how who I am relates to the little girl I was before the Borg came.  
Chakotay and I were a couple if you must know. But now, we're not. I..." Seven broke off, thinking things through. "felt it was too difficult for us to remain together because of our different histories. He, has run away from his people by choice. I was taken from mine. Either way, he and I have no culture in common to share with any children we might have had in a marriage. We ended up growing ...apart."

"I am sorry for those changes." Data said diplomatically.

Seven finished her meal and shoved the tray aside. Excelsior's tidy waiter device dematerialized the dishes, leaving a cup of tea Seven had ordered in front of her in its place. She took it and nursed the steaming beverage in between her palms.  
"Don't be. I see relationships around me following precisely the same outcome.  
Finding a partner in life takes time I've been told. Captain Janeway recites just that advice, often. In many ways,  
the EMH is more than just a friend."

"By the tone in your voice, you don't seem certain in this new relationship."

That made Seven look up quickly, but then she nodded yes.

"The EMH is a constructed being. He is like you in many respects. He, too, is discovering who he is and his place with others around him. He is a refugee off a starship. You both are one of a kind.  
You both regenerate with machinery,  
have mastery over great pools of imbedded knowledge far greater than normal people,  
and can go without sleep for indefinite periods of time. A useful trait.." he added when Seven began to smile at that detail.  
He frowned. "Is not an endless ability to spend time with each other "nice?"."

Seven regarded Data and leaned back into her chair, slouching as she once saw B'Elanna do after a long work shift.  
"You've succeeded in making me feel that the doctor and I are good for each other, commander. " she blinked.  
"Thank you. But that is not the reason why you came to eat with me when you could have taken sustenance in your quarters."

Data raised both his eyebrows, "You are correct again. I wanted to ask you about your nanoprobes and whether or not they could be adapted to synchronize with Byte, Scotty's probe. That way we can keep an eye on Moriarty as he tracks our absent benefactor through the Guardian time cycles."

"I can adapt them to a specification of that format. However, no Borg has tested the use of them through a time gate. It shall be interesting to see what will happen. My mental link with my nanoprobes may be severed."

"Is this disturbing to you?" Data asked.

"No. Nanoprobes are frequently shed without recovery when not used for assimilation purposes. I will not feel the loss of them emotionally." Seven shrugged. "My implanted blood node system can compensate readily enough."  
She took a sip of tea. "Interesting idea.  
I hadn't thought of that."

Data's combadge went off.

McCoy shrugged.  
And he tapped his combadge. "Sickbay to Commander Data."

=^=Commander Data here. Doctor, what can I do for you?"=^=

"We've a missing boy here. K'Ehleyr's firstborn.  
Alexander pilfered an envirosuit and his mother fears he's gone into the city dome. Can you help us out any?" McCoy asked watching the expression on the tall stately Klingon ambassador shift subtly into one of barely suppressed worry. He hoped Data had a ready answer.

"I shall head to operations immediately. Data out." He rose to his feet and indicated the Excelsiors glass messhall portal doors.

"I'm coming with you.." Seven said, joining him as he hurried to the proper deck. She had no problems keeping up with his determined speed. "No doubt Captain Janeway and Captain Kirk will want me to stay on top of this situation for them in their absence."

Soon, Seven and Data were on the deck designated on Excelsior for Starfleet Command Headquarters temporary home.

Data strode over to an admiral there and asked, "Have you been able to pinpoint the boy?"

The dark admiral shook his head. "No.  
His mother says his combadge is turned off. It's difficult getting any readings on Klingon lifesigns due to interference from the Guardian of Forever. Its open gate is scrambling our sensors well."

Seven of Nine "Then let's ask the Guardian to shut its portal.. "

"Not an option. We could lose our lead on the intruder.." the admiral concluded.  
"We have to have him to be sure the plasma fire was accidental and not arson from a third party."

"I understand."

Seven regarded the starship's view of the darkening city around it as a cam rotated pictures of the vacant campus around Excelsior.  
"This will take too long to find the boy visually.  
How about motion sensors? There are no away teams outside right now to cloud such a scan."

Data pursed his lip. "I am reconfiguring lateral sensors to physical motioning detectors on the outer ship's hull. We'll "see" movement from any direction, even through a window of a building."

He danced his hands through the proper sequences.  
Then he tapped his own combadge. "Data to Counselor Troi. Your empathic sense may aid us in finding the right motion data set on a surveillance grid that may be the boy's. Please report to our location counselor."

The admiral nodded at Data's idea.

Seven soon was helping Data interpret signal feeds from Excelsior's detection grid. "I have eliminated lifeforms smaller than Alexander with the scan. The process will go more efficiently that way."

"Good thinking." Data agreed.

Minutes stretched into silence as they strained to see any blip on their computer display.  
Nothing but a uniform still blue met their eyes.

"I don't understand." Seven said. "We should have seen the dust from his activities coming from the ground. There is nothing."

Data grunted. "If there is nothing in the sky or on land. Where else have we not covered?"

Seven said, "Underground." and she sent their sensors below the ship. Soon, her voice raised in concern. "There is a tram in motion.  
It's headed for the outer security field at high speed."

"Red Alert!" Data said in the command room.

The admiral linked his board with Data and pointed to him to take over the situation.  
Something else was going on inside the Guardian.

Seven spoke and people scrambled around them.  
"A collision will occur in one minute twenty four point nine one seconds. The cars will be damaged severely."

"There is no power down there. How can this be?"  
Data wondered.

"The boy." Seven answered. "Perhaps he's managed to activate the tram's locomotion by remote power source."

"That was foolish.." Data said, his emotion chip granting him with worry. "Attempting a transporter lock on the entire tram vehicle.  
Keeping it in a buffer should give us enough time to .."

"Beam it elsewhere safely off any tracks.."  
Seven finished. "Clever.."

She waited for Data to finish his task. But the worry frowns never left his pale forehead.  
"Commander..?"

"The Guardian's active portal is too near the motion signature in the subterranean location immediately below it. I can't get a positive lock.! One minute, Nineteen seconds, Eighteen. Seventeen......." the android shouted.

Seven began to feel a knot fill her unBorglike all too human stomach. The lingering taste of chocolate cake no longer tasted sweet in her mouth.

-  
(attachments)

*animated gif* Data laughing on the bridge.

Image: Janeway with Borged Seven of Nine in her alcove.

*********************************

From :"Cory Anda" Subject : When Holo Turns Good Date :Tue, 19 Mar 2002 06:58:29 +0000

Something made Barclay sit up on his bed. All was still on Excelsior, and he could see the dessicated trees through the portal showing a night time sky. Then he saw the red alert status bar on in his quarters.

He went rushing out into the corridor and tapped his combadge. "Barclay to Command. Anything I can do?"

Surprisingly, it was Data who answered. "Alexander has appropriated a tram and it is speeding out of control. Transporters aren't working due to the train's close proximity to the Guardian of Forever's position."

"That's right. Mr. Spock and I did discover that it didn't allow transporters to function near it last night." Reg said, thinking. Then he thought of something. "Let me work on the problem from my end. I have a few ideas. How long until the tram reaches the barrier surrounding San Francisco?"

"One minute six seconds."

::Wow. Not much time.:: Reg considered. "Send me the tram's telemetry and position to my personal tricorder. Lt. Barclay out." he said.

He shot into one of Excelsior's turbolifts and had turned around when he discovered that someone was in the turbolift with him. "I'll take that..." said an English accent. Then Moriarty and strangely, Captain Scott's silver probe sparkled out of existence in a holoshimmer.

Both Reginald Barclay and the security guard gasped in surprise. Reg hit his badge to his mentor, Ambassador Spock. "Sir! Moriarty has just disappeared. It seems he was linked to Scott's probe when he did so. He stole my tricorder for some reason."

Mr. Spock came over his commbadge instantly. "I am monitoring the situation from here. His holographic trace has disappeared along with Byte's electromagnetic signature. Only the immediate area surrounding the Guardian of Forever effects energy readings in that way."

Barclay paled and exited the turbolift. The security guard next to him barged past him, bumping his shoulder in his haste to get to his superiors to tell them what had happened. Reg didn't even see him go. He stood in the corridor in shock at Spock's words. "Sir, do you think he went into the time portal on his own?"

"That is a distinct possibility, lieutenant." Spock said.

::Oh no. Janeway's not going to like the fact that Moriarty lied to her.:: "What can we do sir?" Reg asked.

"There isn't much we can do until we have more information." Spock said. "Meet me on the command deck set aside for Starfleet operations. I have an idea on how we might be able to utilize Moriarty's holo module jail to learn his whereabouts."

"The sentinel guard Janeway assigned to Moriarty still has that. He just left my side at a dead run."

"I suggest you retrieve that man and the module."

"On my way sir..." And Reg hurried along, comming ahead to reach that man to relay Spock's idea.

------------------------

There was no wind in the tunnel when Moriarty appeared on top of the speeding tram. It was completely dark except for curious trails of light in the space above the tram in the tunnel. ::More vehicle trails?:: he thought, clinging to the jolting roof component of the lead car. There was no rushing air to blow him off but a fall would cause him to lose his destination point. He had materialized at the edge of the interfering margin surrounding the Guardian of Forever. Beyond was where the transporters and scanners refused to work. Looking over the edge of the rushing tram, Moriarty could see rushing stone of the engineered tunnel and ahead, the bright blue white of the vacuum dome just ahead. He got to his holographic feet, crouching to keep his balance. He motioned to Byte, the probe to stay near his position as he slowly fought his way to the lead car. "Klingon boy.. Shout if you can." he said.

His linked tie with Byte was feeding him information about the situation from Excelsior so he knew what the ship's sensors knew and what the officers in the Command room were talking about. ::Useful technology this Byte sphere.... Captain Scott and I should share dinner one day to discuss its schematics..::

A muffled vibration that wasn't the tram's drew Moriarty's attention to his shoes on the roof. Something non mechanical was making that sensation to his holo matrix. "Is that you my boy?"

Motioning like Merlin the Magician to Byte to stay near, Moriarty melted through the tram's roof and dropped into the pitch black bridge car below. He saw a tall figure in the glow of the tricorder's induction field in the tram controls dimly. And something else. Alexander's limp body. "Put him down I say..!! the English holo shouted.

The holo didn't know the sound of his voice wasn't reaching the stranger in the airless environment of the tram but he was plenty irritated at being ignored.

Byte, in sympathetic reflex, swooped nearer the passenger window on the outside, keeping pace alongside the speeding tram. But it could do nothing, being separated still from Moriarty.

Then Moriarty noticed another curious thing about the figure holding the unconscious boy. ::He is not wearing one of those breathing suits the Starfleet people seem to need in this vacuum. How curious.:: Driven by the need for immediate answers, Moriarty strode two steps and grasped the material of the creature's robes and whirled him around.

The tall figure was an alien, and he was glowing just like the time tracks glowing outside the tram Moriarty had noticed earlier. The weight of Alexander was no burden to him, even in one arm as he raised a hand in a gesture. The glow surrounding him grew to fill the tram bridge and suddenly Moriarty was aware that he could hear breathing and sounds again. ::This man had returned the air into this room..:: Then he heard a voice speak. It was full of patience and was very gentle.. "Do not be concerned about this boy. He is unharmed. I found him doing something he shouldn't have been doing according to the thoughts of the adults on the starship. I came to help."

"Who are you?" Moriarty asked. "These people won't be glad you're interfering in a rescue."

"I am a friend. In fact, you all were planning to try and find me tommorrow morning."

Moriarty's mouth flopped opened. "You are this time intruder everyone's been searching for?"

The tall male inclined his bald head gracefully. "I suppose so. Yes. If that is the term these people are calling me."

Then the increasing light in the tram's small bridge space began to cause Moriarty to squint in discomfort. "Look out! We're near the barrier!"

The Traveler simply swiped another gesture over Alexander's drive embedded tricorder and its power unit went black. The tram's forward motion began to slow rapidly as its own inertia and weight slowed it down.

It came to a halt meters away from the margin of the vacuum dome filling the tramway tunnel.

Moriarty sighed in spite of himself in relief. Then he got angry. "Give me him.." and he took Alexander from the Traveler's arms. He laid the boy onto the floor but left his helmet on . "What happened to cause his condition?"

The Traveler crouched by Moriarty and placed a two fingered hand onto Alexander's suited shoulder. "I don't know for sure. He just dropped into my arms a moment after I appeared before him. Perhaps he was frightened in some way. I did not mean to make the boy ill."

"You haven't. I've heard of this condition in bipeds." Moriarty said. He drew out his tricorder after pulling the necessary knowledge from Byte about the tricorder's life scan operationing. He passed it over the boy and the readings he found matched Byte's files on the symptoms of simple fainting. "Ah,.. he's uninjured. This machine here says he's passed out due to psychogenic reaction. It is not life threatening as long as he has an air supply."

"I have provided one in this place." the Traveler said, lifting his hands in a gesture chest high.

"I'll keep him in his suit, thankyou very much." Moriarty said sarcastically.

"Ah,," the Traveler said. "You still don't trust me. That is understandable. In my travels, some people find my sudden appearance in their realms as threatening. Although I was hoping that my return among humans on this world would have been remembered."

"You've been here before?" Moriarty said, studying Alexander's still face inside his helmet as he lifted the child into his arms carefully.

"In recent days. Yes. There was an event I had to take care of." the Traveler said.

That brought up suspicions in Moriarty immediately. "You mean the green fire that made the Guardian of TimeGates arrive on Earth."

"Yes. But it is not what you are thinking. I ...came on Wesley's request to end that terrible catastrophe if I could. I'm rather fond of your people. Some of your young show great potential."

"They are no people of mine..." Moriarty growled. "I am simply the mechanized product of their occasional tinkering. I have not been treated well."

That faded some of the serenity in the Traveler's face and he grew sad. "I did not know that. I hadn't thought to watch you created people along with my other observations of the Starships. I am sorry."

Moriarty was stunned by how his kind was addressed by the Traveler. "I am termed a ...created people?"

The Traveler gestured again and a small bluish glowing organic pod hovered next to Byte, waiting in the air beside the halted tram. It moved close and then through the wall of the transportation tram and a panel opened. "Yes. You may be mostly technology. But the essence of life has been instilled into you. That is a special gift."

"You mean... I truly live? I am alive??"

"Of course." the Traveler said, gesturing slowly for Moriarty to carry the boy and follow him into the cramped travel pod a few meters away. "That happened the moment you took your first action of free will. Didn't you know?"

Moriarty crawled into the time pod cradling the tiny boy and settled into a soft wall that shaped itself to fit them easily. "I had not even realized. Picard said that his scientists didn't know I could be so.."

"I know Captain Picard. One of his crew is with me now. A boy with genius of a wonderful magnitude. Do not be troubled by the fact that you didn't know the truth of your sentience. Humans have insight into many things but knowing what is alive isn't one of them. But they are learning. Look at how they've accepted Commander Data." the Traveler grinned. He gestured to form the outer membrane to close.

Moriarty said. "Wait a minute. I need Byte. ah, that silver sphere outside. It is part of me right now. I need that to manifest away from my module."

"I see it." and the Traveler created a hole in the pod's living substance to let the probe in with them.

Moriarty watched the boy closely for signs of consciousness, but he didn't awaken. But the pulse on his scan was strong. He let down his guard slowly. He watched as the Traveler nestled his floating pod against the tram long enough to recover the air he had created in there into it. Then he saw the Traveler look up. It lifted into flight. The tiny pod traveled back down the tracks the way it had come and then sharply banked into the ground. "Where are we going?"

"To the starship. The boy needs his mother. She will be worried about him. Her worry is what attracted me to his side for her."

Moriarty watched as the soil slid by the glowing pod like soap bubbles, leaving a trail track behind it in its wake through its transparent ceiling. One compelling thought kept going around and around in his mind. "I am alive..." he whispered. "I can't believe it.." and a real holotear blurred his vision.

"Of course you are. It does not take much for life to happen. Especially in this universe." the Traveler said.

"But I need my holomodule to function. It houses my existence." Moriarty said.

"Yes. But the humans need food and water and air to survive. They are as much tied to those things as you are to your holographic rooting device. All life here in this fold, has a tether to depend upon. It is simply how it is in this dimension. The abundance of that life is what so intrigues me. You are simply a newer species."

Some deep knot of pain let go inside Moriarty's heart and the last of his righteous anger left forever. He then realized that his insanity had been simply a survival trait which allowed him to go on against difficult odds. He couldn't meet the Traveler's gentle, deep eyes. But he whispered. "Are there many....people like me. I...I know of two here on Earth. Janeway's holophysician and the model of his maker."

"I'm afraid you are very rare, you three. There are no more."

Moriarty's grief for his holographic match rose and simulated tears filled his eyes. "Then why didn't you come for my Regina! If you were the benevolent keeper of rare life and potential, why didn't you save her from dying."

The Traveler's face didn't lose its faint smile but his eyes went sad at once. "I regret I cannot be everywhere at once. I can only occupy one dimension safely at a time. I tried pilotting a lost starship through many on the Road but it nearly killed me. But, now that I know you three are here on Earth,I can watch over you. That is a small comfort I realize. But it is what I can do now for you all to the best of my ability. Wesley likes holograms, I think perhaps it is because through one, he learned about his father, so I will try to make sure he has them near. He will be so surprised to learn that three of them are ....alive."

Moriarty began to weep in joy as the Traveler's words touched him, healed him with a power beyond his ability to comprehend.

"Come. Wipe the water from your face. The humans will not understand it. We are almost there." the Traveler said, banking his tiny pod so it penetrated Excelsior's hull.

He landed the bubble pod right in the center of the Command deck set aside for Starfleet's population.

"This is not this great starship's bridge. But it is wonderous anyway.." Moriarty said. "I, too, am impressed with these people's enterprising accomplishments." He was ready when the Traveler melted the wall before them. He stepped forward gripping the boy tighter in his arms.

He winced in the bright light and at the sound of bustling activity of people after the peaceful womb of the timepod. The return to the outside was almost a shock. Moriarty appreciated the boy's faint all the more. ::He would not have liked this sensation.:: He shouted aloud at the sudden appearance of security team with phasers pointed at him. "Do not be alarmed. We have both rescued the Klingon boy. There is no longer any danger to him!"

He waited quick seconds for one of the Starfleet personnel to respond to his friendly declaration.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Moriarty in closeup.

Image: The Traveler.

Image: An Intrepid class starship surrounded by a bluish glow.

*********************************

From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Patched Up Problems Date : Wed, 20 Mar 2002 00:36:28 +0400

He (Moriarty) shouted aloud at the sudden appearance of security team with phasers pointed at him. "Do not be alarmed. We have both rescued the Klingon boy. There is no longer any danger to him!"

He waited quick seconds for one of the Starfleet personnel to respond to his friendly declaration.

Beverly Crusher and Deanna Troi arrived into onto the command deck about two seconds later.  
Dr. Crusher shot forward without hesitation at the sight of a patient. She uneasily glanced at Moriarty as she took Alexander from his arms and set him on the conference table to one side.

Deanna moved the portable computer out of the way. "Beverly, I think he's fine. I sense he's almost ..." she thought about a good description for the feelings she was getting from the boy. "...sleeping."

"Let me be the judge of that. Klingons don't black out unless something seriously jolts them." she replied. "EMH to Commdeck Five. We've got Alexander. I need you here."

=^=On my way..=^=

And seconds later, the holodoc's journey was over. He opened a medkit near the boy and then helped Beverly remove the child's envirosuit helmet. The seals released with a snick and the hiss of air pressure made Alexander flinch slightly. "He's coming out of it. There's no problem with his breathing."

Beverly drew out a stimulant anyway and gave it to the boy. He began to cough but he didn't open his eyes. Dr. Crusher just happened to glance up and truly see who was with Moriarty.  
"Oh, it's you..." she said with amazement.  
"I had no idea you were the one they were searching for.." she said to the Traveler.

"I found the boy in the terrain vehicle in the tunnel. I knew his mother would be worried about him, so I came back."

Deanna said, "I'll say you did, right when it mattered." and she smiled warmly. "Nice to see you again. It's been a while."

Moriarty had his hands full of the security guards who were still at attention with phasers aimed at himself and the Traveler. "You've seen this journeying man before doctors?"

"Yes.." Beverly said. She waved the guards away. "It's all right. I trust this alien. He's an ambassador of sorts. The professor, you already know.." she said to them. "Now shoo."

Reluctantly, the two men backed off, returning to their places standing by the wall. Soon,  
they were called away to attend to some other duty.

Together, Crusher and the EMH freed the boy and they eased him onto his side.  
Still he was not awake.

Then all of them jumped when a dusty tribble hopped up onto the table and rolled against the boy's cheek. It started purring gently.

"Hey, he must have come with us in Boothby's transporter beam.." Dr. Crusher marvelled,  
smiling broadly.

Alexander smiled in his sleep and his sweaty hands encircled the cooing tribble protectively.

Troi leaned over and scratched the tribble, who leaned into her caress without leaving the boy's contact. "And here I thought tribbles hated Klingons."

The EMH piped up. "You're forgetting something.  
Alexander isn't full Klingon." he said grinning.

They all laughed.

Then the Traveler went over to the command area of the Commdeck and addressed everyone there. "Concerning the information you wanted to know about the plasma fire. It formed purely by chance. There was no one responsible for its formation. And from what I've seen, it will not reoccur in the future. The vacuum protocol you've put into place has done its work. The city and your fleet campus are now completely safe."

Behind him Beverly nodded reassurance of her faith in that answer to the officers the Traveler had spoken to. They accepted the pronouncement and turned back to their status board.

Slowly, they lifted the vacuum dome off San Francisco and from over Starfleet.  
The returning air from the surrounding sky caused the dry dust that had formed inside to blow and fill the area with a tan fog. But then the California night wind blew it all away out to sea.

On a nod from the high admiral, San Francisco and Starfleet got back full power. And he hit a universal communications band. "To all Starfleet personnel. All clear-- from disaster recovery alert. Man your stations and posts. All private citizens may return to homes and businesses as normal. Our fire danger is resolved."

On the main viewer, Deanna and the doctors could see floods of shuttles returning under the moonlight and many many people in lines walking back into the city proper.

It wasn't five minutes before everything was back to normal operations.

It was as if the plasma fire had never even been. The only evidence to that effect was that every bit of land that had been under the vacuum dome was devoid of grass,  
and the trees and gardens devoid of leaves and flowers.

Starfleet Academy's fountains no longer had water flowing in them, it having boiled away to vapor in the vacuum seal.  
But soon, an instantaneous rain began to fall precisely only over Starfleet's vast grounds,  
and rapidly began to fill them again.

Deanna blinked and started laughing when she saw Boothby lurking over by the weather control satellite station panel."He doesn't waste time, now does he?" she chuckled.

"Hmm?" Beverly said, looking up from Alexander.

Troi pointed out Boothby.

Beverly smiled in amusement. "At that rate,  
I wouldn't be surprised if he's planting lawn seed and flower bulbs by morning. It must've really irked him to watch his beds dry up blow away under that vacuum."

"It must have." Troi shrugged.

Beverly saw a med team come out of a turbo lift and she waved them over to their location to collect Alexander.. "There's no trauma. Just use light oxygen on your way." she told them.

"Wait..." came a returning voice.  
It was the Traveler. He had left the main commdeck and had returned. Now he was studying Alexander's face closely.  
And the tribble stopped cooing and began to trill a little louder, pressing nearer to the boy.  
"Something is troubling him." the Traveler said turning his head to one side. His peaceful face clouded with a mild concentration.

"I'm not getting any of that. To me, he's.  
still napping." Deanna added. "Easier, if I might say, with that tribble near."

"No. Not now. Then, just before I came into the tunnel to find him."  
the tall alien said. "It was in that when,  
on the tram."

It was Beverly's turn to look confused.  
"I don't understand."

"I'm sorry." the Traveler said. "Your human terms are difficult for me. Even using your universal translator. I am used to thinking in multi-times and multi-dimensions." he said softly. "The boy isn't in danger now.  
But he was then."

"Of course he was, he was in a speeding train."  
the EMH snapped.

"Not that, doctor. What I'm feeling now from then matches what is occupying your superiors attention now over there." the Traveler said.

The two doctors, counselor and Moriarty sub consciously looked up at the bustle of admirals in the temporary Ops area on the other side of the room. Some of Excelsior's bridge officers had joined them and they were all focusing on Building Five on the main viewer.

Seven of Nine and Data entered the room and rushed over immediately to the CO admiral in charge, ignoring the medical scene and the Traveler.

Seven seemed to be talking very fast about something.

The bustle in the room behind them intensified as something else was happening that had the Starfleet command officer's attention. Excelsior's bridge was being informed of a development. Dimly Bev realized that the red alert Mr. Data had called had not been taken down.  
Beverly tuned it out, knowing where her duty lay first, as a doctor, for Alexander.

Deanna frowned, reading the impressions she got from the hurrying activity around her.  
"It's the Guardian of Forever. Something's happening. "

She noticed Seven of Nine and Mr. Data being called into a tight group of admirals.

"Can you tell what yet?" Beverly said as she scanned Alexander.

"It's too soon." Troi replied. She looked down at the boy lying on the tabletop and touched the fastenings on the envirosuit, releasing him from it as the med team got him on supporting oxygen and covered him with a blanket for his transport to Excelsior's sickbay.

Moriarty pointed to the main viewer, which had shifted from the wide city view of San Francisco and Starfleet to inside Building Five. The Guardian of Forever was no longer phasing through its time loop showing its passage through Archer's era to the present day. It was locked on one scene, a very familiar one. A nighttime on Earth with dispersing tan dust filling a hillside.

A wavering shimmer caused the night stars to swim eerily and then it came. A bulky brown rusty hulk of a ship. It was not immediately recognizable. And it flew in towards Excelsior,  
low, almost sweeping the tops of buildings as it came.

"That's now.." the EMH exclaimed. "Present time.  
Right above us.." and he ducked in reflex as a deep roar penetrated Excelsior's hull.

"Raise shields!!" One of Excelsior's bridge officers by the Starfleet heads shouted.

##THEY ARE COMING. I COULD NOT STOP THEM#  
came the ancient voice of the Guardian of Forever over Excelsior's ship wide comm.

The Traveler grabbed onto the table as the ship rocked as a tractor beam tried to latch onto Excelsior from where she was landed on the ground.

"I want manuevering room. Take us up!! Emergency ascent!" they heard Excelsior's captain say over the intercom.

Deanna Troi had not visited the bridge she knew was three decks above theirs. But she remembered that one of Captain Kirk's old crewmates commanded Excelsior and she was comforted. The alarm levels in the personnel on board was still controlled, not blind panic. ::It would be, we've no civilians aboard her.::

Then the view of the Guardian shifted, showing its portal gate. It began to glow and two figures formed from within.

"What in the world?" Beverly exclaimed. She watched the two armed figures come into being, and step into Building Five's hanger from the Guardian.  
She didn't recognize their patchwork skinned faces.

Then Seven of Nine shouted. "Arm yourselves!  
They're Vidiians!!"

Starfleet Headquarters and the Excelsior were under attack from above and beyond.

Excelsior's impulse thrusters groaned under the alien tractor assault, but she got altitude, she strained a few seconds more, finally gaining the vacuum of outer space, dragging the Vidiian vessel up with her and away from the city.

The battle was on.

Even through the frightening noise, Deanna heard Seven tap her combadge.  
=^=All off duty senior officers to the Commdeck. We are under attack!!=^=

-  
(attachments)

Image: The Vidiian Ship attacking.

*Movie*- A battle in space between starships.

Image: Doctor Crusher looking worried in low light.

Image: Counselor Troi serious close up.

Image: The EMH and Janeway surrounded by armed Vidiians.

**************************************

From : "Katherine Bird" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] The Can Opener Stage Date : Wed, 20 Mar 2002 07:53:35 +0000

Janeway must have drifted off again. For when she stirred a second time, a vague uneasiness disturbed her rest yet again. But this time her wakening was devoid of a vision of any aliens coming to call. ::Who was he again? He called himself the Traveler. Now why does that ring a bell?:: Kathryn thought.

Listening for a moment in the darkness of her quarters for the sound of Chakotay's breathing from the bedroom, Janeway rose from her couch and padded over the lush carpetting to sit at a work table. She toggled a switch on the table computer and squinted when its bright light stabbed into her sleepy eyes. She hunched over the terminal and whispered to it. "Computer. Keypad only. No audio commit."

#Parameter configured.#

"Shh..." Janeway told it in irritation, glancing up towards where she could see Chakotay's form sprawled on the bed. But the commander did not stir.

Kathryn resisted the temptation to key up Excelsior's bridge status. She figured anything that came up would be in very capable hands without her. She, was in offtime. It had taken her years to finally, really be off the bridge mentally when she wasn't actively working. Chakotay's meditations and vision quests had helped.

She glanced up again at his sleeping form beyond the glow of her work screen and wistfully wished that they could go on another. It had been a long time since they had shared one together. ::Almost two months. And I still haven't mastered the technique of picking up my spirit guide's moods to learn from.:: she chided mentally.

=================

She could still feel the smooth scales of him underneath her fingers from the last visit when she closed her eyes and thought about him. Then she started chuckling, stifling the sound with her hand as she remembered her last conversation with the gecko spirit.

##Kathryn. You must relax if you're going to decide to be like me. I don't blink and I don't curl my fur since I don't have any so pay attention.##

Captain Janeway snorted and pulled her restless fingers away from the hair she was absently curling in them while she sat yoga style on the beach.

Chakotay next to her seemed like a rock. Very at one with his wolf friend. They were both like the ocean cliff behind them, somehow, blending. For a few moments, Kathryn swore they blended in with the boulders themselves. "How do you DO that?" she said aloud.

The sound of her "speaking" in the vision quest made both wolf and man jerk open their eyes in unison. Then a smile filled Chakotay's. "Practice." he said to her. "I become my spirit guide and she, me. I just, empty my thoughts and let go. Soon, I feel everything around me as clear as pictures, even with my eyes closed."

"Yeah, well all I feel is thirsty." Janeway said. She glanced out at the dawn waves a few feet from their prayer rug. "All that saline water and none fit to drink."

Chakotay regarded her a baleful stare that matched the one her gecko guide gave her. She wondered if they had planned that reaction out ahead of time. "You should have eaten and rested before we tried this exercise. Spirit walking with your guide is much better when you're both in the same body."

"I don't think my 84 kilos is going to ever fit into his eighth." she laughed, smacking her stick she had been fiddling with against the glowing sand, reveling in the strengthening sun against the skin on her face.

Then a chill spidered up her back that wasn't pleasant at all. "Chakotay, do you feel that?"

"Feel what?" he asked.

Janeway turned her head out to sea. The sun erupted into a bloody red and the seabird cries whistled and warped into a red alert klaxon and then....

=====================

Seven tapped her combadge. =^=All off duty senior officers to the Commdeck. We are under attack!!=^=

Janeway jolted off her elbows. Sleep had tricked her once again. But adrenaline made her absolutely sure of her surroundings this time. "Chakotay!!" she shouted.

A huge upward heave slammed her chin onto the computer table and thick pain sliced through her mouth as her teeth were driven into the corner of her tongue. She could taste blood on her lips. She struggled to her feet as sickening motion unbalanced her and threw the computer off the table. It was sent rolling and Janeway,too. ::We're lifting off. Faster than the inertial dampeners can compensate! Damn it, Chakotay! Why don't you answer me?::

She gave up trying to walk across the dark living quarters so she crawled painfully, feeling many bruises beginning to stiffen muscle and joints. "Ughghh!!" she groaned.

Soon, she made it into the other room. Then a ghastly glow from the outside filled the room and she saw him. Excelsior's initial heave upwards and evasive move for altitude had flung her first officer into a wall. He lay gasping, trying to get his wind back, trying to speak as he saw her pull herself towards him, first one meter, then two, until she was by his side. "Easy.." she said, placing a hand on his chest. "Just relax.. like we did in that quest exercise a month ago."

Chakotay shuddered and air suddenly whooshed back into his chest as stunned reflexes finally listened to his will. "Gahhh..gh. Oww.." he gasped. "We we've been hit by a tractor beam..*cough*"

"I know. It's still there. That's why everything's glowing orange. Can you stand? We've got to get to the Commdeck." she said.

"I think so. Nothing's broken.."

"Good." she said, giving him a hand up.

They leaned on one another until they had both learned a macabre sway to the lurching deck as the starship resisted capture in the beam. Then they headed for the door. "That's Vidiian tractoring."

"Yes. And it's got a solid lock on us." she turned her head to meet his eyes as they snatched up their uniform tunics as they ran outside into the corridor.

It took a few seconds for them both to get used to the bright lights. The moment they did, Chakotay reached for her chin. "You're hurt."

Janeway evaded his grasp by pulling her face away. "Nothing that can't wait. I must have bit my tongue. I'm fine. Let's go. It's a long way up to Deck Five in the turboshafts. The lifts won't be operative under this kind of evasive shearing.."

----------------------------------

Lt. Uhura and Nurse Chapel were better prepared when the ship began to pitch and buck beneath them. They grabbed onto McCoy and pushed him into a floor locked chair in the office. "Stay put Leonard..!" Christine snapped. "You won't be able to take a fall at your age."

He sputtered but shut up instantly when Uhura called up what was on ship's sensors. "A tractor beam. A powerful one. And a ship."

"I'm not familiar with its design." Chapel admitted, seeing the craft responsible for their rocky ride in sickbay.

"Is there anything we know in this decade?" Uhura said sarcastically. "I don't think so. It's just bad and ugly.."

No one around her laughed.

"We've got to get sickbay ready. There's bound to be casualties." Chapel said.

Uhura watched as McCoy staggered off in between the deck joltings to do just that. She said, "That's only second priority. That tractor means business. What if we're about to be boarded?"

Christine looked up from the desk edge she was clinging to. "By whom?"

"Let's find out." Uhura grunted. She managed to stab a hand down on the computer pad nearest her. She shouted. "Computer! Triangulate sensors and come up with an identification of our attacking vessel. All possible answers."

##The ship in close proximity to the Excelsior matches one known i.d., Vidiian. Origin. Delta Quadrant.##

Chapel shrugged from where she was anchored against a pillar.

Uhura ordered more. "Speculate intentions! Best guess."

##The probability of aggressive takeover of the ship for organ harvest by the Vidiians is ninety eight point three percent.##

Even Uhura paled as Christine muttered, "Now I know we're in deep--"

"Christine! There's got to be something we can do to help!" the dark communications officer said.

"What? A frontal assault? We don't even know the layout of Excelsior let alone where the armory lockers are. We'd best stay put. Sickbay's one of the most protected areas of the ship!" Chapel said.

"Then we'd better start praying. Listen. I don't like the sound of that.." Uhura said. "Someone's not going to be late for their appointment with the doctor."

Outside in the ward, they could hear titanium bulkheads being violated as the hull was being breached by forced entry.

"What should we do?" Chapel squeaked.

"Pray.." Uhura said, passing to her one of two phasers she had found on brackets beneath the doctor's desk.

Lightning fast, Chapel hit her combadge. "Sickbay to Commdeck! Invasive hull breach by attackers in progress our location. Respond a security team!"

-----------------------------

It was a long agonizing climb, seconds crawled by like years, but at last Janeway and Chakotay had reached the access panel tube grate onto Commdeck five. She popped out the screen grill with both her boots and jumped out only to almost eat a muzzle of a phaser aimed at them from a frightened cadet startled by their noisy arrival.

"Captain!" the young man said, lifting his phaser up to the ceiling and away from her and Chakotay. "I thought you were--"

"Vidiians take at least two minutes to breach a ship's hull. Remember that." and she barged her way past him to the main area in the room. She glanced and saw the unconscious Alexander lying on his litter with his attendant med techs crouched by the useless turbolift and the rest of the scene in a glance.

The nearest person to her was the EMH, who took her arm after seeing the blood streaming down her face.

Janeway spoke up. "How's the boy? He hurt bad?"

"I should ask the same of you, captain. Looks like you've severed a lingual artery from the looks of it and don't try to hide it. Biting your tongue's only going to make you swallow more blood." he gestured toward a medkit Crusher had open by another fallen crewman. "Come over here and I'll seal it off. It'll only take a minute."

"I don't have a minute. The hull integrity's about to be breached in sickbay. Didn't you hear the Nurse? I've got to go over there. Seems like I'm the resident Vidiian expert here."

"Not so fast. I can treat you now. Or in five minutes when your blood pressure drops through the floor and you pass out from lost volume. Kapesh?" the holodoc said.

Moriarty passed by just then, milling about and he stopped long enough to offer Janeway a lacy hanky from his velvet jacket pocket. "Here my dear. You look like you really need this." and he walked away, up to something only he knew across the Command room.

The EMH sighed, crossing his arms stubbornly.

Janeway spat a glob of clot out of her mouth and felt a fresh stream running down her uniform collar. The copper taste was making her nauseated, effecting her concentration. Finally she nodded. "Make it fast doctor." and she went with him going to Dr. Crusher for treatment.

Chakotay nodded when he saw the EMH's success over Kathryn and made his way to the senior officers. "Where are they cutting access into us besides sickbay?"

"On deck seven, the shuttle bay, and the mess, deck nine. All of these areas are immediately beneath the radius of the tractor's nimbus field." a young lieutenant at tactical answered.

"Then let's block their "sunlight." Move Excelsior and get an orbiter satellite to impact the beam between us and the Vidiian ship. That should wipe out that first cutting crew at any rate."

"Trying sir.."

About ten seconds later, a dull sizzle made all of them duck as a minor surveillance satellite swept into the Vidiian tractor beam, taking Excelsior's place inside its grip.

"Break us free! Break us free!" Chakotay shouted. The opportunity for escape was very small at that instant. ::It could fail.::

And it did. But the pinned satellite bought them some time. The next Vidiian party would have to burn through the satellite in order to reach Excelsior's hull again. And that, was wonderful news. ::Maybe by then, Earth's defenses will be activated and then we can blow them the h*ll out of space.::

"Chakotay to sickbay. Status report!!"

There was no response. Only static.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Uhura in close up at her board.

Image: A very worried Christine Chapel.

Image: The EMH examining an injured Janeway.

Image: Chakotay lying injured.

************************************

From : "Roxy Dee" Subject :[voyagerliveaction] Captain Kate Saves The Day~~ Date : Wed, 20 Mar 2002 20:44:44 +0000

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Out Of Character~~

I've a surprise for you all. I've a close friend you know very well over for coffee with me right now. And she wants to try her hand at writing for once. I guess its the caffeine making her so gungho and I'm taking full advantage of it.

(Shes laughing right now and smacking me on the arm)

Let's just say, Janeway is a role KKM knows very well.

Enjoy all. Maybe I can get her to do it again next visit. So cross your fingers. If we get her, then maybe we can get the three Roberts into this tiny web Trek show next. It's just a matter of time. Let me work on it.

Roxy

Back In Character~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Captain Kirk and Lt. Yar were two who didn't go to their assigned rest quarters when Janeway had called a recess concerning the time traveler. Now, ten hours later. Kirk had all the excitement he needed. He felt fifteen years younger at the moment. ::The Traveler rescuing civilian boys from runaway trains,  
an ex killer hologram dressed like Watson for an advisor, and now, an enemy without a face invading Excelsior.. I LIKE it.:: he thought happily.

He whistled in the dark, and motioned for Lt. Yar to take the other side of the doorway surrounding sickbay. The sound of hull cutting had stopped when his tricorder showed that the Commdeck had used a satellite as a shield against the invaders but the shuddering of the deck continued unabated as she strained to break free. ::If only we weren't so near Earth and the Moon. We could just go into warp and shear our way free. And where are the planetary defenses? Starfleet went back on power and online ten minutes ago.::

Lt. Yar wasn't messing around. Excelsior wasn't her ship but she hated it when bullies showed up who thought it was ok to rip and plunder and kill at their convenience. She nodded to Kirk, her back to the wall, gesturing that she was ready for a storm into the medical ward.  
As yet, there had been no reply from Uhura,  
McCoy, K'Ehleyr, nor Chapel from within to her hail. Something was definitely wrong.  
Those crewmates inside had also, not answered Chakotay's frantic hail as to their status.

But Kirk wasn't about to go into a charge firing wildly at an unknown enemy. His accumulated years had instilled a healthy caution in him, and had made him a better captain. He tapped his combadge.  
=^=Kirk to HoloZimm. Don't reply back. Beam to my location no matter what's happening in there.=^=

Soon, sparkles danced before Kirk and a frightened HoloZimm became solid. Kirk reached out and grabbed his shoulder and yanked him against the wall in a protective move. "Get under cover my friend. We may have been boarded."

HoloZimm too, crouched, casting his eyes around until he saw Yar nearby and that she was watching him along with Kirk. "I'll say we've been boarded.  
The crew in sickbay is all right for the moment.  
I moved a holographic projection of a wall over where they're hiding in the main office and added a dampening field to mask their lifesigns. They can't hear any communications hail while they're in there. I felt that was best to save them from the Vidiians."

Kirk grinned wryly. "Is that what they're called?  
Now I have a name for this enemy. What can you tell me about them? Neither Yar nor I know who they are. We've seen the main viewer and that ship out there."

"I wish I didn't know so much about them captain.  
They're desperate scavengers infected with a disease that rots out their bodies. They, have these regular raids on starships to harvest the crew for body parts to keep themselves alive. Their medical skills are extensive,  
almost as good as the Fabrini's." HoloZimm replied.

"Then why are they reduced to hunting and killing.  
Haven't they found a cure for this disease of theirs?  
Sounds like they're terminal lepers." Yar said.

"That's just it. They can usually cure any ailment except their own. The Phage is virilent in them because one of their own scientists engineered it to be specific for them." HoloZimm said. "And he designed it to have no known cure. It was for a civil war among his own people. It was meant to be a deterent weapon. But then some radical decided to release it for real."

"All this history on the Vidiians is nice, HoloZimm, but we haven't much time. I need tactical information about our attackers if we're going to do anything good for those trapped in there." Kirk said.

A foreign scanner noise made the three outside in the corridor duck once more against the wall and flatten.  
Clearly, some Vidiians had made it inside before the satellite impacted the tractor beam.

"Shh.. Kirk said. He tapped his combadge. "Computer,  
erect a level ten isofield over all sickbay bulkhead doors. Key to my voice print only. Code Alpha One Omega Zero Zero One B. Implement."

A small door sized field buzzed into place in front of them. Yar could feel it creating static charge and smelled the ozone it was creating. "Good, sir. That will at least keep them in one place." she turned to Holozimm, "Are you sure the others are still safe in there?"

"Of course, lieutenant." Holozimm replied. "I linked a subroutine in my holomatrix to tell me if any protective dampening field around concealed crew were compromised anywhere, shipwide. I'll sneeze if that happens."

Yar gave him an odd look but went on, removing a small hand phaser from her belt. "Listen. Are you able to operate one of these? I know EMH's usually can't harm people in any way."

"You're forgetting, Tasha.. that our holofriend here is only a template, looking like the EMH. He isn't one actually.  
He's a model of Louis Zimmerman, his creator." Kirk said to her, grinning. "He'll be able to defend himself."

HoloZimm nodded promptly in a firm yes. He took Yar's prooffered weapon.

"Now, we have to come up with a game plan, without becoming a biology dissection project ourselves along the way." Kirk said. "It may be some time for Excelsior security to come assist us. Especially if there's been more than one hull breach boarding." he sighed.  
"Listen, Holozimm, have the Vidiians seen you yet?  
Do they know about you?"

"Not yet, I shrunk myself down to bug size the moment I secured the crew behind that field."

"Good. I want you, to play your twin, the holodoc. Do you think you can do that?" Kirk asked.

Holozimm's brown holoeyes frowned in worry. "Well, I.  
I'm not programmed with any of his personality files,  
captain. I merely have the emergency medical skills any cadet graduate would have normally since that is the education I absorbed before I was discovered."

"Good enough." Kirk said, grinning openly, but then his face crinkled and he gestured, "But you're going to have to change that tunic of yours. Make it look like his. You know the one, blue across the shoulders,  
and black below.."

HoloZimm hit a few buttons on the wall on the computer panel and his appearance fuzzed out then back in. He looked exactly like Voyager's EMH now, only a little taller and not so confident. "This starship's nice having holoemitting projectors every square inch captain but I'm still vulnerable, like the holodoctor is to energy fields and phaser fire in close proximity."

"That's all right, Holozimm, you won't be getting in the line of fire. Yar and I will be doing the hard part."

"Make that Yar, you and me.." came a voice jogging up to them. It was Janeway, newly healed and armed to the teeth with a phaser rifle matching the one Yar held.

Kirk grinned.

Janeway went on, "I figured you could use some backup cover captain. Chakotay's handling the other invasion points from the Commdeck."

Yar noticed the bloodstains on her uniform. "Are you hurt?"

"No. I've been attended to. Now listen up. There's a few things you should know about Vidiians. I've encountered them plenty of times on Voyager..."

Kirk interrupted her. "They like their surgery specimens fresh and never ask ahead of time for permission."

Janeway blinked in surprise.

Kirk jerked a finger over to HoloZimm. "He's told us all about them, Kathryn. We're set."

Janeway nodded. "Good, I think the four of us, with the doctor here, can handle those in there. The Traveler's managed to determine that there are three Vidiians inside sickbay.."

Holozimm started laughing..

Janeway stopped speaking. "I fail to see what's so funny here.." she said angrily.

"I'm not your holo physician, captain I'm.."

"HoloZimm,,," she finished. "I see it now. You have more hair than he does and it's a bit darker. Nice disguise."  
she pointed to him as she addressed Captain Kirk, "Are you going to use HoloZimm here as a diversion?"

"Yes. The crew's being concealed inside a dampening field in the main office. Four people, Ambassador K'Ehleyr,  
and three of mine, Uhura, McCoy and Chapel."

"Are they all right?" Janeway asked.

"Yes. They haven't been here hasn't started sneezing yet.." Yar said.

"Huh?" Kathryn blinked.

Yar gestured, "Never mind. A minor detail. Captain Janeway,  
Let me go in ahead of you. I'm more expendable should something go wrong. And I'm.. well quicker than you. You've been Earthbound for five years..maam."

Kirk and Janeway exchanged ironic looks. And Kathryn spoke without offense. "Just because my seat hasn't been warming a captain's chair doesn't mean I've gone soft, lieutenant.  
And neither has Kirk here, and he's been offship decades longer than I.." she said teasingly.

Kirk shifted on his feet and rolled his eyes.

Janeway went on, "I appreciate your altruism, Lt. Yar, and I'll accept your offer to "go in first", but you're not going to go in firing, you're going to be pretending to be one of our supposed "EMH's" emergency cases, hurt from a fall when the ship began bucking. Vidiians are still scientists before soldiers and a healthy curiosity will stay any tendency of theirs to shoot before scanning. They have a curious habit of analyzing any victims first for viability before stunning and harvesting. Usually the process is sped up by using a blanket scan from the mother ship but Excelsior's satellite gum in the pipe trick has kept them from having that global information ahead of time. They have to scan by hand any crew they find.  
And that, we can use as our advantage." she looked up at HoloZimm, "But I'm afraid you don't quite look the part."

"I don't?"

"No..." she jogged over to a red cross marked panel and opened it. It contained a field med kit. She snatched it out and traded his phaser for the kit. "Now, you're ready to go on the air."  
and she winked.

Yar smiled. Tossing her rifle over to Janeway who neatly caught it. "I'm gonna like this counter attack immensely.  
Tell me. Are they susceptible to heavy phaser stun? I'm gonna nail them the second we get near. I won't be "unconscious" for long..."  
"Light stun will be sufficient. They're sick, remember?"  
she smirked. "Let's give you a bit of believability, Lt. " and Janeway peeled off her uniform tunic jacket full of blood and handed it to Yar to put on. "Lucky I haven't had time to get a new one."

"They'll think I'm a captain.." Yar said.

"That's all right. You'll make a more appealing victim to them.  
A potential captain hostage. It'll further safeguard you from being harvested right away should something go wrong."  
Kirk replied.

Now it was HoloZimm's turn to frown in uncertainty. "But you've now unarmed two of us, Captain Janeway. Our firepower's been halved."

Kathryn grinned, "Quit thinking like a security guard Holozimm."  
and she snatched up a hypospray from the medkit in his hand.  
She dialed it to an anesthestic and slapped it into his palm. She gave another one to Yar to put up her sleeve. "We're plenty armed. Cleverly. Are you ready Yar? Time to act sick."

Yar dramatically faked a faint and fell into HoloZimm's arms.  
He barely had time to fling the medkit strap over his shoulder to catch her. "Ohhh.. " she said. "I feel so woosy.."

Kirk grinned. "Tone it down lieutenant. Some of the Vidiians are doctors, too. They might be adept at spotting pretenders."

HoloZimm easily hefted Yar off the floor into his arms and she nodded ironically, then she went limp in every limb, dangling loosely. HoloZimm boldly put the hypospray in between his teeth in plain sight and he mumbled, "I'm in a hurry remember?  
Doing five things at once."

Janeway crouched down by the door taking over the side Yar had occupied. "Hold your breath, Lt." she said to Tasha.  
"Your blood chemistry will go all to h*ll on their scans and'll buy Kirk and I a few more seconds while they analyze your suitability.."

"Got it.." and she took a deep breath and did so.

Janeway nodded to Kirk who said, "Computer release isofield Five Beta Ward One."

The field snicked out. Kirk nodded for HoloZimm to begin "acting". Janeway and Kirk stayed well out of sight with their weapons. Janeway nodded a go.

HoloZimm began shouting the moment he crossed the threshold into the medical ward. He pretended to not see the Vidiian invaders and made straight for the biobed nearest them. "MMmmmmWe've mmgot tomm mmhurry. Mmm..She'sff ff got an airway obffstruction mmand hasff stopped bbbbreathing."  
he mumbled...around the hypo spray clenched in his lips.

"What?" the nearest Vidiian said, "You're mumbling hologram." All three were looking in HoloZimm's direction and away from the outer door.

HoloZimm flopped the "ailing" Yar up onto the biobed and then feigned shock at seeing the Vidiians in sickbay for apparently, the first time.  
His mouth dropped open and the hypo spray fell out onto the bed and bounced into his hand.

That was the cue.. Janeway and Kirk stormed the room with weapons blazing. They were careful not to hit HoloZimm doing it.

Equally at the same time Yar came to life and injected her Vidiian with her hypospray the same time Holozimm did his Vidiian.

The third was caught in Kirk and Janeway's crossfire and he, too, dropped to the deck, But not before his alien scanner stunner shot out towards Captain Kirk. The older captain toppled and sagged down a wall, paralyzed but conscious.

Janeway saw him go down but didn't turn to him until she was sure the three Vidiians were incapacitated fully. HoloZimm altered his appearance back to his white neutral labcoat and gave a command to release the dampening field. K'Ehleyr, Uhura, Chapel and McCoy tumbled out wielding various medical equipment such as laser scalpels. K'Ehleyr held a chair at the ready over her head.

K'Ehleyr said. "Oh.. Guess there isn't going to be a battle today, too bad." and she threw it back into the office behind her.

Lt. Yar grinned. "There's plenty opportunity soon,  
ambassador, Chakotay reported multiple hull breaches from the Commdeck a few minutes ago."

Uhura said, "Is it bad? In there, we couldn't see or hear anything once Holozimm covered us up."

Christine ignored the officers and the out cold Vidiians when she saw Captain Kirk, slumped against the wall. "Captain Kirk!!" she shouted.

Janeway had already knelt by him and had felt his neck for the pulsebeat there to reassure herself of his stable conscious condition. "He should be fine.  
Vidiians can't harvest organs from shocky victims.  
He's only been immobilized. He'll be able to breathe and his heart'll beat just fine." She brought her eyes down to Kirk's open and fixed ones.  
"You'll be fine Jim. The effects wear off in a few minutes. Just try to relax. I've got things under control here. We got em good."

She moved aside for a hastily muttering McCoy who took over Jim's care. Janeway looked at Yar and Holozimm.  
"Put these prisoners into the isolation ward under a security field. We'll deal with them later. Then I want you two back here to guard that open door.  
Without Kirk to reinstate that isofield over that bulkhead leading to the corridor we're vulnerable in here."

They nodded on her orders and did the task.

K'Ehleyr took the rifle off Kirk and hefted it,  
guarding the doorway Janeway was worried about.

Lt. Yar hit her combadge when she returned.  
"Yar to Commdeck, Sickbay is secure. Three Vidiians contained. We've one minor injury in Captain Kirk but he'll be recovered in a few minutes. We've no further casualties. Yar out."

##Understood.## Chakotay said from Commdeck Five.

McCoy looked up from where he was examining Kirk. "Listen all, I'm grateful you've rescued us,  
but I wanna get Jim onto a biobed so I can get a closer look at him and one of those alien thingamajigs. It may have done something other than just paralyze his motor muscle reflexes."

To humor the white haired doctor, HoloZimm Uhura, Chapel and Janeway carried Kirk to the nearest bed and got him comfortable.

Then Yar turned to HoloZimm. "Well that went slick. Glad you didn't sneeze on us before we captured those Vidiians."

"So am I. " he admitted.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Kirk with a phaser.

Image: Portrait of Kate Mulgrew as Captain Janeway

Gif: The Paramount Corporation logo in white.

*

From : Myron Ojala Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Lost Windows of the Soul Date : Thu, 21 Mar 2002 22:28:24 -0800 (PST)

Montgomery lounged back on satin covered pillows wallowing in decadence. The dancing girl was slowly removing yet another sheer veil. With a smile for Scotty alone, she let the fabric slowly float to the floor.

Scotty watched as the sheer fabric floated and landed by his feet. "Ah, lassie." he said as yet another scantily clad maiden rubbed his shoulders, and as a third fed him grapes.  
Between morsels, he groaned in ecstacy.  
"Oh, yes... that's the spot... That's it.  
Just a little to the left.. Just a little bit lower..." And all of the sudden he felt the earth moving and he fell out of his own bunk with a thud and out of his dream.

"Aoowww!! Of all the wha?  
Red alert? What's that happening to the ship?!"

He got to his bare feet and stumbled as he made his way to his closet for his uniform. "Computer, what is the current status of the ship and why the flamin' **&&$ (Gaelic explicative) didn't anyone call me?"

##Excelsior is under attack by a hostile vessel. Captain Montgomery Scott is not recognized as an active member of Excelsior's crew.##

"Well ask a stupid question....get a stupid answer. Computer. Damage report!"

##Hull breaches on Decks, seven, nine,  
the messhall and sickbay. Lt. Yar has reported that sickbay has been secured.##

"Computer, Identify attacking vessel."  
he asked while finishing dressing.  
He huffed a lungful of air as he pulled on his last boot.

The feminine yet neutral reply said,  
##Hostile invader is Vidiian.##

"Who the bloody h*ll are the Vidiians?"

##Vidiians originate from the Delta Quadrant.  
They attack starships for a ship's crew to organ harvest. Their race was first discovered by Captain Kathryn Janeway of th--##

"Computer stop!" ::What would Janeway be doing right about now?  
I'll just bet she had something to do with sickbay's victory.:: Scott thought. ::But she might be a little busy right now.. So:  
"Computer, Locate Commander Chakotay."

##Commander Chakotay is on the Commdeck.##

"Scotty to Commander Chakotay."

Chakotay's voice came online immediately. "Go ahead."

Scott spoke as he rushed trying to find his tricorder and his silkie probe, Byte.  
"Where's me Byte?"

"Pardon?"  
he heard come over the comm.

"Looking for some equipment, that's all. Do ye need any help up there,  
Mr. Chakotay?" Scott asked as he was tossed almost to his knees when the ship shuddered yet again. He looked up and noticed a glow outside his porthole view.  
"That's a tractor beam that's got us."

Montgomery heard him answer in a tone that Scotty recognized from many times when a commander was pressed without answers.  
"I wouldn't turn it down, Mr.  
Scott. We've got multiple hull breaches throughout the ship.  
We're being boarded."

Scotty felt his Gaelic ire rise.  
He rummaged through a foot locker and pulled out a claymore and hefted its weight into a palm "Let's the two of us, plan a wee party in the messhall commander.  
I think I ken show these Vidiian beasties a thing er two about vivisections of our own. Heh,  
heh,heh, heh. heh."

"Let me transfer matters to Mr. Data.  
Mr. Data! You have the Commdeck.  
Mr. Scott, I'll join you there shortly.  
Chakotay out."

---------------------------------

A few minutes later, Mr. Scott and the burly Commander were side to side outside the messhall.

Scott checked his tricorder readings and ascertained that there were four Vidiians inside the messhall. He determined that there were no ship's personnel within.  
::Well, that's a load off my mind:  
"It's clear of crew. But there are four of those creatures and it looks like they're well armed."

Chakotay kept his face away from the glass doors while he considered options.  
"Plan on carving up a ham with that, captain?" he said noticing the ancient steel weapon in the engineer's hands, he said in slight amusement.

"Just a Vidiian or two. Or four for that matter." Scott grinned.

"Not quite regulation, but I'm not complaining." Chakotay smiled back.

They both clung to the wall with both hands when the ship rocked again as she attempted to escape the energy beam.

The computer warbled on again urgently. ##Warning. Hull breach beginning on Commdeck Five. Forced entry is imminent.##

Both officers looked at each other with renewed determination. Scotty said "Well, laddie, guess we don't have time to wait for backup. They're all goin ta go up there first." he said of the security detail teams.

Chakotay hefted his phaser high and lined it up with a window, taking a peek to see if he could make out where the invaders were inside the messhall. "They're setting up a transporter hub using what looks like pattern enhancers. There's gonna be a lot more than just those four in there shortly."

Scott tightened his grip on his sword,  
"Wonderful. I think we should cut into this dance, don't you think, laddie?"

"I couldn't agree more. On three."  
But he skipped two numbers. "Three!!"

Scotty and Chakotay charged into the large messhall. Chakotay drew a bead on the nearest Vidiian before he could raise his analyzerstunner.  
He made sure his setting wasn't lethal. ::We'll need prisoners to interrogate.:: He fired a quick blast of yellow.

The startled patched work face of the alien grimaced in surprise for a moment before he collasped into a heap on the deck.

The fallen invader's companions began bringing their weapons up to bear toward the Commander when suddenly,  
Scotty popped out from behind the bar.  
"Over here ye stupid Frankensteinians!"

That bought enough time for Chakotay to roll behind a counter to relative safety.

Then Scotty stood up and threw a coffee pot at one who almost got a shot off at him. Ping! The heavy metal cylinder bounced off the cranium of his adversary and the being grunted as he crumpled to the carpet into unconsciousness. ""That's two!  
How are ye doing Commander??"

Suddenly, Scotty heard a tortured human scream just out of his sight around the corner. There was no mistaking whose it was.  
"Chakotay! What's happening?!"

Scotty dropped and crawled the length of the back of the bar, keeping under cover, until he reached the edge.  
He looked around a beam and what he saw made his heart almost stop.

A Vidiian was standing over Chakotay's shaking body, his sinister device slicing into the Commander's face. Two orbs that were hideously,  
obviously, eyes floated out of Chakotay's head and into a small stasis tube.

Scotty gasped, barely able to breathe or speak but somehow,  
he found strength enough to snap out an order.

"Computer initiate Program Sulu Fencing Automaton Alpha. Remove holosafeties and protect human lifesigns. Mark!"

Six faceless fencing dummies in featureless white leotards with metal mesh masks suddenly appeared surrounding the Vidiians.

The remaining alien intruders were momentarily taken by surprise by the newcomer figures and their ignorance of holographic systems fooled them fatally when they tried to disregard the artificial forms as nondangerous. They tried to turn back to their hideous surgery on Chakotay.

That Vidiian instinct to ignore the nonliving, turned the tables against them instantly.

The six training holomannequins surrounded the two Vidiians, leaning over a moaning Chakotay and they erupted into action with multiple fencing tactics of offense since they registered a man was down.

As one, five of the trainers lunged forward with their sabres, plunging them deep into the nearest alien.

He didn't even have time to cry out.  
He looked down in surprise and mumbled, "But you are holo...."  
and he slumped into death.  
His body's impaling mass pinned the trainers flimsy swords and they froze into place. The exercise figures faded out when all movement ceased in their opponent.

The last Vidiian and fighter holo were left face to face, scanner stun to swordtip.

Suddenly the Vidiian cried out in anger and fired golden lightning from his analyzer. The holofighter's matrix was disrupted by the intense energy discharge and Scotty suddenly found himself alone, the next one in the Vidiian's sights.

Scotty snatched up a chair to shield his torso. "You bloody b*st*rd! Leave the commander alone!"

The Vidiian was almost mild. He smiled with rotting teeth through lips that were half Andorian and half Tellerite. The irony of the fact that this Vidiian was made up of Alpha quadrant species was lost on Mr. Scott when the creature spoke. "I am sorry for your friend's pain.  
But it was necessary. I am my brother's Honatta and it is my turn to replace his eyes with a suitable donor's. In this case,  
a human male's."

Scott wished he could turn his sword into Chakotay's fallen Federation phaser that lay just out of reach and he snarled.  
"Give me those eyes. Now!"

But the small Vidiian doctor backed up two steps until his feet were within the ring of pattern enhancers he had brought with his invading team.

A buzzing droning hiss wrapped purple light around him and he started to fade away.

Scotty screamed "NOooo!" and he hurled the blade of his claymore with all of his strength at the escaping Vidiian.

But all he accomplished was watching the sword's point impact into the wall as it cut through the fiend's ghosting outline.

He stared numbly at the vibrating metal blade in the bulkhead when he realized Chakotay had fallen silent.

That snapped him to.

Captain Scott ran over to the Commander and knelt by him, checking to make sure he had the ability to breathe still as a profound coma took Chakotay into shock.

He slapped his combadge and he barely recognized his own shaky voice as he shouted.  
"Scott to Commdeck! Medical Emergency!  
Beam two to sickbay!"

The last thing Scotty remembered was seeing the sunken bloody pockets behind Chakotay's closed eyelids as the transporter effect carried them away.

-  
(attachments)

Image: An angry Scott in red standing by a computer wall.

*animated gif* An EKG monitor weaving the word "Hi" in the heart signature blip strip.  
Below appears "I'm alive and kicking"  
in red.

Image: Chakotay's vision quest river stone, the "eye" into his soul.

*

END WEEK NINE 03-22-02

.com/voyagerliveaction ShowcaseSite

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WEEK TEN RECAP 03-23-02

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***********************************

From : "patti keiper" Subject :[voyagerliveaction] In her Native Element... Date : Sun, 24 Mar 2002 03:16:38 +0000

Leonard Bones McCoy gave a huge sigh of relief the moment he knew no one had died in the latest fiasco with the aliens. ::Bad enough having your workplace on a starship, but to have a battle in your own personal patient ward? That's unforgivable:  
he thought, and he gave a mental spit towards the isolation chamber where Yar and Janeway had deposited the konked out Vidiian invaders.  
He couldn't wait to get one under a deep tricorder scan. ::In fact, I can't wait.::

"Hold on just a sec there cap." he called out to Janeway as they were dumping the last ex-attacker into the tiny room. "I could use a little direct info on these fellas if you know what I mean." and he tapped his bioscanner. "You see, Jim here won't be able to tell us much until that paralyzer stun releases him." McCoy looked down and lowered the sickbay lights a tad so his captain wouldn't be too uncomfortable staring at them without being able to blink.

Janeway grinned and nodded, unceremoniously dumping the youngest female Vidiian on a full restraint capable bed. The EMH and HoloZimm helped her fit down the ties on her limbs.  
"Good enough. I've more than a few questions for these people. I was told directly from Kurrus, a head of an alien think tank in the Delta Quadrant, that the Vidiians were given a cure for their Phage by his scientific community. I want to know why it didn't work here." and she gestured impetuously at the unconscious alien.

Bones laughed as he put drops into Kirk's eyes to keep them moist. "Nice work foolin them, Captain Janeway. Even better than my captain would have done..." he chuckled.

Janeway gave him a wry look, smiling, "Careful what you say, doctor. He's still awake in that condition and he hears you."

"That's all right. I've known Jim for thirty nine odd years and he knows I can say just about whatever I d*mned well please these days about him because I happen to be the leading authority on what makes Captain Kirk tick. Isn't that right, Jim?"

Of course, the staring frozen form of Kirk didn't reply.  
But Janeway thought she saw his eyes bug out just a hair. She fervently wished she were elsewhere when her counterpart finally got his coordination back.

"But even after that long. Jim still has ta be drugged or stunned like this for me to get in the last word. No fun when that happens. But, let's get to the nitty gritty on this monster gal shall we?"

The EMH frowned as he handed McCoy some instruments he would need to conduct a thorough bioscan on the Vidiian female. "These people aren't evil, Dr. McCoy, they are a race of artists and gifted scientists.."

"Yeah, then why are they visiting innocent starships and shopping first and talking later, huh?" Bones grumbled.  
He snatched the Vidiian tool that HoloZimm was playing with quickly, "Watch out, son.." he warned, "You might end up with a stomach scrambled where your gizzard is.."

Holozimm gasped and felt his middle before he remembered,  
"Hey I don't have any organs to get scrambled, doctor. I'm a hologram."

"Umm hmmmm" Bones said distractedly as he picked at the rotting skin around the woman alien's forehead.  
"Come over here, K'Ehleyr," he invited. "And take a look at this would ya?" and he pointed.

The ambassador wasn't squeamish so she walked up to the bed with her tall height and bent over. "Looks like Khin'zai skin."

"Yeah, from Klingons of an Old House Family who didn't have forehead ridges. Now that frightens me. Here these folks are, attacking Earth directly, using the Guardian of Forever to make it here and this skin is proof that they are strong enough to defeat a warrior caste of Klingons. Bad enough that ninety percent of her is made up of Alpha Quadrant species..." McCoy concluded.  
"That bridge up there better watch out. I wouldn't be surprised if that ship were far more advanced than any of the Federation's."

"That's true, doctor." Janeway said. "But they have weak points. Their vessels are vulnerable to lateral shearing once their boarding tunnels clamp onto a hull. It's fairly easy to tear free once that occurs."

McCoy snorted, "Then why aren't you up there on Excelsior's bridge telling that to the command crew."

Janeway crossed her arms in amusement. "They'll figure it out. I know Sulu's performance record. Impeccable."

Just then the ship's bucking and pitching ceased.

"See?" Kathryn said, "We're free."

"Thank heavens.."

K'Ehleyr's attention was drawn once more to the ceiling as renewed cutting with laser torches could be clearly heard through the hull. "It's not over yet. More of them are getting through.."

Yar ran over to K'Ehleyr's side and Janeway, too, with her rifle. They aimed them at the ceiling and waited for the first telltale sparks of an invading breach.

The EMH reconfigured the biofields around the doors to include sealing off the ceiling from the open spaces but Janeway shook her head.  
"It's not going to work this time, The ceiling's too great an area to spread a powerful enough shielding.  
Any analyzer fire on their part will get through to us anyway. We better move to the other wing under cover. Take her, too." she pointed to the Vidiian prisoner. "We'll use her as a hostage if we have to."

Everyone, including Chapel and Uhura, unlocked the wheels of the two patient biobeds and they pushed them rapidly into the ward.

Yar said, "Holozimm, if you could do us your false wall and dampening lifesign field trick again..It'd be great.." she said urgently.

He created a false wing where one didn't exist and did so, buying time for all. "I don't know if this will work or not. I haven't configured the dampening field to hide Vidiian lifesigns well enough because I've haven't had enough time to program what they are to the computer. I'm sorry.  
But we still won't be seen or be able to be fired upon easily."

"That's ok, HoloZimm," the EMH said, "You did the best you could."

-------------------------

From the overhead, there came a warble.  
It was the bioflag monitor address system.  
##Incoming casualties. Two to sickbay.##

The EMH quickly routed correcting coordinates.  
"To Biobed seven Ward Two, reroute!"

The shimmers safely materialized behind the trapped crew's camouflage.

K'Ehleyr grabbed Holozimm even as the others ran to aid their new arriving crewmates. "Listen.  
There are holoemitters all over this ship,correct?"

"Well,I.." he stammered.

"Answer me!!"

"Well yes, ambassador,.."

She interrupted him, "Then make me a combat program scenario, in a jungle environment as thick as you can make it.."

HoloZimm began to smile. "Ah,, I see, the camouflage behind the camouflage.."

"Yes, do it.." she said.

Soon the air in sickbay was full of jungle noises and moist humidity with bright leafy plants and trees hundreds of feet high.

"Parameters established.." he said. "But I don't see how this will hel--"

He broke off when K'Ehleyr gave a great cry of anticipation and told the computer to holocraft her a hand spiked glove from the battle program's arsenal. "Now, I am ready to defend, HoloZimm, you'd better get back with the others.  
It may get ugly.." And she crouched, stalking into the leafy thicket surrounding them. "This is a native element for Klingons.. The odds are now even..."

HoloZimm stumbled back into the clearing until his foot left the moss and met starship carpetting. The computer had recognized a medical emergency and had left the needed surrounding area and equipment around the biobeds free of illusion in an oval around the others. He gasped when he recognized Chakotay as the injured one.

-----------------------------

Captain Janeway's heart twisted in nausea and worry when she registered who was lying on the biobed beneath Scotty's hands."Chakotay...??" she whispered. All thought of being a captain fled her as she grabbed his hand.  
"Can you hear me?"

"He's got a pulse but that's about it.." Scotty muttered.  
"The beasties stole his eyes, they did.."

Janeway looked down in horror and saw that the statement was true. Unconsciously, she loosened his collar while the doctors worked to ease his breathing. "Did they get anything else?" she asked, glancing down his bloody uniform.

The EMH spoke as he read his tricorder. "No.. the only damage I'm seeing here is in the orbit sockets of his skull. They were messy, captain, and took his optic nerves with them.  
There's no brain damage. But his shock is significant.  
Excuse me.." and he gently pushed her aside.

Janeway slid to his head, keeping her hands on either side of his temples as she held him still, to keep him from trembling in his coma and causing further damage to himself.

Bones McCoy spoke quietly, "Don't worry, captain. He'll live.  
I doubt with three doctors here that he'll have much time for dying."

Then she looked up demanding of Scotty. "Where did they take them?" she said of Chakotay's missing eyes.

She knew the answer even before Scotty pointed up towards the ceiling..

Then McCoy looked up from his tricorder he had aimed back at the Vidiian female. His face looked pale.  
He said..

**SEE SOUND BITE ABOVE attached to top.**

-  
(attachments)

Image: A woman Vidiian on a biobed.

Image: K'Ehleyr in battlesim jungle crouched with feverfight.

Image: Vidiian tube clamp on a starship hull.

Gif: Vidiian script writing bar.

Audio : McCoy -- By golly they're all dying.

Image : Janeway visits the hurt Chakotay in the medbay.

Image: McCoy screaming.

***************************************

Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 11:53:33 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: [voyagerliveaction] The Bonds of Family

The computer warbled on again urgently. ##Warning. Hull breach beginning on Commdeck Five. Forced entry is imminent.##

Seven of Nine noticed before the admirals on the Commdeck that something had changed on the Commdeck. "Commander Data!" she shouted and she pointed to the upper wall that showed that a Vidiian boarding party had survived Excelsior's shear away from the boarding tunnel clamp. A ring of arc welding was beginning as the desperate creatures sliced into bulkheads to get at the Federation people inside.

Commander Data did not blink or react visibly, but his fingers flew over the console nearest him. He hit his communications pin. =^=Commdeck to all decks. Brace for impact..=^= Excelsior slammed sidewise as the android dealt with the remaining Vidiians cutting into Deck Nine, the shuttlebay,  
and their own Deck Five. "I've explosively decompressed all the air from the landing bay." he looked up on the ship's tactical viewer as groups of Vidiians were flung bodily into open space. Fortunately, they were then sucked up into their own tractor beam before they suffocated.

Signs of cutting in the bulkhead above them abruptly ceased.

Seven of Nine and Data watched as the alien ship rescued its own floating people even as it jettisoned the remains of the torn boarding tunnels from which Excelsior had managed to tear free.  
The flailing invaders disappeared into purple beams one by one out of the tractor beam.

"There are no further signs of Vidiians on Excelsior's outer hull." Seven checked again shipwide, ''However I am reading Vidiian signatures in the messhall Deck Seven, one is dead,  
two are unconscious. And in sickbay,  
three more surrounded by Excelsior crew."

Data felt Excelsior shift into high impulse and Earth on the main viewer suddenly shifted as the wounded starship shot around the globe's horizon and out of line of sight with the Vidiian mother ship which tried to pursue her.  
"Seven of Nine. He added. "I suggest you inform the Guardian of Forever to expel the two Vidiians who've exited its gateway to an area near it beyond its natural electrostatic ambience. I wish to beam them off Earth."

Seven of Nine closed her eyes and concentrated.  
Her nanoprobes which she had seeded into the gate during the fire responded to her,  
relaying the message of her thoughts to the Guardian.

In Building Five, the two Vidiians leaped forward when their rears were shot with strong static charges. The moment they were five meters away from the Guardian of Forever, Data's sweeping transporter beam captured them.

The android commander nodded, "Please thank the Guardian of Forever for its assistance." he told Seven. "I am beaming the rest of the Vidiians off Excelsior except those under guard in sickbay into their own tractor beam for pickup."

"Captain Sulu is very clever." Data said as he watched the edge of the stratosphere fall away. "We are moving into a high orbit." he said tilted his head in discovery.  
"Now Earth's defenses can--"

Suddenly, the main viewer flooded with a yellow blanket as Starfleet Command erected a planet wide repulsor field at the top of its atmosphere using security satellites moved into position in an encircling array webbed around the entire planet.

The Vidiian mother ship slowly disappeared into invisibility when four angry starships buzzed from the outer solar system towards it.  
She vanished from Seven's sensors. "It's gone.  
The aliens must have appropriated a cloaking device during their numerous exploits. I cannot track them. However, Earth is no longer in danger." she said, one eyebrow mildly surprised at that fast outcome. It had only been ten minutes since the Vidiian menace had made itself known.

Data nodded, "There has been significant progress in the defense grid since the Space Probe Caretaker for the humpback whales visited San Francisco. No supra interstellar craft can now enter Earth's atmosphere once that energy web has been activated."

Seven inclined her head. "I guess we have Captain Kirk to thank for that. During his years of freetime following his ship's retirement, we have greatly benefitted from his Tholian/Federation goodwill Technological Exchange Program Treaty."

"Indeed so." Data said. He listened as commhails and reports from the bridge officers decks above them began filtering through. Soon the red alert on board was lifted and tension melted from everyone as lights shifted from subdued scarlet to daylight normal. He saw a movement on the ahead viewer they were sharing in a transmission from the bridge.  
"We are being escorted." he said with amazement.

The small squad of starships sent to respond to the Vidiians, formed a protective net around the limping Excelsior as she made her way to the nearest stardock in orbit.

Two of them remained behind to try and sniff out the mother ship's where abouts.

Seven raised her eyebrows. Data noticed.  
"The Vidiian ship cannot go anywhere for the moment. Despite its cloak, the solar winds would betray its location with subspace eddies should it leave the shadow of the Earth. She is still nearby."

A minute later, Excelsior's bridge comm'd the Commdeck with profound thanks for the all the Starfleeters' assistance in matters.  
Data wondered who her captain was when he did not immediately recognize the deep stonorous voice even after it signed off. Seven said. "He is one of Kirk's old crewmates from the U.S.S. Enterprise, his helmsman."

"Oh, " Data said, "Then that explains why we've survived this encounter."

A hail from sickbay interrupted them. It was the EMH. "Doctor to Seven of Nine."

"Go ahead." she said.

The holodoc's voice was softer than normal and so Seven was clued as to the nature of the call even before she heard words.  
"There's been casualties, .." he sighed, "Commander Chakotay..."

Data asked when he saw Seven suddenly looked adversely effected by the news. "What is his current condition doctor?"

"I'm afraid it's not good. The Vidiians managed to attack him before Mr. Scott was able to fight them off in the messhall. They had already begun their surgery before that could happen.  
They...." his voice broke off as he tried to put the news into gentler terms, "..they've blinded him, Seven. Just thought you should know."

Seven's face registered shock and sadness for only a moment, then her usual distance reasserted itself. "I- I'll be right down.. Seven out.  
Commander.." she said to Data. "Permission to leave the Commdeck."

"Granted." he replied. "But you are not going alone.  
I am coming with you. The captains may need my help interrogating the Vidiian prisoners.  
I cannot be organ harvested nor disrupted by energy discharges."

Seven dimly watched Data transfer his CO status to the next one in line on the deck and then together, the two of them got to sickbay.  
She was grateful for Data's presence as her emotions reeled. ::Chakotay, maimed? How's Captain Janeway handling the situation? She's now emotionally bonded to him.::

Seven almost dreaded walking through those medbay doors.  
Soon they were entering the turbolift.  
She was pushed out of the way as Alexander's paramedic team and stretcher beat them into the turbolift headed for the same destination.

Thoughtfully, Commander Data reached down and grasped the purring tribble from the boy's pillow, and handed it to Seven.

Unthinking and still numb, she cradled it against her lips, hiding her emotions with her back to the medteam.

Data saw some of the tension in her leave her shoulders and that made him smile just a bit.

---------------------------------------------------

The first thing that returned Seven to her sensibilties was the smell. Rawkcious jungle birds and intense heat assaulted her as a sharp scent of living rainforest greeted them when the bulkheads opened.  
Data shouted. "Is anyone there? It's Commander Data and Seven of Nine!" he shouted.

The jungle din and scene remained for about five seconds when a stalking shadow appeared from the foliage in front of them. It was K'Ehleyr, not even sweaty and very very battle roused. She shook herself and some vestige of the calm ambassador returned in a flash. "They're gone. I assume you beamed them off the hull?"

Data nodded as he watched her hit a switch on the wall. The jungle scene vanished and the cool white walls of the medbay resumed.  
"Yes. That is correct. "

"Way to spoil my fun android.." she said,  
stalking off to the shower in the other room.

Seven felt herself being steered by Data for the first few steps into the ward until the tribble's soft fur and cooing companionship allowed her to pull herself together.

At the sight of Janeway looking up, Seven hid the tribble behind her back subconsciously, folding her arms there, feeling very exposed. Data discreetly retrieved the affectionate animal and walked away with it to give it back to the unconscious boy.

Seven swallowed and slowly made her way to her captain's side. Chakotay's face was wrapped in thick silver guaze so she did not see detail of the extent of his facial injury. She set her hands on the bedrail console studying her hands.  
"Is he stable, captain?" she whispered,  
clearing her throat.

"As well as he can be. He's fallen into a coma which the doctor's have deepened to aid in the healing process.." Janeway said.

Seven glanced down and saw that the captain was holding his hand so tightly that his fingers were shades lighter than his palm. "Would you mind if I asked you a personal question, captain?" she said,  
not looking at Janeway's face. But then she asked without pause. "You really care for the commander don't you? I mean...beyond a captain's attachment for a crewmate."

Janeway's reply was maternal and she set a hand on Seven's and gave it a comforting squeeze. But she, too, studied the wall.  
"You know. It's funny how it takes someone getting hurt to finally sort out deeper buried emotions. I appreciate your candidness Seven and your honesty." she paused before drawing Seven into a hug.  
"Of course I do. It's a d*mned shame that it had to happen before someone like me, Kathryn Janeway, sits up and really pays attention." She sighed into Seven's hair.  
"Your answer is yes." And she released her to adjust an oxygen tube around his face, then she looked up again, regarding Seven warmly. "Looks like you needed a hug as well.."  
she chuckled.

"Captain?" Seven said.

Janeway pointed to Seven of Nine's uniform top and the obvious bright white tribble hairs clinging there and she cleared her throat.

Seven immediately flushed red and brushed off the tattling traces quickly, glancing around to see if anyone else had noticed.

Janeway leaned in, "Don't worry about them.  
If anyone asks, tell them you bumped into a sloth on your way through the holojungle.  
We're still surrounded by working holoemitters.  
Zimm and the EMH are still online."

Seven laughed and just as quickly stifled it back into her usual bland Seven.

"I saw that. A bit of Annika just peeked through."  
Janeway admonished with a finger.

Data had been watching the two women from across the room and he was thinking.  
::Is Seven of Nine a daughter figure to Captain Janeway like Lal was to me? :  
He was intrigued by the idea. The thought of having crewmates as family was still a new idea to him. He had only become aware of the concept after his ship had been disbanded following the crash on Veridian III. Months had gone by as his bridge crew was reassigned to other destinations and ships.  
His sharp feelings of separation and loss became apparent and the first one he had scheduled a visit with to re establish his ties was with Deanna Troi. Their weekly teas became the first step in reuniting Data's old family. He was surprised to learn that Barclay had been trying the same tactic with her during the years he worked on Project Pathfinder, trying to find a way home for Voyager.

Now, Data and the Enterprise D crew were inseparable and he had thought his family bond experience was unique, until now,  
when he witnessed Seven and Janeway interact during a stressful event.

He found an appropriate time and approached Chakotay's bed side.  
Janeway and Seven looked up as they watched the EMH, Dr. Crusher, and McCoy set up a surgery field for him on the next bed. He spoke to all of them.  
"Will you be able to reconstruct the commander's sight with visor implants like Geordi's?"

The EMH said, with a glance at Seven and the captain in concern for their feelings.  
"That's....only if we cannot recover Chakotay's natural eyes. HoloZimm's told me that the mothership is trapped in the area under cloak... We can reattach them successfully if they can be found within two days time."

Seven spoke up. "Perhaps my nanoprobes can assist you doctor. It looks like you are preparing to surgically ready his orbital beds for that possible outcome.  
I offer to donate them from my blood."

The EMH blinked and then smiled.  
"I thought you might say that. Here."  
and he took a hypospray from his tray and accepted Seven's extended arm, rolling up her sleeve. He took a large measure of fluid from her into the hypo's collection vial and held it up into the light. Hundreds of eager nanoprobes clicked against their glass confines. "Amazing how you do that Seven. Looks like they're all fitted with tiny surgical tools."

"They are." she announced. "All I have to do is think about it to adapt them."

Data looked up as Moriarty stopped by with a thought and began speaking with them all just then.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Captain Janeway out of jacket near blue light, very lost in thought.  
Image: Seven of Nine, facelit in blue light.

Image: Data looking very thoughtful

************************************

From: "Cory Anda"  
Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Sympathy Pains Date: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 15:19:17 GMT 0:00:00

Data looked up as Moriarty stopped by with a thought and began speaking with them all just then.

"It seems your plaguing enemy is one of the worst kind. They are desperate."  
he concluded. Then he raised his eyebrows.  
"I wish you all the luck. They won't be an easy victory."

Mr. Spock and Lt Barclay entered sickbay just then. Their faces were grim.

Janeway thought. ::That can't be good news.::

The Vulcan ambassador robes were dusty and dirty. But thankfully, they weren't bloody. "The casualties were light, the commander here was the only one attacked. But the mother ship eludes us, even though she's surrounded."

"How so?" Moriarty asked. "That craft seemed very big next to this fine vessel."

Lt. Barclay lifted his hands nervously. "Oh.  
That's...That's something you may not be familiar with professor.. uh,.. You see the Vidiian ship's hiding behind a sort of blanket..."

"You mean a cloaking device.." Moriarty smiled. "I know about those.. One year into our false universe inside the jail module,  
the enhancers created a Klingon supply ship for us to trade with. She used such a device."

"Oh.." Barclay said. "That's right. It has an adapting interface."

"Yes.. Thank you for that, Reginald. My education of your world increased a hundred fold as a result.  
The only grudge I still have with you is the fact that you let Regina die. Other than that,.."  
and he threw up his hands, "We're the best of friends.."

Barclay shrank and ducked behind the massive Mr. Spock and gulped. Then his finger appeared over the Vulcan's shoulder..and everyone heard,  
"Moriarty..I--I hope you realize that we expect you to hold to your promise... No killing!!"

"Of course..I am an honorable man. Something you can learn from me perhaps... I will not betray you as you did me.."

The EMH had enough of the petty bickering in his ward. "All right.. Shhhh!!" he hissed.  
"We have injured patients here! If you're not going to be visiting them try to foster a supportive air for them vocally. They can both hear you just fine.!" he said of the comatose Chakotay and the paralyzed Kirk.

Moriarty and Barclay both looked properly abashed and they studied the floor in soft remorse.

The Ambassador was unphased by the emotional tensions around him. He was focused on solving their current dilemma.  
Spock went to the foot of Chakotay's bed, studying his face. "I may be of assistance with our current impasse.." he said to the others. "I could use a direct account of what happened during the attack in the messhall when the commander was injured." He steepled his hands into his sleeves and regarded Janeway.  
"What I'm about to ask may be ..of a personal nature captain.. May I ask?"

Kathryn straightened and took in a deep breath. "You may.. if it'll help Chakotay."

Spock simply said. "I ask a mindmeld with him. I may be able to uncover some clues about the mother ship that Mr.  
Scott here may have missed due to the intense stress he felt during the conflict. However, this means bonding on a deeper level. I will know what he knows, feel what he feels, about all of his life's experiences. Including interpersonal relationships. If privacy is something he expects then I will go about my task in another way."

Janeway just smiled. "I don't think there's anything going on that everyone doesn't already realize.." she said, tossing a finger back and forth between Seven, Chakotay the EMH and herself. "You may proceed.  
But I think you should be aware of a few things. Chakotay's people have a rich psychotherapy of sorts. A vision quest world they all create in their minds and tap into from time to time. You may encounter it."

"I will be vigilant." Spock said. He pulled a stool to near Chakotay's head and sat down. He lightly placed long fingers at the correct psi points along his face and around the bandage over his eye area. "Commander Chakotay... My mind to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts.  
We must meet in memory ....of a few hours ago. We must return to those moments.  
Growing closer in mind.. thoughts becoming as one.. You are free of the pain you experienced then.. We must see how it was.  
was........was..................was......"

---------------------------------

Spock saw nothing as he descended into the gray morass that was Chakotay's mind.  
It was the protective layer of the coma.

His breathing began to match Chakotay's.  
Slow, shallow... he could feel it assisted by the life support device on his (Spock/  
Chakotay's) neck. Thick sleep encroached but the ambassador pushed it away,  
sinking deeper past the present into the deeper parts until he was in the past..

He came out onto a gray stormy plain,  
into a grotto. The rocky ceiling was so low he had to crouch. This place was not Excelsior's messhall, but it was the first memory Chakotay awoke to every morning. Spock squinted and the fierce wind and lightning around him lessened until he could see two figures on the ground.

SEE MOVIE link here. ( Cut and paste into your addy bar if not link highlighted fully for its whole length.)

.com/group/voyagerliveaction/files/ANIMATED_graphics_fun/coda_

It was the Commander and Captain Janeway. "Don't you die on me!  
Come on,Kathryn. Breathe!"

Spock saw that Chakotay was performing resusitation on her and that it had been going on for some time.

He moved closer.. listening to the commander as he spoke, to understand the situation.

"Kathryn.. Listen to me.. You've got to breathe..." Chakotay said, keeping up his encouragement as he worked.

Spock moved a little closer and realized that this place he had discovered wasn't a real memory.

It was a hallucinatory one based on some story he had been told through Janeway herself in a ready room conversation years ago after the outcome of a shuttle away mission gone sour.

He saw that Janeway's eyes were missing and her face was full of blood.

The nature of the scene became clear at once.

Spock spoke sharply grabbing Chakotay's arm by the shoulder. "This did not happen commander.. She never lost her eyes in that crash.. You are creating this analogy to deal with your own shock.."

Chakotay simply repositioned his hands over her chest and continued his CPR.  
"Don't you think I know that?" He gasped.  
"I know this isn't Kathryn.. Not anymore.  
She didn't die.. And I know that afterlife creature didn't absorb her into its matrix..She told us it didn't after the doctor had healed her." He bent over and delivered another set of tired breaths into her blue lips. He straightened and struggled to keep on going with his compressions. "W--*gasp* Why am I seeing her blinded like this??" He sobbed,  
fighting to keep his first aid assistance to her strong. "I don't understand.. But I can't stop...for I know...*cough* ... I'll die."

Spock grabbed his hands away off their place on her chest and held him to the ground firmly but with great gentleness.

"NO!!" Chakotay yelled. "Don't!!"

Spock forced one of the commander's hands to the pulse point on Kathryn's neck.  
"You aren't dying commander. You never were. The doctors have you safe in sickbay under treatment... Feel that.?"

Chakotay felt a strong pulse under his fingers.. "But.."

"That is YOUR lifesign.. This image of Kathryn is just your survival instinct creating a way for you to deal with your injury effectively.  
You are seeing her with facial injuries because that is what you sustained when the Vidiian attacked you.. You may not know what happened but your body does.. This coma death in her/you is not necessary."

Chakotay was gasping from his exertions.  
He struggled for a bit in Spock's tight hold but then started to weep in relief. Through his tears he saw the dead Kathryn switch to a vision of himself as he now was in sickbay with the silver gauze over his treated eye sockets.

Spock released him after the change.  
"Yes.. that's right. Come back to yourself and to the present. There is no more pain or danger to your life."

Chakotay sat up and the wind around them abruptly died. He stared at his left hand when he felt something squeezing it. "Somebody's holding my hand.."

"Yes, that is your captain. She's with you in sickbay, waiting for you to respond to the medications and return to consciousness." Spock said.

They both turned when a wolf entered the grotto with a gecko on its back.  
The lobo was eyeless with dried gore staining her muzzle. But she wasn't weak or effected by her handicap.  
##Come Chakotay. The Vulcan man who soulwalks with us now is telling you the truth.##

::So this is a spirit guide..:: Spock wondered in a recess of his mind. ::And the tiny reptile is the guide of someone close to Chakotay.  
Interesting ideas, a twist on conventional self helping techniques.::

The gecko's eyes were clear and bright and the sandy skin on its head with the maroon and black scales left no doubt who's guide this was. Spock addressed him. "I take it you could not help Chakotay see reality on your own."

##Of course not. I'm Kathryn's. I can only be moved to action by her and she is not here.##

Chakotay crawled over to his wolf friend and wrapped his arms around her like a crutch. "My dear Matseyeho..I'm so sorry I inflicted this on you.." and he lightly touched the place where her eyes had been, burying his face against her gristled muzzle.

##Rubbish. ## she scoffed mentally.  
##I am not wounded in the slightest.  
I am what you wish me to be for the moment. You are sightless and feel so,  
...so I do ## she thought empathetically.  
##And this is not a stupid injury, you were defending your packmates. It will be an honorable scarring.##

Spock stood regally and held out his hand to Chakotay. "She does not have to reflect your physical body's state. She is of the mind commander.  
We have to move on. There is the information I seek to locate."

Chakotay looked up. His tears were dry from contacting his guide's thick warm coat. "You're right." and he passed a trembling hand over the wolf's head. Dark rich laughing mahogeny eyes met his own when he was through.  
"Let's go.."  
And he stood. His accepting reality transferred the blindness to his real mental self and the Chakotay on the ground faded out. He felt Spock take his arm to be his eyes. "At least,  
I know my own memories better than the back of my hand, I can't get lost even blind."

Spock and Chakotay turned away from the grotto.

A moment later, they had seen what they needed to see and separated.

---------------------------------------

In sickbay,... Spock's fingers released from Chakotay's face. Both men gasped.

Janeway looked up, "Doctor...." she prompted,  
shifting her grip from Chakotay's palm to his pulse in his wrist.

The EMH came over with McCoy and Dr. Crusher.  
They scanned him and Spock both. "They're fine.. It's over. And with an added benefit I might add. Chakotay's no longer unconscious."  
He leaned over near the commander's ear,  
"Commander.. can you hear me?" he said a little loud.

"My ears are working great. Nice to hear you doctor.." Chakotay said. "And you.."  
he said returning the squeeze to Kathryn's hand.

Ambassador Spock opened his eyes.  
"I believe I have obtained the necessary information."

"Yes..." Chakotay said. "The Vidiian analyzers.  
They are tied to send out to the mothership whenever one is used on a potential victim. Just an organ scan will do it."

Spock finished. "And then we can cross corollate and triangulate that signal with the pattern enhancers our attackers left set up in the messhall."

Barclay's face paled. "But what is keeping the Vidiians from using those enhancers to beam to Excelsior? With those still functional and running in the messhall,  
we've got an open door invitation.."

Chakotay countered. "Spock told me in the meld that the mother ship is under cloak. No one can beam in or out from her as long as it's disguised."

"Then let's get to work.." Janeway said. "Dr. McCoy,  
you wanted to get your hands on one of these.."  
she said, picking up a Vidiian analyzer from the security guard who was holding them and passing it over to him. "How about figuring out how to scan on one of these without the stunning effect? Doctor,," she said to the EMH. "You too.." and another arced in the air in his direction.  
"I'm going down to the messhall to take a look at those devices when we're ready to triangulate the alien ship's position." she leaned down and placed a warm hand on Chakotay's face.  
"No more naps commander.. I need you on duty soon. Expect a date with your eyes in surgery once we retrieve them off the mother ship."

Chakotay chuckled at her tone. "Going in like gangbusters? An away mission?"

"Don't know." she admitted honestly, "It's too soon to tell. That's still a part we have to figure out yet." She turned to the others surrounding them. "Any options?  
I'd love to hear them.."

HoloZimm came forward with the first one.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Spock, staring right at you.

Screengrab series: Chakotay trying to revive a dead Janeway with resusitative efforts in a stormy night time grotto.

Screengrab series: Chakotay crying over a dead Janeway,  
Then picking her up into a grief stricken embrace.

Image: Barclay holding a datapadd looking intent.

Image: A Vidiian scanner.

Image: A Vidiian mothership clamped to a victim Federation vessel.

=========== (ultra-- attach link)

Mpeg MOVIEgrab: Chakotay performing CPR on Janeway with her ghost watching. (30 second scene from the STV episode: Coda)

*  
From : "Katherine Bird" Subject : Start Burning The Midnight Oil Date : Fri, 29 Mar 2002 06:32:04 +0000

"Don't know." she (Janeway) admitted honestly, "It's too soon to tell. That's still a part we have to figure out yet." She turned to the others surrounding them. "Any options? I'd love to hear them.."

HoloZimm came forward with the first one. "I know these people captain. They'll be fiercely possessive of what they steal. But, they have a blind spot," he glanced down apologetically to Chakotay, "Forgive my analogy, commander.." the white coated holo said. "I didn't mean to offend you."

"No offense taken.. Believe me, I have an invested interest in this conversation. Go on." he replied. "I'm wide awake and all ears I assure you."

HoloZimm went on, "..The temptation to take humans will be too much to resist. In my time with the classifed medical database, I've learned that the Vidiians considered humans their perfect universal donors and the reconstructive surgery done with those organs from Earth people have the longest life expectancy estimate with the Phage in their experience so that mother ship is definitely going nowhere."

The EMH added to it. "I've noticed that in Denara, the Vidiian scientist I.....fell in love with a few years ago. She, had a human spleen, taken from a dead Borg vessel on her travels. It was that finding which brought her to Voyager then..." he broke off when he realized how uncomfortable the humans in the ward were becoming. The holodoc started to get into his findings cheerfully.  
"It was very neat finding.. humans don't seem to be able to be infected with the Phage. And that natural resistence creates the long tissue survivality."

"But that's besides the point you twin walking med databases..." McCoy scoffed. "What about MY finding?? " He threw a hand to the Vidiian woman Janeway had set under restraint on the biobed. "These Vidiians are still DYING!! And I wouldn't be surprised if the ones piled in the isolation ward are doing the same thing. Something is making them so desperate that they are attacking us on our own Homeworld.."

That shut all three holograms up.

Then Nurse Chapel came forward. "Why don't we ask her what's going on with her own people? She'd be the best pool of information of all.."

Everyone blinked at that simple logic.

The EMH looked at Janeway for permission to awaken the unconscious Vidiian female.

Janeway simply waggled her head yes, slightly bothered by the turn of conversation.

The Holodoc smiled and lifted his medical scanner. He did a preliminary reading on biosigns to find the chemical component needed to be the tiny Vidiian's wakeup call. But just then a note on his tricorder soured in its audible ranges and he frowned in alarm.

"What's wrong doctor?" Uhura asked, stepping nearer to him.

"Her vital signs are growing highly unstable,.. It seems her unconscious state has accelerated the Phage. Her body's degradation has increased a hundred fold!"

"Try using Henaline.." Dr. Crusher suggested.. "It'll keep her septic shock from overwhelming her autonomic nervous system...."

Then McCoy offered his own suggestion and the arguing about how to save her escalated into a back and forth rapid discussion that rose in medical detail that went beyond what the others fully understood. Until Seven of Nine took matters into her own hands.

She stepped forward and shot out her wrist assimilation tubes and injected the rest of her prepared surgical nanoprobes that she had made to assist in Chakotay's future surgery procedures into the woman's neck.

They all watched in horrid fascination as it became an all out battle between the disease's destruction and the nanoprobes rapid microscopic repair of bone, skin and organ. But the death curve proved too steep even for Borg nanoprobe speed. The Vidiian female literally, melted and fell apart out of cohesion until flesh slid from bone. The lifesigns faded away into oblivion.

(LISTEN to AUDIO offering in attach's at top)

HoloZimm ran to the isolation ward just as the security guard ran past him with news. He skidded to a halt in front of Janeway and said, "Maam.. the Vidiian prisoners.. They... they're dead. Something liquified them in seconds... I couldn't do anything to stop it.."

"Thankyou ensign..." Janeway said to him. "We'll take it from here. Keep that isofield around their corpses up.."

"Yessir!" he said and he went back the way he came.

The EMH came to the same idea.. and erected an isofield around the dead woman, his face blanching in fright. "Oh my god.. I didn't think.."

"What doctor?" Uhura asked.

"This strain must be mutating at an alarming rate. The way it outperformed Seven's nanoprobes proves that. No wonder the Vidiians were so bold at attacking Earth and us. They were truly on their last desperate legs.."

Holozimm cringed. "Nasty pun doctor.."

"I didn't mean it like that.. " the EMH snapped. "You don't understand. If their Phage is that adaptive, enough to kill so quickly with just a simple physiological state as unconsciousness in place, its virilence is most likely growing stronger with successive mutative generations.. Those mutations might make it across species barriers and infect Alpha Quadrant species..And you've all been exposed..."

Mr. Spock looked up, his head lifting in alarm. "A most frightening prospect doctor."

Uhura stepped to her computer console. "I'm informing Starfleet to quarantine Excelsior.. and her bridge.."

Nurse Chapel went to Uhura's side once the communications priority call went out.

-------------------

The EMH became engrossed in discussion along with HoloZimm when the highers ups came online to discuss his new alarming theories.

The high admiral asked the holodoc, "What about those Vidiians that made it out of the Guardian's portal, doctor. Were they breathing Earth's air long enough to spread spores in Building Five?"

"No, admiral." the Traveler piped up. "The plasma fire has purified the air to a great degree. There is no longer any dust or carbon for any germs to stick to. And Data beamed out the invaders out before they left the Guardian's full temporal influence. They never got completely out of their own Delta Quadrant Time Zone before Mr. Data sent them back into their mothership's tractor beam using your transporting device."

And on it went.. back and forth, until the whole scary theory was out and formed clearly to all concerned.

Janeway sighed. "That's a relief.. But what about Chakotay? He of all of us was the closest to that Vidiian scientist who attacked him.."

The EMH was quick to answer her. "The Vidiian never touched him directly. He used his analyzer, correct?" he asked Scotty.

"That's right. And lifted out the commander's eyes with a small portable tractoring device.." Montgomery replied.

The EMH went on, "But I am concerned about you, captain..." he said to Janeway. You touched that Vidiian female when you lifted her onto that bed.. and now as I'm thinking about it, You were in close contact with Chakotay afterwards.."

"Moot point.." HoloZimm countered. "All of you have been sharing the same air for at least twenty minutes. Including other areas of the ship. Data's decompression of the shuttle bay has caused rapid air distribution throughout Excelsior.."

"Then Uhura's right on target with that quarantine call." Mr. Barclay said, his voice was trembling.. then he fainted.

Dr. Crusher and McCoy caught him as he dropped and lowered him to the deck. Dr. Crusher said, "He's not sick,.. " she said,.. "well, at least there's no sign of it anyway.. Mr. Barclay is a bit of a hypochondriac. He... doesn't like the idea of illness very well. This incident is most likely psychosomatic.. Nothing's changed on his vitals...apart from simple syncope."

Standing by Nurse Chapel,, Uhura addressed her friend. "Christine.. If anyone of us might get sick with this possible mutating strain of the Phage, is it a good idea for that Klingon boy to still be out cold like that? He might spiral decay like the Vidiians did."

At a nod from McCoy Christine injected Alexander with a waking shot and the boy's mother quickly cradled him into her arms and out of the room into another branch of the medical ward so he wouldn't see the liquified Vidiian next to him. She said, "Don't worry about Klingon constitution Nurse. We rarely find ourselves getting the flu.." she said teasingly.

As she was leaving, the Tribble left on the biobed started screeching a protest.

K'Ehleyr returned and retrieved the little fuzzball, giving him back to her sleepy son. "Weird to think that my human genes are all that's keeping this ..thing... from hating Alexander and I. But it's..asthetically round, at least.."

"Beggers can't be choosers.." Moriarty said. "Cats are just as discerning about whom they love I've found. I've played with tribbles in my simulation jailtime. They are Klingon hybrid loving until the dilution reaches 92 % pure Klin'zai."

Deanna Troi stared at Moriarty. "You experimented on Tribbles in your module..?"

"Of course.. Regina wanted a particular shade of dapple gray for a fur stole..." He admitted. At the counselor's returning glare he added, "But, I am not in a position to harm anything while out here, remember.. I've my promise to the Lady Kathryn captain..."

Deanna was only partly appeased.

A little ways away from the rest of the group. Uhura and Chapel had gathered above Kirk, so he could hear them even in his waking paralysis. He was almost recovered because he had begun blinking again.

The two Enterprise women conversed for his benefit. "If this possible Phage outbreak means that we can't return into the past, there's nowhere else Christine and I can go. When the Guardian leaves, we'd have to respect the Temporal Prime Directive again. There's no way in Hades I'd ever return to our Enterprise in that state. That's something to think about.." Uhura postulated.

Chapel scanned Kirk again and noticed his heart rate rising.."Easy now..Captain Kirk. Everything said in the last few minutes is all purely speculation.. The doctors over there have so far, found no sign of the Phage in any of us.. only in its Vidiian victims. So far, we're all fine.. so settle down...er..Sir." she added. "You'll be on your feet and in the thick of it before you know it." she chided.

"That's right." Uhura agreed with her empathetically. "I'll keep a channel open from Spacedock Operations and let you know what they know the second I hear it.." she said, tapping the earpiece in her ear.

Then the Traveler calmed them all saying, "I can always talk to the Guardian of Forever and make arrangements with the timelines to undo this event if I have to." he shrugged. "Not something greatly encouraged with my people but it's been done in the and the Guardian of Forever have a sort of understanding in matters of temporal consequence." he stated.

Chakotay had been silent during the whole exchange. Then he spoke to Kathryn. "Listen. Kathryn.. Maybe we shouldn't have any more contact with that Vidiian mothership.. There's a strong chance my eyes are already lurking in somebody's head right now, in full contact with Vidiian infection. Even if we managed to get them back, The contagion risk will still be there."

Janeway set a hand on his arm and said no nonsense. "That's jumping the gun, Chakotay. Who's to say your eyes aren't in a test tube waiting their turn on the operating table. A mothership of that crew size has got to have their community of physicians fully occupied just maintaining all of the necessary daily body repairs.. Besides.. no one's sick yet.."

"Yet.." he added.

The EMH had overheard them. "Then the only possible solution then is to come up with the cure for their Phage ourselves whether we are infected or not. That way, we'd have a safeguard. " He turned to McCoy and Dr. Crusher.. "Seems we have our work cut out for us.. Anyone up for phoning the Vidiian ship's medical center? Looks like we have to join forces.. And I don't think Starfleet's gonna like that idea much at all." He regarded the senseless Barclay on the floor, "Somebody wake him up. I don't want to give the infection an open invitation to Wicked Witch of the North him."

Moriarty had a side thought. "Isn't your biological sleep state similar to that of unconsciousness?"

"It can be.." the EMH replied.

"Then I'd advise you all to start replicating coffee because anyone napping will be fair game for this creature plague of yours to do its hideous work.." the professor suggested.

The only one who smiled at the idea was Janeway.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Nurse Chapel trying to smile, pink light.  
Audio : An ekg, flatlining in sound..

Image: Vidiian melting down to bones on a biobed.

Image: Lt. Uhura listening to a comm frequency.

*********************************************

Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 21:04:29 -0800 (PST) From: "Myron Ojala" Subject: When Is a Germ not a Germ? (No, not when it's wheat) Scotty was thinking hard. ::The possibility of contracting such a hideous disease chills me to the bone. Although I don't know that much about the Vidiians themselves, I know that even they don't deserve what fate has in store for them.::

Suddenly Scotty realized that even though he couldn't assist in analyzing the disease called the Phage itself, he could maybe help in an engineering capacity. Montgomery walked over to Dr. McCoy and asked, "Doctor, do you mind if I take a look at that Vidiian contraption?  
I just might find a way understand more of their medical technology."

Dr. McCoy nodded and handed over the Vidiian device.

Over by Kirk, Scotty said, "Captain I'm going to be busy for a while taking this beastly thing apart. I know that they analyze the cell structure in far greater detail than our own medical tricorders. Perhap I can adapt it to interface with our computer and download its full functions menu. With that we may be able to sucessfully find and retrieve Commander Chakotay's missing peepers along with finding a cure perhaps. Tis a long shot I know but we've been in tight spots before captain.  
I'll get us out. I wanna know jes what decked ya and I'll tell ya jes what that is over a drink later on. I know you hate jes lying around."

He turned away from Kirk.  
To Scotty the alien scanner felt cumbersome in his hand with no elegance in its design. Yet he knew that it was the most effective medical defense tool that he had ever seen. He knew that time was of the essence. The longer they waited the greater the possibility that the Commander's eyes would be unretrievable.

Scotty walked over to both Professor Moriarty and HoloZimm, leaving Kirk's side. Looking squarely at the Edwardianly dressed hologram he said, "I see you've become attached to my silkie probe, laddie. Good job with the boy Alexander's rescue. I could use you further if you're feeling obliged."

Moriarty looked surprised that someone openly asked for his help. He uptook a gentlemanly stance and smiled graciously.  
"It would be my utmost pleasure to assist you in any way I can, Captain Scott. What do you require?"

Montgomery said, "You're supposed to be a genius, aren't ye? I need your help in finding out the full capabilities in here."  
he said hefting the device in his hand.

HoloZimm looked on with interest and inquired, "May I also be of assistance,  
Mr. Scott."

"That ye can laddie. Come over here."

Soon they had a makeshift work table and an assortment of complex tools and they began to disassemble the alien device. Inside, they found a sophisticated multileveled memory sensor. It seemed to link to a communication center that would mesh very well to Excelsior's medical database with some modification. "Ah,, here's the thing.  
Watch." Scotty held up an interface triangle of rose crystal that seems to be out of phase.  
He cross connected it with a diode ligature into his own tricorder receptor array and soon they got working blueprint of its whole makeup when the crystal fully attenuated.

Moriarty exclaimed in discovery. He saw something remarkable. "Oh, I see you are going to get the illness's facts from that device to Excelsior instead of sending information about us to the mothership."

"Exactly right." Scotty answered. "On the contagion part, but I am still sending information TO that ship out there. Get my meaning?"

HoloZimm smiled in understanding.  
"I believe I know what you're intending Mr. Scott. and I'm game if you are."

Moriarty wasn't as quick on the uptake "Games gentleman? I don't believe we can engage in such frivilous activity."

HoloZimm and Scotty looked at each other and started laughing.

HoloZimm said, "I am about to take a short trip and go where no hologram has gone before."

Scotty spoke up as Moriarty finally figured it out. "Yes, he's going to spy for us orienting on Chakotay's DNA signature that we've found here. But we've got to inform the captains first of our plan."

Janeway was still holding Chakotay's hand.  
Within she raged over the attack that had crippled him. She had serious doubts on whether or not it would be possible to save his natural eyes. ::I wonder how I would feel if I were the one lying there rather than Chakotay. Would I be as calm:  
"Chakotay,.. I'm thinking that there's little ho--"

Just then Scotty returned over to the commander's biobed and said, "Commander,  
Captain Janeway. Forget about becoming friends with our neighborhood body snatchers.  
Why don't we send in HoloZimm with their next scan of one of us? He could track down your eyes, commander using the telemetry of their own scanners.."

Janeway blinked and released Chakotay's hand in excitement. "That's brilliant, Mr.  
Scott. Using their own technology against them. A classic tactic. Well done. I assume you're going to use Chakotay's DNA trace to home in on our missing eyes."

Scott said, "That's correct captain. Do we have yer permission to begin?"

Janeway said, "As Picard would say, Make it so captain. All best possible speed."

=====================

It was ten minutes later. HoloZimm was about to be downloaded into the Vidiian device for his sorte to the hidden Vidiian vessel.

While the others in the medical bay drank very strong coffee in a toast to the success of the enterprise, Moriarty looked on in mild amusement.  
::The comaraderie of these people is quite remarkable. Perhaps I was wrong in thinking that they have no loyalty to each other or me. They've accepted Holozimm and the holographic doctor as an equal. I can only hope to aspire to earn that same confidence from them one day.:: He decided to participate in their bon voyage wellwishing by lifting a cup of holographic tea.  
"Good luck my fellow man," he said to Holozimm. "I know what it's like to beam through tight places.. I've done it often enough escaping Picard."  
he quipped, taking a sip of Earl Grey.  
"Hmm. This tea of Picard's is actually quite good. Oh,," he said remembering what he was doing. "To your success of your mission to restore the vision of this fine commander Chakotay.."

"Here. Here.." echoed the room.

HoloZimm was soon on his way.

-----------------------------------------

Just after Scotty transmitted Holozimm along the datatrail from the Vidiian analyzer device to its destination, he absently scratched his hand and felt a pain there. He looked down at the back of his hand and what appeared to be a reddish welt popped and oozed white ichor. "What the bloody---?"  
he exclaimed. He felt a sudden chill.  
"Doctor...."

The EMH was by his side almost instantly running a medical tricorder over the wound. He didn't have to say anything at all.

Mr. Scott smiled wanly, trying to look like it didn't matter. But he failed and ended up whispering, "D*mn."

-------------------------------------------

HoloZimm got on the other side right way. He found himself inside the heart of the Vidiian computer mainframe, filed under Human Organ Scans.  
He shrugged himself free and explored the electronic terrain stretched before him. He accessed information from all over the ship, looking for that one DNA trace that meant so much to his shipmates.

Finding himself in the proper systems,  
he began to meticulously scan for Chakotay's optical traces. He banked deeply towards where he thought he could sense Chakotay's unique DNA pattern when suddenly he realized that the information about the Phage around him wasn't at all microbial.  
::Oh my god if I had a god. I only have a creator and it's Zimmerman.  
Is this what I think it is? ::

Looking closer at the presence of the disease in all the Vidiian crewman he was watching, he saw what could only be thought patterns. And they weren't coming from the crew.

He watched as one of them passed near the lightpanel HoloZimm was a part of.  
The figure stopped and turned so its naked torso was facing him.

Suddenly to his horror, the Vidiian's epidermis began to blister. And they formed in a way HoloZimm couldn't deny.. The pustules were forming words.  
##I* S*E*E Y*O*U* !!## said the Phage.

HoloZimm felt something that he had never felt before it his three week existence.  
Fear.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Scotty looking very vulnerable,  
while physically injured.

Image: A grinning Vidiian, Full of malice.

*animated gif* A flashing Red Alert.

***********************************

END WEEK TEN RECAP 03-29-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Site

WEEK ELEVEN RECAP 03-30-02

************************************

From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Alterior Motive~~ Date : Sun, 31 Mar 2002 02:58:48 +0000

"You'll be on your feet and in the thick of it before you know it." she chided.

Kirk heard Chapel's words and pushed through the last enforced tingling holding him still. He gasped and sat up, fighting the weighty sensation in his muscles.  
"B- Better..sooner than...later, Christine..."  
he said, smiling ironically.. "Help me to my feet."

The EMH came over with McCoy and he felt a hypospray inject into his neck. The medication swept the last of his Vidiian stun effect away and breath came easier. ::Finally..:: Kirk thought.

"Easy Jim.." said Bones.

Kirk stood on wavering boots for about two seconds,  
then just as suddenly, his disability was gone as if it had never been. ::I certainly hope Starfleet doesn't learn Vidiian stun technology, what a detrement. I don't even have a hangover. Any enemy taken by this energy type would be attacking again in full force the moment he opened his eyes.  
I'll be sure to mention this to Spock and Barclay:  
"I'm fine, Bones.. It's gone completely now."

He moved over to Scotty but didn't touch him as the EMH subtlely nodded not to. "Scotty...I'm sorry.  
You'll be our top priority now that we're all under quarantine. Try to get some rest..." he said as he watched his old friend lay down on a biobed with the assistance of the holodoctor.

"Aye, captain. Follow Holozimm's link closely.  
He'll being exposing the hidden ship soon."  
Montgomery said. Scott flinched as an isofield snicked into place around his bed.

"Is this necessary?" Kirk asked Dr. Crusher,  
indicating the field sparkling around Scotty.

"Yes. I'm afraid it is. There's a chance his version of the Phage may spread from only attacking older people. " Beverly admitted.

The EMH offered more, "But its confirmed virility in him may make it mutate to infect us more easily..This will at least, slow that process down."

Kirk's eyes filled with troubled reluctance but he nodded. "Do the best you can for him, doctors."

Lt. Yar, was monitoring the linking data coming from the mothership from HoloZimm's special tie through the Vidiian scanner. "Sir.. we're getting telemetry now. He's arrived, and it looks like he's been discovered. There are computer overrides and countering blocks being initiated inside their Vidiian medical data mainframe."

Kirk came over to her side quickly, waving Janeway to join them. "Any sign of where that ship is exactly?"

Yar hit the terminal in frustration. "She's still cloaked sir, Best I can give you is that HoloZimm travelled less than one lunar length to get where he is.."

"Ah,.. that's good news. It's confirmed now that they're still here.." Kirk said, straightening. He glanced at the status monitor showing the region in which the mothership could be hiding. It was still too much territory for four starships to comb through. "But I can't help wondering why she's staying with four starships patroling the area ? There are humans who are unguarded deeper into our solar system.."

A sharp crackling noise made them jump from a communications band on Holozimm's covert channel.  
Lt. Yar spoke up, "Zimm? What's going on.. You've been spotted.."

"I--know that lieutenant, but I've managed to evade it so far.. The Vidiians have no knowledge of holographic systems beyond the fact that we're made of light and energy. It has even less."

Kirk frowned. "HoloZimm.. You've lost me. What's it? The mothership computer personality?"

"No captain.. when I was almost to the medical store where Chakotay's eyes were, I had an eye opening encounter. Sir.. it seems the Phage is alive..." he said.

The EMH said, "Of course it's alive.... It's an infectious agent.."

Holozimm's voice and image showed the hologram to be looking around anxiously for signs of pursuit.  
"That not what I mean.. It's,.." he slumped his head trying to come up with the right words to express himself over his own fear. "..taken over the crew.  
It controls them somehow..independently. There are dual brainwave patterns in all of them.."

"Are you saying that this disease is self aware?"  
Captain Kirk plied.

Yar said, she insisted to Kirk "Sir, that's impossible.  
This is a germ, an annoying microscopic bug. How can it--"

"Just a minute, lieutenant." Kirk Told her and leaned into the monitor screen. "Zimm, give us what you've discovered."

The fuzzy image from HoloZimm's transmission changed into thicker snow on the comm channel then resolved itself into a second still image that was very very clear. A line of blisters on skin traced very clear Federation Standard words.  
"I...see...you.." Then Holozimm's face in very close range returned. He seemed to be coursing through a very small airduct. "That is what I've found.."

Kirk and the others were stunned into silence for about two seconds then everyone started talking all at once.

"It could be a holographic trick on the part of the mothership in defense of Holozimm's invading foreign program..."

"A new collective. Perhaps Borg influence is at work here."

"Rubbish.. they are fooling your holoman captain by trying simple parlor tricks. I've seen such things in my time when attending seances with Regina.."

Kirk set a finger to his lips..to silence them all, then he turned back to the screen."Holozimm. Here's your orders. Locate the commander's eyes and get us a set of beaming coordinates to them. Then go into a waiting loop. Protect your program. We'll work out a way to recover you and them once we get the mothership to uncloak. Contact us apart from that only if your life is in danger."

"Yes, sir.." Holozimm replied.

"Good. Kirk out.."

Deanna Troi stepped forward to the side image of the image shown of the written blisters.  
"I don't like this captain. I am not reading an emotional presence from over there at all. Only the Vidiian crew's."

The EMH sighed. "Perhaps, its still mutating.  
Sentient, but instinctive.. and not quite individual enough for your empathic sense."

"Perhaps.." she replied.

Chakotay sat up from where he was and leaned on weak elbows. "This really changes things.  
This is not just an invading vessel anymore. This is first contact. And how we deal with the Vidiians will be effected by that."

Yar flared, "This is not a time to be worried about semantics, commander.. They boarded us and attacked you directly, stealing body parts. Clearly,  
they mean us harm. And Starfleet is right calling those four starships ringing us to hunt them down. I'm surprised you are so accomodating to them. "

Janeway had been quiet the whole time while she absorbed all the information. Now she spoke,  
"Tasha.. The commander and I have had more first contact experiences than the rest of you from our travels returning home. Some of our incidences have been the result of misunderstanding during situations very much like what we're going through right now.  
Maybe the mothership wasn't in an attack mode but going through the motions of a simple medical survey to find resources she needed."

"Captain, they ripped the eyes out of his head!" Yar insisted. "They obviously have no regard for human life if they've done that.." she shouted.

Kirk raised his hands and moved them in a settle down gesture at Lt. Yar. She sighed heavily and slung a leg over a stool rubbing her forehead.

Janeway kept talking to her, "Don't you remember what happened to the counselor here a few weeks ago? Holozimm injured her accidently because he didn't KNOW any better. He was too new.."  
she cast her gaze to the others.."These mutations on the part of the Phage may have JUST instated sentience within itself. We might be able to reason with it eventually. And we just might have our first ambassador already on board when that finally happens." and she pointed at Scotty, whom the EMH had calmed with a tranquilizer but not one that caused him to fall into the risky sleep state. "We just have to wait and see."

Kirk considered Janeway's theory and raised significant eyebrows to Mr. Spock, standing by Reginald Barclay's head while Beverly awakened him from his faint.  
"Mr. Spock, what is your feeling on the matter?"

"I must have more data with which to form the validity of this hypothesis." the Vulcan ambassador said.

The Traveler was fascinated.."The implications are intriguing. It has been centuries since a first contact has been made inside your Earth's solar system.  
We have not predicted this event. Nor have my people seen it in the future. A time wrinkle must be in effect."

Moriarty asked, "Time ....wrinkle? As in a shirt that needs to be tailor tended?"

"Yes.." the Traveler said. "This universe is dynamic. The many dimensions which criss cross your Greater Magellanic Cloud sometimes...impact each other.  
Causing ripples of subjective effects in a local realtime.  
This phenomena may have allowed the rapid mutations we've seen in the Phage to create itself into a new race. The right conditions often foster new life in the most unlikely places.. It's part of why I like coming here so much."

Kirk shrugged, eager to get on with a solution not only to save Scotty from the ravages of his illness but to restore Janeway's first officer to health.  
"Doesn't matter how this happened gentleman. We only need to be concerned that it did."

"I agree.." Christine said. "We've two patients here and a shipful of at risk personnel. Quit standing around just talking about it.."

Uhura echoed the sentiment.." DO something for Pete's sake.. You're in the heart of the whole Federation's technological might.. Use it. "

Yar grinned and murmured. "I like you two ladies.  
Just what they said..." Tasha pointed at McCoy's nurse, and the dark communications officer.

Kirk had to smile at Yar's protective energies.  
He only regretted that the woman would not live to see them tempered into cool headed experience when the Guardian of Forever returned her to history.  
"And so we'll act. " Kirk insisted to all. "But we must determine what action is the right one that will save the most lives here. Including theirs. And I'll do anything to avoid a Vidiian Federation firefight so near Earth."

Chakotay sighed and allowed Janeway to lower him back down onto his pillow. He admitted softly to her. "Reminds me of my Maquis days,  
Kathryn. Tactical analyses.. and tense emotions all around. But I trust him.." he said about Kirk.

"And you should. His career outshines both of ours put together.." she chuckled quietly.

The EMH stepped over to a large panel and started a red clock, counting up from zero.  
"You have three days to solve our impasse with this disease. Until we do, no one can fall asleep or become unconscious or the spores that may be infecting you might rapidly kill, as it did our Vidiian prisoners.  
I, Dr. McCoy and Bev Crusher's extensive medical cupboard can only keep you all awake for so long. After that, serious mental and physical degradation will begin from sleep deprivation. And those weaknesses will make you even easier targets for possible infection from the Phage. I suggest you start drinking and stop theorizing." he said, holding up a tray of coffees he had replicated while the first contact or war debate around him buzzed.

They all turned when a motion drew their attentions.

Reginald Barclay had pulled himself together mentally with some soft words from Deanna as she updated him on details. He tapped Troi's hand resting on his shoulder and smiled bravely as he got off his biobed. "I just may have a few ideas that may help us out.. But, does somebody have any water first? M--My throat's really dry.."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Yar at attention on the bridge rail.

Image: Kirk looking moved in front of a glowing light.

*

From : "Clairissa Fox" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Getting My Sword for Battling the Enemies Date : Sun, 31 Mar 2002 08:52:48 +0000

I was mad mum wouldnt put me down in front of the humans. Mum! Mum! Im fine.  
Put me down. Dont you know that Klingon warriors dont stay hurt for long?

I got out of her arms and then noticed the V'dMerr tucked into my vest. It was making weakling noises so I yanked it out. But then I didnt feel angry anymore.  
That was weird. How can a quiet noise do that? Then it crawled up my arm to my face and rubbed it. Hey.. you. Get down. I dont know who put you there but I dont need you. I told it.

The tribble didnt move but I didnt push it off either. We stared at each other.  
My black eyes to its no eyes. Then I growled. The V'dMerr tried to growl back but it sounded like a Targ fart.

I laughed and it did too. Then I saw mum give me a warning glare to StayOutOfTrouble and she went back into the sickbay ward after sticking a new talking badge on me to replace the one I took off when I ran away and found the train.

Hey. Thats right. Last I remember, I was on that train heading for the glowing wall.  
And now I was in sickbay. Oh well. I could always find something else to do while the grownups were busy. And I knew they were because the red alert was going off all over Excelsior. So I decided to go find some adventure on my own.

I walked by a room that had a puddle of gold green liquid and some wet bones.  
Cool! Some icky alien got squished or something. But I didnt know how because the security fence was still up in the door when I touched it to scare the Vd'Merr.

But the Vd'Merr just grabbed my cheek tighter and kept making that noise that made me stupid and what was that human word? Passive. EEeeoowww. How could the humans like feeling that way? The blood fever of battle was much better.  
But I could never tell human habits good.  
They had cats which were cool but then they had these tribble things and smiled and babytalked to each of them in the same human whiny way. But I was on a big new ship and I didnt want to be alone so I kept it with me.

Purrr..Purrr.. it said when we got near the turbolift. But it wasnt working.  
There was a yellow panel with words going on and off near it and I could almost read the human talk on it.  
Quar'EnTine Pro'ToCol it said. Whatever that meant. That was something for my mum Keyler to worry about. She was the ambassador and that was her job. My job was to be the best Klingon warrior I could.

I headed off to the messhall. Wow.  
It looked like there had been a battle in there. I could smell aliens and there were three glowing sticks making a triangle in the air by the windows. A security guard was watching them and the firehead Captain Janeway. She nodded to me and I just nodded back pretending to order from the replicator. How did she get here ahead of me? Then I saw the transporter strap on her arm. She must have beamed in because the turbolifts were out.

I got a bowl of that human Gagh..spaghetti and sat down at the bar to eat it. The V'Dmerr got into my bowl slurping eagerly until I pushed it out and gave it some of its own. I ate while the guard and the captain just looked at the glowing sticks talking to each other.

"You're right ensign. These pattern enhancers are set on reverse retrieval mode." I heard her say. "But let's not touch anything. I'd feel more comfortable if HoloZimm had another way to escape the Vidiian ship should he find himself in a situation to need to do so.."

Vidiians? Cool! But I kept my head down so they didnt know my good Klingon ears could hear them. I knew about those guys. They attacked you without swords but with medical tellys and then after they zapped you, they sucked your insides out! I knew about them from the human comics I had found once in my Academy classroom. Seven had been my teacher and she had told me about them when she saw I had that comic in my physics book one day.

The Vd'Merr burped and made me laugh and that made Captain Janeway smile and come over to me. Oh no.. there goes all my fun I thought. Shes gonna be just like mum and tell me to not play because of the red alert.

"Hello Alexander.." she said to me and reaching over to scratch the Vd'Merr. It just made that stupid noise a lot louder. "I see you're feeling better enough to get something for yourselves to eat.." she said to me.

. I was hungry.

"Now you know not to go into restricted areas such as engineering and the bridge as long as the red alert bar is flashing right?"

Yes. I know.

I watched as her human face smiled again and showed all of her teeth in that Im not mad human way. What a waste of energy.  
"That's good. You're a big boy. I know you know protocol. It's just that there's a bug on board that might make people sick and we have to be sure everyone stays safe in their quarters until we find a way to kill it off."

A bug!? I saw some green slime in sickbay.  
I didnt see any bugs down there. I said.

"Germs Alexander. Like the Denebian Flu you've probably seen your playmates get from school. Sniffles.. and coughing and such."

Oh. A bodyweak. I said to her. I know those.  
Klingons dont get them much. Mum says we dont. But I wont let any humans get too near each other. I read the Quar'EnTine Pro'ToCol by the lift. I know better.

"All right then Alexander.." Janeway said giving the tribble one last scratch on its rounded furry body. "Carry on. Comm me if anything happens out of the ordinary like if any of the humans get sick like you remember your friends doing ok?"

Yessir! I said as she went back over to the windows to look at what the glowing sticks were doing on her tricorder.

I jumped down from my stool, leaving the Vd'Merr stuck on the bar and went behind it.  
I saw a room there. Another kitchen! And found a counter with a whole bunch of human knives on the floor. The ship must have been shaking earlier if they were there but I guessed I might have missed all that while I was hurt from the train accident. I still dont know what had made me black out like that.  
All I remember was feeling like I had another person in the room and then I was out.

I knelt on the rug and took the longest one in my hands. Wow. What a sword. Humans might be toothless and pale but they sure made sharp weapons good. Why did they waste them just using them to cut up their food?

I took the knife and held it up so I could get used to it. Now I was ready. Those stinky aliens who got the ship sick would have to deal with me, Alexander Rashenko son of Worf of the House of Moug.

I went stalking out into the corridor looking for the enemies.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Alexander in the kitchen with a very long dagger.

*************************************

Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2002 21:42:07 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: Half there, Half Gone.

The EMH stepped over to a large panel and started a red clock, counting up from zero.  
"You have three days to solve our impasse with this disease. Until we do, no one can fall asleep or become unconscious or the spores that may be infecting you might rapidly kill, as it did our Vidiian prisoners.  
I, Dr. McCoy and Bev Crusher's extensive medical cupboard can only keep you all awake for so long. After that, serious mental and physical degradation will begin from sleep deprivation. And those weaknesses will make you even easier targets for possible infection from the Phage. I suggest you start drinking and stop theorizing." he said, holding up a tray of coffees he had replicated while the first contact or war debate around him buzzed.

Seven of Nine and Commander Data both, abstained.

The EMH said. "Come on Seven.. At least you should be concerned. There's no Borg alcove for you to escape to should your need for rest get overwhelming. I order you as your regular physician to take a cup right now."

Seven merely raise her eyebrows. "Doctor, I can go for almost a week without significant impairment from lack of sleep. My nanoprobes--"

"Your nanoprobes aren't the universal cure-all in every case Seven. Right now, your implants and body metabolism processes are at odds with each other. It's already been three days for you since you've rested.." The EMH countered.  
"You've already begun pushing the envelope."

Seven shrugged, "Are you saying that as a doctor or are you saying that out of concern for my welfare because we are pair bonded?" she asked deadpan.

"Both!" the holodoc exclaimed.

Nearby, Data lifted his head. "It is not sometimes bad medicine to have a doctor care for family or a close significant other? If you'd like. I can ask Beverly Crusher to upkeep Seven's monit--"

"No. no. no. no. no." the holodoc chided, "I'm perfectly able to keep a professional regiment despite my emotional subroutines.." he said quickly. "Seven will stay in my care."

Data was brutally honest. "That may not be a wise choice, doctor. I, for one, having emotions as well to deal with, have noticed that close attachment to another often leads to errors in performance and judgement."

"I'm a hologram. I cannot make erroneous errors."  
the doc mumbled, still irritated at Data questioning his competency.

"Being an artificial lifeform does not imply perfection doctor, as we were constructed by less than perfect people.." Data countered.

Seven stepped between the two debators. "Enough gentleman." And she snatched a cortical monitor and placed it on her own neck until it warbled online. "While I am of sound mind and body. I am declaring myself McCoy's patient for the duration of this emergency. It is he, who will make the decisions regarding my unique Borg human care... Doctor,," she said, handing a med tricorder to Bones who was highly amused at the dickering between android and EMH.  
"If you would.."

"It would be an honor Cadet Seven.." he said, winking at her. He took a quick reading of her biochemistry and said, "You're fine for the next six hours. No Henaline is needed quite yet for those functioning implants of yours.." then he leaned in close. "Brava,  
miss. You are handling them masterfully.  
Take you long to figure out how to control them?"

"Not long." Seven quipped. "I had you as a role model.."

McCoy's smile wiped off his face and he said to her retreating back. "I don't know whether or not I've been complimented or insulted.." he said with a puzzled look.

Seven turned back with a grin. "Doctor.  
we are friends..are we not? That is the answer to your unasked question.." Then she tapped the blinking device on her throat. "I shall keep this on continuous monitoring.."

"You do that.." McCoy said as Seven walked over to Mr. Barclay and Ambassador Spock where they were discussing something with K'Ehleyr about the Vidiian mothership.

Data, guessing that the EMH no longer desired to talk to him about Seven of Nine,  
followed her.

Seven had listened to their discussion for only a minute when she said. "We have no choice. We have to bring the Vidiian vessel at bay in order to make any progress."

Data said, "But that will be difficult with their cloaking device in place. No one has ever seen the inside of this class of Vidiian craft. It could have a perpetual energy converter which allows it to be maintained indefinitely."

"I know that is a strong possibility,  
Commander." Seven said to Data.  
"But we have to try.." She turned towards the others. "Has Captain Janeway scanned the pattern enhancers to determine their inherent polarity?"

"Yes.." Data said. "One point four minutes ago. Their frequency bearing is ranging between the 3.4 megaholtz/ Bohmstedt horizon of theta and beta bands. Outgoing."

Seven shifted her weight on her elegant shoes.  
"Then my idea is possible.."

Barclay said, "What idea is that Seven of Nine..?"

Spock steepled his hands in front of his chin as he listened to the young ex Borg woman speak.

Seven said. "I suggest we allow a stream of Borg nanoprobes to flow through the Vidiian pattern enhancers to their ship as HoloZimm did getting in. Once there. He and I can configure them to seek out their shield cloaking harmonics and find an algorithm which can terminate its function.."

Moriarity said. "I've read about your Borg machines that live in your blood. Tell me my good woman,  
how can you possibly make enough of them to even impact a ship of that size? It would take days.. A David to a Goliath.."

It was at that moment that Seven's confidence wavered. "True.. it would take them awhile to learn which technology is the cloaking device's."

"How long?" Spock asked.

"Six days, maybe seven." she admitted.

Barclay sighed.. "Too long.. We'll all be blithering idiots by then from lack of sleep or zombies as the plague takes us over when we collapse from exhaustion."

Seven actually snapped. "Do you have an alternative? "

Barclay lowered his eyes. "I'm working on it..."

"Does anyone else?" Seven challenged.

Ambassador K'Ehleyr said, "Yes, I do.  
We attack.. We're five to one. I like those odds."

Seven countered. "We'd never stand a chance if the Vidiians thought we would get seriously hostile towards them.  
We'd never survive the encounter in a battle situation. Their technology is way more advanced than ours.."

K'Ehleyr said, "A show of force always leads to an outcome.."

Data said, "An unknown one."

From the patient bed, Chakotay rose, getting to his feet and ordering.. "Doctor..."

The EMH came round to him and gave him a sensor web vest, and a sight cane, both of which would allow him free movement around the ship. "With pleasure.. Perhaps you can talk some sense into Seven.."

Chakotay came toe to toe with Seven.  
The stains on his eye bandages were darkening but a fierce determination kept away any doubt from Seven's mind that he was invalid in that state. "Ok, Seven, let's try your idea.. And one of my own.." he turned to the direction he had last heard Captain Kirk. "Sir.. let's beam the Guardian on board Excelsior. Then it and the Traveler can work in conjunction with each other should we need their option of overwriting our own time line to erase this event.  
They could do so in moments should our own efforts to resolve this crisis fail."

A burst of protests and questions punctuated the air around Chakotay.

He spoke loudly so he could be heard again.  
"It's a way out for all of us. I don't know about you all, but I'm still wavering between the Prime Directive to respect a new species in First Contact but I am also deep in the line of thinking that armed conflict may be the only language that this particular set of Vidiians may understand. The Phage as it is in this variant, is a completely unknown enemy. But I'm banking that in spite of its creepy parlor tricks. It still has the one track thinking of a typical virus.  
To spread. It's stuck in the here and now. It won't know about Time Differentials and Time Wrinkling consequences. So let's have the Traveler's quickfix option open.. Captain Kirk.."  
he said, reaching out until his hand came in contact with the older man's shoulder.  
"Bring the Guardian to us.. It's worth a little transporter interference on board for that ace in the hole.."

Kirk glanced around the room but there were no further protests. He hit his combadge to shipwide. "Kirk to the bridge. Lower the shields. We're taking on another passenger.  
Beam these coordinates from Building Five into the main cargobay." and he entered confidential grid figures into the terminal under his fingers.

"Acknowledged.." came the CO from Excelsior's bridge. "Implementing in twenty seconds."

Data saw Kirk smile at his man Sulu's unquestioning support on the decision. It made him smile too.

There was a change in the lights as the powerful Gateway's influence made itself felt throughout the starship as it was settled into solidity in the landing bay. ##ANOTHER PLACE. ANOTHER EVENT POSSIBILITY. I AWAIT YOUR CHANGE TIMESEER.## it said to the Traveler over a mind channel that they all could seem to hear.

The Traveler said to everyone in the room as he closed his eyes, feeling the shift in dimensions as the Guardian accepted its new mobile place on the human starship.  
"That may not be necessary.." he said to it. "I know that these people we are among are very resourceful. Let's wait until it is certain they cannot go on."

##SO BE IT.## the Guardian of Forever thought from the nearby cargobay.

"Then let's get started.." Chakotay said,  
turning his head as he got used to the sensor audibles guiding him with positioning information from cane and vest. "Seven,  
stay here and work with the doctors on manufacturing those nanoprobes you mentioned. We'll send them through one of the Vidiian scanners when you're ready."

"Aye, commander.." she replied.

The EMH said, "Where do you think you're going Commander?" when he saw Chakotay pace for the door.

"I'm going down to the messhall to see if I can help get further data on those pattern enhancers." He stopped in his tracks and asked the Traveler. "How badly are ship's intracommunications and transporter systems going to be effected on the ship while the Guardian is here?"

The Traveler still had his eyes closed while he sensed out how the Guardian was shaping the physics on the fragile human ship. "There are random pockets of transporter null sites circulating in an accretion disk around the Guardian. Appearing and disappearing at random. These cannot be predicted. However,  
they will be proceeded by an inability of your combadges to function before a null point takes effect."

"Good enough. We've worked blind before in the early days of space travel. We'll just have to do it again." he said.

Chakotay left for the messhall, his clear memory of the route in his head. He didn't even bump into the walls.

---------------------------------

Janeway was alone in the messhall. She had sent the security guard back to sickbay with a message once she heard Kirk's shipwide order of their decision to bring the Guardian of Forever on board. She could live with the communications blackout and the downed transporter capability. ::A fair tradeoff for so solid an out as the Guardian of Forever.::

She recalibrated her tricorder to once again ping into the pattern enhancers so that they sent that signal out to the invisible mother ship. She took more readings.  
Impatiently, she wiped a trickle of sweat off of her forehead and stopped a drop from blurring her vision.. ::Damned coffee.. Making my heart do the cha-cha.. I'll settle for an injection next medcheck.::

She had moved over to another angle from the glowing triangles with her scans when her hands shot a stab of pain up her arms.  
"Ouch.." she snapped aloud, fumbling with the tricorder she nearly dropped to the carpetting. She sighed and stubbornly refused to stop working. ::Gotta start exercising again.  
I'm outta shape.::

That was when an ocean of dizziness slammed into her head and she toppled on her side.  
::Whoa...:: she thought. ::Am I too close to the enhancers induction field?:: She used her legs to push herself away from the purple glow. But Janeway's swimming vision didn't level off.

Then she realized. "No.. Not me. I can't be sick..not now.."  
A vise like cramp hit her stomach and she doubled up, folding elbows to knees.  
She managed to tap her combadge. =^=J-Janeway to sickb-- Acckk!=^=

But silence met her ears. She tried to shout but that only resulted in a low moan as intense nausea washed over her in an enveloping wave.. The air moving in her lungs sounded unnaturally loud while she lay there in a tight ball of agony. ::The Guardian's blackout area. It must extend up here.::

"Kathryn?" she heard a warm timbre.

"Ch-.." she gasped, barely a whisper. But her awareness was receding down a long flaming tunnel away from him as a fierce fever claimed her.

"Captain.." Chakotay grinned. To him the sound was a short shush on her part to keep quiet.  
::Maybe she's doing an audiological scan right now.:: He moved a few paces further into the room. "Ok, I'll wait.."

And he did. For at least a minute.  
But then he heard liquid gurgling that wasn't from the drink machines on the bar. Followed by a gasp. "Kathryn?!" he dropped to his knees cursing the web for not having better discerning sound cues as he swept his cane to the middle of the floor in front of him.  
It struck an occupied boot..

He dropped to his hands and felt along her leg and up her body until he found her head. "Captain, what's wrong? Can you speak?"

Another bubbling. Too soft. He felt the burning of her skin as he reached her face and he quickly tilted it up until her breathing resumed.

It luckily got better.

Air exploded in and out of her rapidly as reflexes rebalanced oxygen inside of her body. "Easy.. You're fine.." he said quietly. His fingers found her throat and the thudding pulse fluttering there. It was weakening a bit and growing irregular. Then her gasping began to slack off. He felt her eyes and found them closed. "No you don't.. stay awake.. it's the Phage.. Don't black out. You know what happens after that."

"Wha.....?" she coughed.

"That's it.."  
He slapped her combadge with a free hand. "Chakotay to the EMH! Emergency!"

There was no answer.  
::Fine. I'll drag her out of here until we reach a normal space pocket. The Traveler said there'd be some. Then we'll get someone.::

He dropped her head down until it lulled backwards, her shoulders in his grip and he tugged. Nothing happened. She was rooted to the floor.. ::What the h*ll..::

He felt down her body again and felt a sharp spark as his fingers brushed the outer edge of the glowing triangle at one of the enhancer's base. He jerked away from it.

One of her legs was half in and half out of the energy field the Vidiian devices were creating.  
"D*mn!! Now what am I going to do??"  
He tugged on that leg but it was firmly held.  
In fact, it was actually starting to pull back,  
in equal response to his efforts.  
"Transport causality. They're starting to beam her to the mothership.."

Chakotay began shouting, planting his feet and resisting the pull for her. Janeway began moaning as she was stretched painfully.

"Hey!!! Listen to me..!!.. Anyone around??! I need some help here!!" No one came.  
"Computer! Respond!!"

It didn't.

But a thud and chirp greeted him as a very sated tribble left the bar and rolled toward the distressed humans,  
purring in comfort. It got nearer.

Chakotay began to curse his weakened muscles and his grip began to slip on her arms.  
He hooked one elbow around a bolted table leg and the other around her chest and that finally stopped their progress.

::Now what?:: He felt tribble fur against his face, trilling in anxiety. And then it moved to stroke Kathryn's.

Chakotay grinned and he blew in the direction it was, feeling his breath push the feather light creature further from them down the length of their bodies. ::Yes.. Keep going in that direction...:: he thought.

The pattern enhancers began to whine at the resistence and Janeway's uniform began to tear...until Chakotay gave a solid kick when the moment was right..

His foot impacted the tribble and it gave an indignant squeal and he heard it sail into the pattern enhancer field and get zapped away. Satisfied, the commit trigger on the enhancer field powered down at the successful conclusion of a transport through which it had sought to cycle.

The hold on Kathryn's leg released instantly and Chakotay's head impacted the table as they fell backwards. He was knocked half senseless.

Janeway and Chakotay lay on the deck,  
dazed and they began to feel light headed from their proximity to the pattern enhancers' alien energy effect.

It did something to them quite unexpected.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Data looking downwards.

Image: A winning smile from Seven of Nine right at you.

*Animated gif* Chakotay and Janeway in Resolutions exchanging playful significant glances.

*******************************************

From : "Cory Anda" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Fever Dreams Date : Mon, 01 Apr 2002 20:19:44 +0000

TANDEM post between "Cory" and "Cassidy Meyers" via MSN messenger and email tags.

MAIN characters

Ambassador Spock Reginald Barclay Deanna Troi Dr. Beverly Crusher

FREEuse characters

Janeway Chakotay The EMH The Traveler

================================

"There are random pockets of transporter null sites circulating in an accretion disk around the Guardian. Appearing and disappearing at random. These cannot be predicted. However,  
they will be proceeded by an inability of your combadges to function before a null point takes effect." (the Traveler added)

Reginald turned to Deanna as they watched the blind Chakotay adjust rapidly to his sensor web vest and cane. The radar sounds it cast sharpened whenever the commander faced another person. "I was about to say that..." Reg murmured.

"Um hmm." Deanna said to Reg with a slow nod. She wasn't unkind. Merely, skeptical.

"Good enough. We've worked blind before in the early days of space travel. We'll just have to do it again." he (Chakotay)said.

Chakotay left for the messhall, his clear memory of the route in his head. He didn't even bump into the walls.

Barclay moved to a stool next to Troi and sat down. He was still twitchy from the reviving medication they had given him to awaken him from his faint and it only made his nervousness worse. He couldn't even help Seven of Nine analyze growth curves on her own nanoprobes in an investigation to set her contingency into action. "Oh, Deanna.." he sighed, ringing his fingers together.

"What is it Reg..?" she said, vaguely amused. "Are you feeling embarrassed that your hypochrondiac quirk popped out again?"

Barclay's eyes bobbed from hers and to the terminal he played with without seeing. He sighed again. "Partly.." he said sheepishly. "I don't do well with plagues almost as bad as I handle transporter demat and remat's."

"Well you're in good company there." Troi said, smacking his knee in comfort. "Dr. McCoy doesn't like them either.." she said levelly.

"Really?" Reg smiled shyly.

"I have it on the best authority..." Troi insisted. "He told me so himself on the way to see Data's head four days ago."

Barclay almost blanched again at that idea. "That's another thing, uh, counselor.. All this business of time altering and dimensional remixing.. " his voice scaled up in a thoughtful singsong. "..It's messy.."

"And this virus isn't?" Beverly said as she came over to them. She had noticed Barclay's wavering reactions emotionally. "Just kidding, Reg.." And she aimed a tricorder at them. "Captain Kirk wants continuous readouts of all of us looking for abnormal changes physiologically. I told him that Excelsior's computer wouldn't be able to handle the task automatically right now being bombarded with dimensional blackouts. So, here I am.. A walking bioflag monitor.. And I'll be back in a half an hour too.."

Her grousing succeeded in making Reg laugh. It sounded like a sneeze but the two women did see a fleeting smile get through his frown. Reg rolled his eyes and threw his arms wide as she scanned his torso. "Oh, I don't like this unexpected little surprise. I mean, the Vidiians should have been a whole Quadrant away from here..not pestering Earth like some malignant pack of mosquitoes."

Deanna felt the Traveler's quiet approach like cool mint in her empathetic sense. She heard him speak. "I am just as surprised as you are Mr. Barclay. I had no idea a dimensional strand collision could result in a ship being tossed so far away from their native sector." the tall lilac being said mildly. "It is fascinating."

Barclay's irritation that had been just under the surface suddenly rematerialized. "I'm thrilled you're fascinated Mr. Observer. But tell me, will this Phage thing get under your skin? I mean,.. literally get under your skin.. Because you can't possibly know what we're feeling right now facing this if you aren't exactly in the same risk category.." he spat.

Beverly admonished him, "Reg!" and her tricorder closed with a snap.

"Sorry doctor..I, ..uh, it must be the medication..I do have a bit of a headache."

Troi was understanding. She tossed her eyes in apology at the Traveler and handed Reg his requested glass of water. Then she started to massage his shoulders briskly. "Of course, Reg, that must be it. We know you aren't a pain intentionally."

Reg stopped his moans of pleasure at her ministrations."Now what's that supposed to mean?"

Beverly whispered close to Troi's ear, "Nice going, Deanna. Good luck working your way out of that one." And she escaped to go scan Spock for his pathogen check leaving the three of her friends to defend opinions and mend fences on their own. Aloud she said. "You two are both still in the clear.. No signs of infection. So get back to work Reg.. You've no excuses now.."

She didn't tell Troi nor Barclay that the Traveler was immune to any galactic microbe figuring less fuel for the fire was a much better option.

------------------------------------------------

Dr. Crusher stopped two feet away from Spock as was customary with Vulcans. "Ambassador.."

He looked up from his computer screen. "Yes?"

She held up her medical tricorder.

"Of course. You may proceed, doctor."

Beverly scanned him in a deep tissue probe but didn't say anything more.

Spock filled the silence instead. "I have made some progress using Captain Janeway's data on the Vidiian pattern enhancers." He held up one of the invader's analyzers and touched one of the two prongs jutting out from its business end. "This protuberance acts as a recall device and it sends anything bathed in an indicator field wash to the mother ship.. Observe.."

And he shot an attacking beam to a glass flask sitting on a medical cart near them. The bright flashing bolt made everyone in sickbay jump. It glowed purple before disappearing.

"That's now gone to the Vidiian ship?"

"Correct.." Spock said. "And it's more than ninety eight point six percent possible that anything else scanned in such a way using the tool the Vidiian used on Commander Chakotay, that it will end up in the same immediate vicinity as his eyes."

That got Crusher's attention. "Does Captain Kirk know this?"

"Not as yet."

"Well why the h*ll not? We would have never risked HoloZimm over there if this tidy little piece of information had been made known first.." Beverly said.

Her outburst cut through the harmony just reached by Reg, Troi and the Traveler.

Deanna hurried over. "What now? You're agitated." she asked the red haired physician.

"You bet I am..It seems the ambassador here is sitting on privledged information. Anything hit by that Vidiian probe in his hand gets to the organ bank where Chakotay's eyes are located." Dr. Crusher told her.

The effect on the counselor wasn't as bitter as it had been on Beverly. "Well we can just recall HoloZimm back. No problem and then go in this way.." she said casting a gesture at the device in Spock's hand.

Dr. Crusher said. "You're forgetting the Guardian's buffering aura.. It's going to take a while to find an operating window of functionality that actually lines up with a console that controls the transporter pad." she said.

"Hmm. Kirk had Holozimm go into hiding. He should be fine until we get that circumstance working for us, Beverly. Why are you worried?" Deanna said.

"Because Holozimm's a child subjectively speaking. He may have the education of a Starfleet cadet graduate but in hours spent actually living, he's only seen three weeks. He can't possibly have the skills to survive being on a hostile enemy ship." Dr. Crusher theorized.

"The events we are experiencing are "upsetting" for us all. It will not help snowballing worse case scenarios." Spock said. "If it will put your mind at rest, Dr. Crusher. I will inform Captain Kirk of my discovery.."

"Please do so.." Beverly said. "Then at least some of us will be able to sleep better at night." she walked away to go scan Kirk, Uhura and Chapel and added under her breath. "That's if and when we can ever allow ourselves to sleep again without worrying about the Phage melting us down like butter on a frying pan."

==================================

"Kathryn.. Can you hear me?"

Vague heat. Both internal and external, burned her skin and a bright light of a sun sliced white through her closed searing eyelids.

"Kathryn... It's me.. Open your eyes.."

::Chakotay?:: Janeway's muzzy brain thought. She felt herself being lifted upright in his arms and felt wind blown sand being driven against exposed areas of skin. His exhausted exhalations whistled right next to her ear as he soothed her to a full wakefulness. She smiled."If this had been any other circumstance, it would have been real nice being held like this commander.." she chuckled until a stab of pain jolted her and made her cry she fell silent as a lifted bowl of stone offered water to her lips. It's cool wetness tasted vaguely of clay. ::River water?:: she thought in shock. Her sharp intake of breath made some of it go into her lungs.

She sputtered and choked, knocking the bowl away and Captain Janeway shifted her head in his lap until she cleared her throat again.

"Sorry.. I should have warned you first." he said, wiping her mouth and face dry with a hand. It was then Kathryn heard birds. She forced her swollen eyes open and saw that she was lying in sweet meadow grass in her vision quest shift of light doeskin.

Areas of its soft leather had been cut away and hideous weeping lesions gaped through the holes on chest, legs and hands. They had been smeared with a strong smelling poltice and more of it filled her nose from the wet areas she found on her face with her questing fingers.

She glanced up and saw Chakotay's face. Whole emotion filled eyes were watching hers and she realized that they were in the spirit world trance. "Your work?" she said of her treated wounds.

"Mine and Matseyeho's." he replied, smiling. "It's good to see you with us again. We had a h*ll of a time keeping you from falling unconscious."

Kathryn frowned distastefully. "Glad you succeeded. I don't fancy becoming a liquified puddle any time soon." she groaned. Then she searched the dreamscape meadow for her spirit guide gecko. "Where is he?" she gasped when there was no sign of him in her mind or eyes.

The great wolf she could only see from the corner of her eye spoke. ##He cannot come while you are half way to death. For you have one foot in each world and are crossing over.##

Janeway struggled upright with trembling hands against Chakotay's chest. He had to keep her from falling hastily with a grip on her shoulders. "What do you mean, I'm dying.." she demanded of Chakotay's spirit guide.

"She didn't mean it like that, Kathryn." Chakotay said. "That's just her word for the Phage illness's progression."

A sickening bit of chill got through despite the intense summer sun and she shook even harder. She felt Chakotay wrap his arms even closer around her, trying to still the fever shakes. "H- How long have we been here?" she said through chattering teeth.

"Can't tell.." he whispered. "I think we're still lying near the pattern enhancers in the messhall. Could be just minutes."

"Then why am I so far along?" she asked holding up a shaking hand and seeing the deep sores festering there.

"It's just your mind's reaction to the fear of finding itself infected. Out there, I only felt a temperature on you and fixed the awkward way you were laying so you could breathe better."

"Oh, that's all?" she said sarcastically. "But I still feel like sh*t." Kathryn's body bucked involuntarily and he restrained her as she fought another painful spasm down. "I don't like this.. " she gasped. "Not at all. Break us out of the trance, Chakotay." she said tightening cracked lips. "Please..."

"I can't.. something's keeping me from doing that. It may be that field out there preventing us from leaving." Chakotay said. "I'll start a fire. That should help keep you warm.."

He eased her down to the ground and covered her with his prayer blanket. Janeway clutched it in a tight grip, wrapping it around herself desperately, growing lost inside powerful tremors of chill and fire. She began to despair. She watched a spark catch and grow in embers as he worked and it leaped into a flame that lanced into her retinas painfully. The rising crackle of the fire finally drowned out her moans when he finally came to bring her closer to the bonfire he had begun. "Hang on.. Someone will see us. It's a big ship. The red alert will have security patrols checking every room regularly.."

"Make them hurry..." she sobbed.

"Shhhh.." he soothed, brushing hair out of her eyes as he cradled her tightly in his lap. "We'll be out soon." he said, bathing her forehead with cool soaked moss. "Matseyeho and I won't leave you behind in here." he said.

Empathetically, Matseyeho buried her muzzle under Janeway's cheek and Kathryn heard her whines cascade in eerie echoes into the distance....

Her eyes fell away from theirs and into the fire. Its orange glow grew over powering and soon she could see nothing of the daytime meadow. Sensations of ice and heat fought over her body until the inferno side won. A sinister presence insinuated itself inside of her, pushing away Kathryn herself. She groaned and fell silent as her identity shifted.

Chakotay looked down and saw the animation leave Janeway's face like a deflated balloon and she went limp. He passed trembling fingers over her mouth and sighed in relief when he still felt warm air moving between her lips. "Hey...stay focused.." he said shifting a grip to check her carotid pulse. It was unnaturally slow.

Matseyeho started to howl in anguish.. ##It's here. The other. It's in her soul. I can feel it moving there.##

Chakotay looked up at his spirit guide in horror.

---------------------------------------------------------------

In sickbay Barclay looked up from the terminal that he and Seven were working on. "Ambassador! The pattern enhancers in the messhall have just activated. They just beamed something off ship."

Spock raised an eyebrow and tapped his combadge. =^=Spock to Captain Janeway. Come in.=^=

Static..

=^=Spock to Commander Chakotay. Please respond.=^=

Again. There was no reply.

Reg aimed his tricorder down at the floor. "I'm reading a null space on that deck. We're not getting through."

"Commbadge lifesigns?" Spock asked.

"Inconclusive.." Seven reported.

Ambassador Spock got a nod from Captain Kirk "Go. Spock. Take Barclay and Crusher with you."

"We're on our way.." Beverly said, she snatched up the biggest medkit she had in the ward.

=================================

Reginald and Dr. Crusher and Spock were down there in less than a minute. They had beaten the security team Spock had notified to join them.

Barclay's tricorder bleeped as he scanned the room through the closed doors. "Whatever it was that beamed off ship. It wasn't Vidiian activity. It's clear."

"Let's move.." Dr. Crusher said, pushing past Reg and Spock's phasers.

Beverly saw Chakotay and Janeway lying on the floor under a table. She rushed forward but was quickly jerked to a stop when Barclay grabbed her back. "Wait.." and he pointed to the bright field of energy glowing from the pattern enhancers. He stepped to the equipment table Janeway had been using and grabbed up a portable tractor antigrav tool and used it to slide an enhancer post away from their bodies until the triangle distorted harmless off of them. "Ok. Now you can get in there." he said to Spock and Beverly. "I'm going to get these things turned off for now. They're much too dangerous like this."

"I concur lieutenant." Spock said and nodded approvingly as Reg switched off the beams one by one on the alien devices.

Beverly knelt over her two patients with a scanner. "They're both alive. Semiconscious." She quickly gave them stimulants to keep them from slipping the rest of the way out of consciousness. Then she frowned.

"What is it doctor?" Barclay said as he knelt by her side with Spock to help out.

"I don't know. I've never seen this before. Some kind of trance and they're not snapping out of it."

"If I may..." Spock said, leaning over. He placed the long fingers of each hand, one each over Janeway and the commander's temples.. His eyes rolled up into his head. "Return. We have secured your safety.." he said.

Then he released them.

The Voyager Captain and Chakotay shook their heads as they left the spirit world. He came back first and sat up, turning his attention to Kathryn. "Help her. Something's wrong.." he said, placing a hand on her stomach, feeling her breathing pattern.

Reg hesitated but then grabbed his hand and got him to his feet. "Commander. Dr. Crusher's here with us. Don't worry. Both your vital signs are stable. Here.." and he set the sight cane back into his grip.

"No. You don't understand. She's not just fever sick. The Phage intelligence is there. It just smothered her.."

Spock frowned. "Chakotay. I sensed no alien presence when I contacted both of you through your minds."

Again, Beverly looked at her scans on the captain. Their readings were barely away from the norm. Beverly Crusher was about to say something when Captain Janeway opened her eyes and sighed in relief. "What a welcome sight. The messhall bulkheads. Help me up doctor. I'm fine.."

Dr. Crusher frowned in puzzlement at only a slight sign of Vidiian Phage within her. There was no fever in the captain at all.

"All right. I'll get up myself." Impatient, Kathryn hauled herself to her feet on her own power using the table for leverage.

"Kathryn?" Chakotay said as the sound of her voice sunk in. "I don't understand." But then his slight concussion made him dizzy for a few seconds.

Barclay grabbed his arm to steady him.

Chakotay felt Kathryn move over closer to him and he felt her grope the lump on his head. He winced and gasped sharply. "Not surprising with that goose egg up there. You're bound to be a little confused Chakotay. As I told you. I'm fine. Get him to sickbay doctor.. I'll join you shortly. I'm going to be sure these pattern enhancers are completely offline. Chakotay had to use the tribble as beaming fodder just to break us free of their grip."

Beverly eyed Janeway carefully. But she seemed fully competent and aware. "All right..five minutes captain. Have someone escort you to the ward once you're done. I want to give you a thorough once over to be sure that Vidiian energy didn't cause problems.."

"Nothing I can't handle doctor.." Janeway said under her breath as Dr. Crusher and a med team guided Chakotay away.

"Pardon?" Crusher asked, not quite hearing her.

"Nothing you can't handle on him eh, doctor?. I won't be long.."

Beverly gave her a thoughtful glance but she went on her way after the others, sealing her medkit closed.

Janeway turned back to Spock and Reg Barclay. "Now gentleman.. Let's finish cleaning up here shall we? I'm sure Captain Sulu will like having the usual safe haven back for a messhall."

Her performance was so convincing, it even fooled the older Vulcan.

===========================

In sickbay, Deanna Troi waited until Beverly had treated Chakotay's head bump before she sat by him. She had heard his protests about Kathryn the whole while.

"Commander.. What's this I'm hearing about fever dreams. Did something happen in your protective trance that disturbed you?'

"No.. I mean ..yes.. Well, not exactly." he scratched an itch as a nurse rebound a new bandage over his face. He sighed hugely. "I've been in that world in that meadow with Matseyeho hundreds of times and never have I had someone with me showing signs of dementia. Period. And that was what she was doing."

Deanna frowned and let it show in her voice for his benefit. "Hmm I assure you Commander. If any of the captains have so much as a single stray emotional misreaction, you'll be the very first person to know about it I promise you that.."

"This coming from the counselor sitting in a leather couch session with a head injury patient?" he mumbled bitterly.

"No. This coming from a shipmate ordered to watch everyone else's back and a little caring action on my part personally." she said, patting his hand.

"Thanks Troi. Guess I'm a little stupid right now." Chakotay sighed.

"Don't mention it."

Chakotay spoke up again before he heard her leave for another part of sickbay. "What's the time on the clock.?"

Deanna knew exactly which clock he meant, The EMH's past the point of no return countdown. She glanced up at that computer screen. The numbers in red laughed at her. "One hour fifty nine minutes fourteen seconds."

"Only that long, eh? Feels like I've been away for an eternity.."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Dr. Crusher promo. Long hair.

Image: Mr. Spock looking curious.

Image: Barclay close up.

Image: Deanna Troi in her gray uniform.

*animated gif* Two bonded wolves surrounded by sparkles of light blue.

Image: Chakotay praying on the floor over his prayer blanket.

Image: Janeway, lying injured on the deck Closeup on her face.

******************************************

From: "Fran Catrair" taleaoneh... Date: Tue Apr 2, 2002 7:08 am Subject: {voyagerliveaction} A Friend in Need Commander William T. Riker was on the Bridge of the Enterprise; stroking his beard and appearing deep in thought. Ever since the emergency on Rygus 4 had called Captain Picard and himself away from the situation at Starfleet Command, he had been agitated. He did not like the idea of leaving Deanna in danger. It bothered him even greater when the preliminary reports had indicated that Data had attacked her. Things just did not make any sense.  
Mulling things over, he decided he needed to go back to Starfleet Command and offer his assistance. Although he knew high ranking, top caliber officers, past and present, were assisting in the Guardian project, he needed to go back; to help Deanna.  
Reports from Starfleet Command indicated there was a fire, but it had been contained with minimal damage. ::Minimal. Unless you talk to Boothby.:: Will mused to himself with a quiet chuckle.  
Standing up and straightening his uniform tunic, Will looked over at Geordi, who was at his engineering station. He decided to inform Captain Picard of his decision to request a leave to head back to Earth.  
"I'm going to speak to the Captain, Geordi." he said. "You have the bridge." Geordi nodded in acknowledgement and Will went to Picard's ready room and waited for permission to enter.

Captain Picard had been in conference most of the day with an offworld representative. Nothing had been mentioned of who this representative was. Nonetheless, he had been in the meeting most of the morning, and Will had a feeling his presence would be acceptable at this time.  
The door chimed. "Yes?" Picard answered.  
Will decided to stay within protocol. He had no idea who was in the room with the Captain. "It's Commander Riker, sir. May I come in?"

"Yes, by all means, come in, Number One. I was just getting ready to call you." Picard answered. Taking a deep breath, Will entered the ready room.  
Captain Picard was sitting at his desk, a cup of tea sitting in front of him. Even after all these years, Will enjoyed working with Jean-Luc Picard. He realized he had set himself a goal of being captain when he was 35, but he realized it was a foolish goal; set by the recklessness of youth and pride. He wouldn't trade the years of working with Jean-Luc Picard for anything. And, serving as first officer onboard the Federation flagship was even more impressive as being captain of, say, a frigate.  
Will realized he was being spoken to. A loud "hem" was calling his attention. Re-focusing his thoughts, Will looked at his captain. "I'm sorry, sir. I must have been thinking of something else."  
Captain Picard looked at his first officer. He knew that Will had been distracted lately, especially when they were called away so suddenly. He had been willing to leave Will at Starfleet Command, but Will would have none of it. As much as it pained him to leave Deanna, he had insisted on re-joining his captain on the Enterprise. Picard had a feeling he knew why Will had come to see him. With the situation taken care of on Rygus 4, he was sure Will had been thinking of returning to Earth. Nodding at the chair off to his right, Picard said to Will, "Commander Riker, may I present the Bajoran representative to the Federation, Colonel Kira Nerys."  
Will looked over at the woman, having just noticed her in the room. He was aware that Colonel Nerys had been the Bajoran attache' on Deep Space Nine, and had served as first officer to Captain Benjamin Sisko. Before that, she had been a freedom fighter for the Bajorans against their Cardassian occupation. Her record and reputation were exemplary. "Colonel. An honor meeting you." he said, bowing his head graciously.  
Colonel Nerys had been watching the exchange with interest. It was an honor for her to have Captain Picard meet with her. It was her luck that Enterprise had been heading this way from their mission. She knew her new post was as an emissary, but truth be told, Kira wanted to get away from Bajor for awhile. She was getting tired of being around the politicians. She shuddered mentally, thinking of listening to another one of Weyoun's speeches. The station just did not seem the same to her without the Federation. She knew she thought them straight-laced types, but they were a h#ll of alot better than what she was dealing with now. She was a fighter. That's what she knew best. If she accepted this diplomatic assignment, she might see her old friends again; maybe even have an adventure or two. She was pleased Captain Picard had noticed her preference for the military title over the diplomatic one.  
"It seems you two have something in common.", Picard said, smiling at both of them. "You both are heading for Earth." he finished.  
Will was stunned. ::How did the Captain know that was why he was coming to see him?:: Looking closer, Will caught the gleam in Jean-Luc's eyes and realized he had been read neatly. If anyone could read him, besides Deanna, it was Picard. Sighing slightly and offering a sheepish grin, he asked of Picard, "Am I that obvious?"  
Picard laughed at his first officer. "I understand how you feel, Number One. I'm just surprised it took you this long to ask." he chided humorously.  
"The Colonel needs to go to Earth. Considering their recent situation, and the attack of these Vidiians, the use of transporters is not advisable at this time. You will need to take a shuttlecraft. I believe you should be there in a couple of days. Does that sound reasonable to both of you?" he asked, glancing back and forth.  
They looked at each other and found themselves nodding in affirmative.  
Picard appeared pleased with himself. "Well, alot has happened recently at Starfleet Command. I will leave datapadds for both of you to read on your journey. I will inform Starfleet Command of your impending arrival. Dismissed."  
Riker looked at his captain with gratitude. "Thank you, Captain.", he said and turned to pack his belongings.  
Kira Nerys offered suitable thanks on behalf of the Bajoran people and left to gather her things as well.  
Smiling at his now empty office, Picard sat back down to read some reports, taking a sip of his Earl Grey tea.

Kira Nerys was waiting for Will when he arrived at the shuttlebay. She felt she should wait for him before entering. She had some misguided feelings about being with him; he looked so much like his brother. She had not forgotten how Thomas Riker had played the part of his brother, then turned on them all and joined the Maquis. Of course, she found out his stint in the Maquis had been short; he had been quickly captured.  
Will Riker arrived at the shuttle and entered, Kira on his heels. He took the pilot's chair, with Kira taking her place in the second chair. It felt so good to Kira to be at the controls of a spacecraft again. "Just like riding a bicycle." she said softly to herself.  
"Colonel?" Will said, hearing her whisper.  
"Nothing, Commander. Just an old saying Captain Sisko told me once. Are we ready to go?" she asked.  
"I believe so, Colonel. This should be an interesting trip. Don't worry; I've been told I'm a good conversationalist." he added, trying to put them both at ease.  
Kira smiled back at him. ::Should be an interesting trip. Alot better than Weyoun's speeches.::

-  
(attachments)

Image: Riker looking regal.

Image: Kira looking kooky.

Image: Riker eyeing up Kira respectfully at Ops on Deep Space Nine.

*Animated gif* Shiny combadge spinning. Deep Space Nine's.

*animated gif* Starfleet's Federation Logo rotating.

*

From : "Katherine Bird" Subject :[voyagerliveaction] The Control Dance Date : Wed, 03 Apr 2002 17:20:54 +0100

Nurse Chapel helped Dr. Crusher get Commander Chakotay back in order. It didn't take long to quick heal the lump on the back of his head. But his expression never changed from one of confusion as he still had his vivid memories of a very ill Janeway underseige in the spirit world.  
He faced the only one making noise near him, Christine, to be a captured audience.  
"I wouldn't believe her for a moment Miss Chapel. How could I be mistaken as to what I saw and did for her? For all of that happened within my own mind and she was linked with me through the same trance."

"That's just it, Commander." Chapel said no nonsense. "There's no way for anyone to know what goes on inside your head.  
But, we have medtricorders and us, to monitor anything that might go wrong with your captain, so relax.." she said warmly, "we've got things all under control."

"That's what I'm afraid of.." he murmured when he heard the nurse leave his side.

He got up gingerly with his cane and sighed.  
Then he realized that Kathryn hadn't even told him where she was headed when the med team escorted him to sickbay.  
he tapped his combadge. =^=Computer.  
Location of Captain Janeway =^=

##Captain Janeway is in the messhall#  
The pager replied.

::Great..:: he thought sarcastically. ::How long does it take to watch someone turn off three pattern enhancers. Seems like a pocket of normal space is finally working down there.  
I wish the Guardian could control its masking eddies. Things would go a lot smoother around here.:: Chakotay didn't know why he was so surly. It was an unusual state with him. ::Maybe its because I DON'T know what actually happened to me in the messhall trance with any certainty.  
Hitting my head on the table's no excuse. ::

He decided to let his shipmates keep an eye on Kathryn. Since, quite literally, he wasn't able to do so himself. He made his way over to where he could hear Captain Kirk giving orders and sat down at a computer console and told it to give him audio tie-ins so he could help out on the sensors.

Uhura was busy at work, too. She had taken over Scotty's modified tricorder and had tied it into the overhead speaker where her fingers danced over the console as she finetuned frequencies.

Nurse Chapel paused from the supplies she was moving to a med cart at one particularly nasty squeal.. "Ugh, Uhura.. just what are you doing?  
Sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard."

"Hmm?" the dark officer said, glancing up.."Oh.."  
as she remembered where she was.. "I think I may be onto something with that Vidiian invader."

"How so?" Christine said, dumping her pile of medical supplies down. She moved to her friend's side.

"That cloaking device everyone's worried about.  
It only keeps visual energies and visual light from escaping, right?" Uhura ventured.

"That's right.." Chapel said, frowning in concentration.

"Well it certainly does nothing to block out sound very well now does it?" she grinned.

Chapel got Kirk's attention. "Hey, Mr. Wonderful.. Uhura's on to something over here. Pulled a rabbit out of her communications band hat.."

Kirk spun around on a heel with an amused glance at her familiar use of addressing him. He pursed his lips and afforded his nurse with a tolerant expression as he made his way over to her with hands on his hips.  
"Let's hear it.."

"Exactly, sir.." Uhura breathed.

Kirk's smile turned confused.

Lt. Uhura turned up the volume of the channel she was adjusting until he could hear it too.  
"This is the mother ship, live. I've got HoloZimm's audio input feeding through this console and they don't know about it. It's passive. And the universal translator is online. I'm hearing a lot of orders from their command center. Might be useful if I catch a navigational heading from this tap."

"Brilliant..!!" Kirk said, spinning Uhura's chair around.  
"Keep at it." and he returned back to McCoy on the other side of the sickbay ward near where Chakotay was working. "Just be sure to record absolutely everything."

"That went smooth." Chapel said to Uhura once he had gone. "I remember days where Captain Kirk would shoot down improvisations from anyone and insert his own."

"Perhaps time is mellowing him...." Uhura said and she turned back to her computer frequencies listening carefully as she got the best clarity on the overhead speakers in sickbay.

-----------

Captain Janeway stood a little ways away from Barclay as she watched him move the deactivated alien enhancers into a secured cargo box and placed it into a security field on an antigrav. Reg felt nervous with the Voyager Captain watching his every move and she noticed it too. "Relax, lieutenant. I won't bite." and she smiled crookedly. Somehow, her remark didn't make Reg feel any better. Soon his task was complete. "Good work. Why don't you return to sickbay? I'll go with Ambassador Spock when he's done scanning the room."

"Aye.." and Mr. Barclay fled as fast as possible to the other side of the messhall, gathering up his tools and equipment.

Captain Janeway took her own tricorder and passed it over the area where the Vidiian pattern enhancers once were. "Ambassador. There's residual static resonance remaining from their transporter energy signature.. Now that we've sealed off their pathway,  
it shouldn't pose a problem.."

Spock nodded. "How are you feeling? The doctors asked me to keep an eye on you until you reported to sickbay."

---------

A soft whisper of something brushed her mind, a dull burning. Then suddenly a memory surfaced like boiling oil. It was her own voice, giving an order.  
"Tuvok! Target the Caretaker Array. They mustn't get control of it!"

"Aye captain..." she heard his voice say. "Targetting phasers and full spread photons."

"Fire!!"

In her mind, a bright brilliant flare of mass destruction bloomed as the only way home known utterly annihilated itself. Numbness, despair and shock in her heart replaced the visual sight disappearing as it died. ::What have I done?:: and she gasped.

A new presence knifed through her flashback.  
%%The only thing that matters. You killed. Isolated your crew. And I think I like that very very much. Do it again!%%

---------------------

Janeway paled and she blinked. She realized she was only moments after Spock's question.  
"What?.. Oh.....Bit of a headache but that should pass. I usually never get them." She sighed and shook off the tightness that was gripping her shoulders.  
"Shall we go? The sooner I get that clean bill of health the sooner I can forget about what happened." she grinned.

Spock merely raised his eyebrow. "Captain. I'm afraid that will be quite impossible. Don't you remember?  
The doctors and Chakotay found you infected with the beginning stages of the Phage a few minutes ago."

"They found me stunned from failed transporter lock.  
No one told me I was sick."

That comment made the ambassador and Barclay look up.

Reg said. "Uh. Maybe you should talk with the doctors,  
captain when you get there. I remember Chakotay saying that you were fevered and Beverly scanned you for one."

"But apart from this headache, I feel fine.."

Both men held out their hands for her to preceed them out into the corridor to head to sickbay. "Only one way to find out.." Reg said.

"Very well. " Janeway said.

--------------

The Traveler saw Janeway return to sickbay and he sensed the darkness of illness in her manner. The same he felt in the Enterprise engineer. "Captain,  
I'm so sorry. I should have Acted. But without the Guardian's implicit consent. I and my people can do nothing about an outcome."

She simply shrugged and went over to Chakotay's side, taking a medical tricorder from off a cart.

Beverly looked up from where she was scanning Scotty. "Captain. I'll be right there."

Janeway simply nodded. She stood in front of Chakotay and said, "Stand still." and she scanned him from head to foot.

Chakotay did so, and he heard a full med scan begin to warble. "Still not convinced something happened to us in that vision quest trance?"

"Something like that." she murmured. She studied the readouts on him and from her sigh, Chakotay knew that he wasn't ill in the slightest. He heard her reverse scan herself, and a soft indicator tone started beeping, a positive finding. "So, it's true what you said."

"Kathryn? I--"

"That I'm sick like Kirk's engineer now. Why didn't anyone tell me that when we were both rescued from that enhancer field? It would have explained a lot of things for me. For instance, that v--"  
she broke off when a cough suddenly made itself felt. Annoyed Janeway tried to speak again.  
"I am finding myself daydreaming about Voyager's past and then I hear that v-" A rippling sneeze again cut off her words.

Chakotay felt a fine mist coat him and he held his breath. ::Like that's going to do anything.  
The infection spores are most likely all over the ship right now.:: He reached out until he touched both of her shoulders. "Kathryn. You had me whisked out of the messhall so fast. No one had a chance to tell you. Now that you've reported to sickbay. You'll get your answers. In detail."  
He sighed when he felt her break free of his grip.  
"I know this is hard. The Vidiians. This illness.  
Just look at me." he said, casting a hand up to his bandaged eyes. " It hasn't exactly been a Sunday walk in the park for me either."

He could hear her sigh in resignation while she listened to what he had to say. "Having a sense of control is something you prize very much and you are afraid that this Phage is going to take it away from you." Then he chuckled good naturedly.  
"Relax.. It's not going to turn you into a Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde so you can get the organs your body thinks its gonna need anytime soon."

Janeway said. "But what about HoloZimm's finding?  
That message on that Vidiians' skin didn't seem like some obscure calligraphy custom tattoo to me."

"That's over there, captain. Those people have been sick longer."

Captain Janeway thought. ::But they are Vidiian not fragile Homo Sapiens. What if we're more susceptible to this disease then they and it progresses more rapidly?:: But aloud she said. "I grant you that. But you're right. Being ill scares me to death. I had a hallucination once where the doctor euthanized me because my Phage was incurable. It was awful."

"Now that's a near death vision you didn't tell me about when that entity looking like your father had you." he said lightly.

"Don't like talking about that one." she whispered.

"Then don't.." he said, moving near. He kissed her forehead and drew her into a hug. "You'll be fine.  
Between me and the doctors, nothing is going to be happening to you anytime soon. We won't let it."

In her mind the burning voice echoed. %%Isn't that sweet. I think I'll take this blind man too.  
He's too amusing to be just a donor to my minions.%%

Of these alien thoughts, Janeway was no longer aware.  
For her, the Phage illness coursed on in silence.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Uhura, with an earpiece, frowning in concentration.

Gif: Alien Vidiian language on a computer display.

Image: A profile of Christine Chapel.

Image: Janeway med scanning Chakotay.

********************************************

END WEEK ELEVEN RECAP 04-07-02

WEEK TWELVE RECAP 04-09-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Hub

*******************************

Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2002 10:25:06 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: [voyagerliveaction] For Every Action There is an Equal and Opposite...

Seven of Nine was deep in thought. She had accessed Excelsior's computer database on the Vidiians. ::I wonder if cross paralleling this data with my own from my Borg memory will yield the technological aspects of how this mothership would favor placement of any cloaking device.  
Perhaps I can help our engineers locate it.::

But in the back of her mind, she was thinking about something else. The disease. She had no reason to fear its attack on herself as her nanoprobes would easily end any such infection in her tissues.  
She wondered if the discovery of the illness's ability to become sentient in a host body was universal in all its victims. She decided to monitor everyone through the bioflag medical system and told Mr. Data she was doing so. He was working along side her on adapting a batch of her nanoprobes to infest the Vidiian ship to find the cloak.

Seven sighed, seeing the tense conversation going on between Janeway and Chakotay across the medical ward. ::It looks like she is not taking the fact of her illness well. :  
"I am worried about the crew.." she said to Data.  
"There's no way to determine how soon the Phage attains sentience in its victims and at what stage of manifestation. This starship is now under quarantine. It would be a simple matter for the Phage to make a crewman leave out an airlock and get to the walkways of the Space Dock surrounding us."

Data cocked his head thoughtfully but he didn't stop his rapid work on the console. "I have anticipated that possible outcome. Under Starfleet regulation 9, subparagraph 14's protection, I have configured the outer hull airlocks and cargobay doors to fail to respond to any crew with lifesigns.  
I have not been yet ordered to assume this starship's command should the crew be rendered incapacitated but I have full authority to maintain an established quarantine absolutely."

"True." Seven said. "I...just don't want to see this crew suffer being taken over. It's..." she lowered her delicately blonde head, "..not something I'd wish on anyone. "

"Being a Borg survivor does give you a unique perspective on the matter." Data agreed. A heads up on his panel made him look down. He frowned. "Alexander Rashenko is in possession of what appears to be a weapon." he said in puzzlement. "He is in corridor nine beta,  
section ten. And yet he does not appear to have contracted the Phage."

Seven smiled at that. "Commander, I highly doubt the boy is sick. More a case of his Klingon battle drive kicking in to try and handle the idea of Vidiian invaders. I'll inform his mother but I think she'll only like the idea."

"Hmmm." Data said. Then he checked another sensor.  
"Of all the crew, only Captain Janeway and Montgomery Scott are showing signs of the disease."

Seven rechecked the environmental filters. "Curious.  
I'm reading spores being present in all areas of the ship."

Data zeroed in on a graph of a Phage spore until it was very close on an electromicroscopic scan.  
"It appears the outer casing of the Phage reacts pyschically to stimuli and ruptures only with a mental command from any infected host."

"You mean if Captain Janeway or Captain Scott thinks about it, they can become contagious?"

"Not exactly. I surmise the disease itself has that ability. It may be able to decide who it infects." Data said reluctantly.

"And who better than a ship's engineer and a ship's captain to target.." Seven said, casting another worried look at Janeway across the room.  
It looked like the commander and she were embracing to comfort themselves. "I'll assign low ranking security officers to watch the critical egress systems, the outer airlocks, the cargobay hatches and the transporter rooms."

"That is a wise precaution." Data said.

Seven looked up as she studied the breakdown of the inherent structure of the Phage spore on her screen. "I wonder.." she said mostly to herself.

Data's android ears caught the comment anyway.  
"Seven?" he asked.

She looked at him. "I was just thinking. You and I are safe from the Phage because we are not entirely biological. I have my Borg implants and you have your cybernetic ones."

"That is true." He waited patiently for Seven to finish what was on her mind.

"What if I adapted my immune system nanoprobes to only a partial assimilation mode and innoculate the crew with them? Anyone not yet infected wouldn't become that way if so protected. They would guard their host against it."

Data frowned. "Isn't your Borg nanoprobes first directive to cultivate a host target for assimilation by a Borg collective?"

Seven looked embarrassed. "Over the years on Voyager,  
the doctor and I have come up with ....ways I can halt that proliferation and inherent purpose. I can lobotimize their primary function to serve ones I give them. Such as the surgical probes I made for Chakotay. This vaccinating task is just as simple to implement."

Data leaned in on Seven of Nine. "We'd have to ask the crew's permission first, before we infect them with fleas..." and he grinned.

Seven's face stayed deadpan, "I'm afraid I don't understand. There are no fleas on board Excelsior.  
We've no animal cargo."

Data chuckled and then his smile dropped off again when he saw Seven just didn't get the analogy. "I was making a joke.."

Seven raised her eyebrow. "I fail to see how the terminology is amusing."

Data said, "Forget it." and he continued his scans.  
"If you sincerely believe that this nanoprobe innoculation would safeguard the crew, then present it to some captain other than Captain Janeway." At Seven's face at that news he added, "She's now potential eyes and ears for the Vidiian mothership."

"I understand." Seven said. "But there's some finetuning I would have to do to carry out this idea. I cannot be the one to inject each crew member we wish to protect. For that would link me to them through my central node.  
I could...rig a Borg attack scenario on Excelsior's holodeck and then the crew could be injected with the ship's computer acting as Borg holocharacters. That way, they'd be safely injected without the risk of mindlinking to me."

"That can be arranged.." came a voice from a speaker near them. It made Seven and Data jump.  
Then she recognized the voice as coming from the captain of Excelsior who was still on the bridge.

::Sulu.:: Seven realized. "Sir, I did not know you were monitoring audiologically."

"My ship's in danger Cadet Seven. I make it a point to cover the bases in any way I can. You're not the only one who thought up securing the outer hatches and such with lower ranking officers. I've already moved teams into place. And the fact that we're talking now shows I've covered the monitor for new infection cases angle too. There's no better way to do that than to listen to what people are saying for any telltale personality changes. I so give you permission to carry out this Borg nanoprobe vaccine."

"Yes, sir.." Seven said and she and Data heard the comm channel snick off.

They got to work quickly.

Soon, lines of Excelsior crew were going into the holodeck to get "attacked" and struck with Borg assimilation tubes to get their dose of Seven's serum nanoprobes. Data made sure that the injector tubes on the holodrones themselves would pierce painlessly like the compression chamber on a hypospray instead of the deep neck stabbing of the normal Borg assimilation tubes.

Seven looked up as sickbay members reported down to the holodeck for their turns in the innoculation program. She saw the EMH escorting both Chakotay and Janeway down to the holodeck and a team carrying Scott on his stretcher. She watched the three of them go into the holodeck to the simulation of the Borg ship interior for their turns.  
She glanced at Data and said, "Commander. What do you think the effect outcome may be if these vaccine nanoprobes were given to an infected individual?"

Data frowned at the problem watching the EMH and Chakotay and Kathryn move forward into the "Main annex" to get "attacked".;  
"I do not know exactly. Perhaps the shot will slow down possession in them. The battles will be joined. The Phage spore against Borg vaccine and human immuno resistance.  
Your program should work all right on them as well."

"I hope you're right." Seven said.  
She winced as Captain Scott got his "Borg drone" character injection. He held out his neck dutifully and chuckled when it was over.  
He gave the monitors a thumbs up.

Chakotay reacted only vaguely nervous when the very convincing holo character approached to "assimilate" him. He got his injection completed in moments. And soon followed everyone who had been working in sickbay.

Data and Seven looked up at a scream.  
Captain Janeway was coiling in agony under her injector "Borg", her mouth opened in intense pain. The EMH and Chakotay rushed over to her side and supported her. But the injection process did not cycle complete for her.

Seven shouted. "Data! Something's wrong.  
Terminate the holoprogram..!"

Data's hands flew over the controls but to no avail. "Something inside Captain Janeway is resisting our medical holointrusion. The program's digressing back to its root Borg template and the base parameters for Borg assimilation tubes."

Seven then realized the captain's pain was real.  
"She's getting stabbed. Seven to the bridge.  
Terminate all power on holodeck twelve.."

=^=Done!=^= came the reply.

On their viewscreen Captain Janeway's Borg drone was the last to disappear along with the surroundings.

She dropped to the deck and suddenly, so did Seven.  
Data crouched by her and rolled her over. "Seven.."

Seven of Nine looked up from where she lay, "Oh no. The original Borg directive has fired. I've assimilated Captain Janeway. We've been linked mentally."

Data saw Dr. McCoy come through the doors in response to Seven's bioflag going off. He had been returning from his injection on the holodeck.  
"How's she doing? Your holodoc's got Janeway."  
and he moved forward to scan her.

Data replied. "I do not know. She is not altering to full Borg." he said of Seven.

"She wouldn't!" McCoy snapped. "She's the originator.  
The hypothetical "Queen" in this case. But she's done a nasty job on Kathryn."

Seven and Data both looked up on the viewscreen to a horrific sight. The Vidiian Phage intelligence and full Borg transformation had consumed Janeway utterly and she now lay before them as an implant studded drone, coated with Vidiian mold.

But the voice that came out was all Kathryn's "Doctor! Help me!!"

Seven shouted. "How come this didn't happen to Mr.  
Scott too?!"

Data answered that. "He must only be slated as a donor host. Infected but not possessed."

Seven murmured vaguely as she felt Janeway's and the Phage intelligence's thoughts mingle with her own. "I don't understand...I...ow.."

Data looked up at Doctor McCoy, "We now know the Phage core inhabits Captain Janeway. It's no longer aboard the Vidiian mothership. And Seven of Nine is now directly linked with it."

-  
(attachments)

Image : Data's eyes only on a horizontal bar.

Image: The EMH and Seven looking up.

Image: A close up of Janeway getting assimilated by a holoBorg.

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From : "patti keiper" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] --+ K'Ehleyr of Arc.. +-- Date : Mon, 08 Apr 2002 09:29:56 +0000

Leonard McCoy knew immediately that there wasn't anything physically wrong with Seven of Nine. But he was concerned about her mental state. Her mind was now not only filled with her own personality and memories but also with those of Kathryn Janeway and whatever alien influence that possessed her. :: The idea that this woman can suddenly revert back to a collective like I change my socks is ludicrous!:: He changed his tricorder scan of Seven to a Feinberger scan. ::Hmm. So far so good. I can still read three wave signatures here. "Ah.." he said out loud.  
"Mr. Data.. I may have something you can sink your teeth into. The Phage has a readable biowave now. Maybe we can find a way to isolate it somehow. Janeway and Seven's patterns are already known."

"Intriguing idea, doctor. Give me what you have." Data said, helping Seven to her feet and took her arm until she sat on the edge of a biobed. "This is very good news." he said with an eager conviction directed at the young woman.

"Hush, man." Dr. McCoy said. "She doesn't need such transparent reverse bedside pyschology.  
Especially with a delivery as obvious as yours.  
Go make yourself useful."

K'Ehleyr leaned close, with her arms crossed.  
"I believe the commander was attempting to do that doctor.." she said to the gruff and tumble old doctor. "No need to get your hackles up." she said mildly.

"And no comments from the sidelines from medically ignorant ambassadors!!" McCoy gave as his last parting shot. "Especially from you.  
Now get down to the holodeck for your innoculation."

"In due course doctor.. I want to make sure of Seven of Nine and Janeway's safety.

"They're here. They're within the range of medical help. So they're safe. Now get down there for your innoculation. Pronto!!"

Seven and K'Ehleyr both smiled. And the Klingon woman thought ::That's the way to make a retired old admiral get back into his groove. Just poke his buttons a little.::

K'Ehleyr angled her head. "In a second.  
I'm going to be very busy in a moment."

"You're ALWAYS busy ambassador..." Bones grumbled.

She gave no sign that she even heard him.

At that moment there was a comm from the main bridge on Deck One. It was the communications officer. "Bridge to sickbay and holodeck. We've visitors entering the solar system. Two occupants in a shuttle with call signs from Enterprise D with orders to board us. A Colonel Kira and a Commander Riker. They'll isobubble dock in ten minutes. Bridge out."

McCoy thought. "More people coming? What's WITH these stupid Starfleet officers? Why do they always flock to dire doom and gloom scenes like dutiful military moths to a flame. They're crazy following those orders!"

But the Klingon human half breed was far away.  
K'Ehleyr said, "Say doctor.. If the Phage has cohesive awareness and has absorbed our language enough to write it in a series of welts on a victim's skin. Perhaps it'll respond to a little diplomacy...Have someone to talk to who's not yet become its biological target."

"Oh. And I suppose that person would be say.  
you?.." He said sarcastically setting hands on his hips.

"Why not?" K'Ehleyr shrugged. "I can see both sides of the coin. Both the mingling of two different species and the invasion desire aspect. An idea inherent in any Klingon hybrid like me.." she smiled crookedly.

"Go bother Jim with your poppycock notions I'm trying to work here. I'm sure that Spock will jump right in with this "I'm like YOU so listen to ME" mumbo jumbo. He's got this katra mantra thing that probably waltzes right up your alley." he grunted.

"I'll take that as a yes.." and she turned away from the now happily involved older doctor.

She stepped over to the monitor and toggled a switch to the main computer. "Computer, This is Ambassador K'Ehleyr, Recognize my voiceprint,  
lifesigns and Starfleet Command Code Theta Nine Six Two Sigma Twelve. Tie my combadge to the universal translator to combadges, Seven and Janeway. Implement."

##Access code accepted. Link is complete.##

K'Ehleyr was only half aware of Reg and Spock looking up as she created her unique comm line. "Captain.  
can you hear me?" she said aloud to the air.

On the viewscreen, Seven's lips moved the same time the exVoyager captain's did. The holomalfunction metamorphosis had ended and Janeway's appearance was now entirely Borg where her body showed around her uniform.  
"YES I HEAR YOU."  
"yes i hear you." they said.

K'Ehleyr moved closer to the main pickup's range on sickbay's side viewer. "Are you able to detect your attacker in your mind? Its tried to contact holozimm by blistering words on a victim's skin."

"I AM AWARE OF IT. IT'S TRYING TO INF-"  
"i am aware of it. it's trying to inf-" Seven/Janeway studdered before their voices choked off suddenly.  
Their hands, pink ones on Seven and the ghastly white of Kathryn's on the holodeck, flew each to their own throats and inexorably began to squeeze.  
%% SILENCE !!! %% a third hideous non gendered vocalizing came out of the overhead speakers.

K'Ehleyr whirled to the medbed.. "Doctor!!"  
With her inhuman strength, she peeled Seven's fingers one by one off her throat and eventually pinned her limbs to the bed on either side of her head.

McCoy hastily called restraints down over Seven's arms and legs until the raging woman was immobilized.

Panting, K'Ehleyr was shocked by the strength Seven possessed. "Umphff.. Holozimm!! Cover your end!"  
she shouted at the viewscreen. She watched the EMH and Holozimm wrestle Janeway's Phage controlled grip off her windpipe until they erected similar restrictives on her. Both women gasped as they were suddenly able to get air again.

The Klingon ambassador shouted. "What's the matter,  
Thing?" she shouted to the alien intelligence. "Afraid we'll get information that might give us an edge to defeat you? How like a paranoid plague you are.."

The Phage did not rise to her baiting and static remained on Janeway and Seven's tandem frequency.

K'Ehleyr spoke again, quietly sharp. "Captain Janeway.  
Listen to me. Don't give in to fear. You'll only make the infection inside your body stronger. Use Seven's strength. Her nanoprobes have given you a new power, the power of Borg anatomy. Just embrace it and you'll eventually be free."

Beside her even the crusty McCoy pursed his lips and grudgingly mumbled. "wow.. nice pep talking.."

K'Ehleyr shot him an irritated look.

Bones held up surrendering hands and he concentrated on taking blood from Seven's arm to find out how her baseline nanoprobes were reacting to the backfired meld with Janeway and the disease. Their numbers were dropping. ::Uh oh.:: He waved Dr. Crusher over and tossed a head to the EMH on the viewer to check the same on Janeway.

A subtle nod from the holodoc confirmed the same condition in his patient.

They both glanced back down when the treble blend of Janeway and Seven's voices came back free of alien rasp.  
"I'M TRYING. BUT IT IS EVERYWHERE INSIDE ME. HAVING TROUBLE FOC- FOCUSING ON YOU."  
"i'm trying. but it is everywhere inside me. having trouble foc- focusing on you."

K'Ehleyr glanced at the viewscreen showing the captain's face. Her one eye free of the optical implant didn't have the stillness of clarity. It was wandering. "Just keep listening to my voice. That's all you have to do. You already know where and who I am and that's a solid anchor. Stay with us."

The monitor showing Seven and Janeway's lifesigns levelled nearer to the low end of normal but the two women lost their ability to talk as a forced somnolence sank them into deep sleep.

"Hey!" K'Ehleyr said sharply to the air. "You want a real challenge in a victim? Huh?" she shouted to the Phage. "Take me.. If you dare.."

McCoy hissed through his teeth. "I already HAVE plenty enough business ambassador, so quit the sacrificial lamb routine."

A rasping hiss like bones and dry scales and grinding stone met their ears. %% SILENCE, T-CELL. %% the Phage told Bones. %% I SO LIKE A FIGHTER. THEY MAKE THE BEST HARVESTERS OF ALL..%%

K'Ehleyr's lips curled in a snarl. "So,....you'll accept?  
Leave the metal tainted humans. Come to me. I'll make it easy for you.." and she began to breathe the spore laden ship's air deeply in and out richly, striking her chest and spreading her arms wide in a show of bravado.

The Phage considered. Then it spoke. %%BUT THESE,  
THE CAPTAIN AND THE INTEGRATED MACHINED WOMAN,  
HOLD SO MUCH KNOWLEDGE OF THE BLUE AND WHITE WORLD BELOW THAT HOLDS SO MUCH OF THE PERFECT, RARE PARTS I CONSUME TO SURVIVE...%%

"Ah, but what is better? Just one world? Or someone who has mastery over two?"

Bones hissed, starting to sweat when he realized that K'Ehleyr was fully telling the truth of her biworld familiarity.  
"Ambassador.. Don't tempt the blasted devil. Your mixed blood's not impervious to Vidiian infection. Your dual heritage may make it just that much more susceptible to the disease.."

%% TOO MUCH NEUROTRANSMITTING ON YOUR PART,  
T-CELL. TO YOUR DISADVANTAGE. I SHALL TAKE THIS WOMAN INSTEAD.. %%

Just like that Janeway was free of all trace of the Phage's core self. K'Ehleyr tumbled to her knees with a groan and instant pestilent sores erupted on her arms and face as the Phage intelligence leaped from the Voyager ex-captain to her.

K'Ehleyr's skin flushed golden with fever and a sweaty sheen oiled her forehead in heavy beads. "Doctors.  
now the problem facing you, with both of them, is simply.  
just Borg. Deal with it.." And with a sudden unexpected movement, drew a hidden S'tiphar dagger from her boot and plunged it into her own heart.

She died instantly. But so did the Phage core when its mental control failed when her body's soul ceased.

On the mother ship infected Vidiians gained their trapped wills back and reverted back to their true selves.

But without the intense hunger drive to take from the living. Embarrassed, they immediately recognized where they were at the Federation's heart over Earth and surrendered completely to the four starships by lowering their cloak and powering down their dehulling spears and invasive access tunnels..

Together in their now clear mental link.. Janeway and Seven opened their eyes in suprise and shock at K'Ehleyr's death.  
"AMBASSADOR!"  
"ambassador!"

Instantly, the EMH accessed K'Ehleyr's combadge scan but found no lifesigns at all. In fact, he found nothing but shredded tatters where her heart had been.::I wonder if the Guardian had something to do with this. Sending K'Ehleyr back to her proper place in history as a dead woman while taking out the abhorration at the same time.  
How disgustingly neat.::

The deep stenorous voice of the ancient gateway emanated from Excelsior's cargobay.  
##No temporal fold of mine has been reverted.  
The mixed female's choice was her own.##

"Then FIX it!" the EMH demanded.

But the Traveler slowly shook his head.  
"Not possible by us. Your freedom is still our absolute. Even now.." he said sadly.  
"There is no time wrinkle occurring in these moments for us to act within our laws."

A part of Seven felt an unfamiliar pang.  
One of loss. ::Then she is gone?::

"No...!" McCoy said dropping to his knees beside the self slain ambassador, trying to quell the river of deep plum welling up from her leather tunic top with both hands. "Get over here Crusher. We might be able to do something. Klingon brain injury from lack of circulation doesn't start for twelve minutes.  
I can see Seven's test tube of surgical nanoprobes from here.."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Janeway as a Blue lasered Borg.

Image: Seven down on a blue biobed.

Image: K'Ehleyr promo, Nice pic.

Image: McCoy operating on someone through a sterile field apparatus..

****************************************

Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 01:13:33 -0700 (PDT) From: "Myron Ojala" Subject: Raising Cain

Scotty sat up on his biobed in Excelsior's holodeck with horrifically fascinated amazement at what was occurring across the empty grid from where he lay.  
"Of all the crazy things to try. This beats em all. A Borg blueprint for an innoculation sequence. Now she's done it." He looked at his hands and felt his face quickly, wondering if he had the implants infesting Janeway as well. ::Saints preserve us. I'm still me.::

But then his concern shifted to the others.  
Scotty didn't know the full ramifications of what happened in sickbay. He only knew it had upset Janeway greatly.  
::What the devil is going on up there:  
he thought. He got up from his bed,  
after some hasty tinkering to lower his isofield surrounding him. ::Spores are all over. Don't need that thing about me.::

He had read about the Borg in Starfleet journals but seeing their effects up close made him nauseous.  
He hoped Kathryn wasn't in any pain. He knelt near Janeway and said,  
"I dinna know what's goin on here.  
But hold on there, lass. What the bloody h*ll happened up in sickbay?"

The Voyager captain looked up at Scotty and aimed a small ocular implant at him that seemed to be growing from her eye. "K'EHLEYR IS....DEAD?"  
'k'ehleyr ......is ....dead?'

Scotty winced at the double chorus he heard. It sounded like Seven's voice mingling with Janeway's with the exact same inflections. ::If I didn't know better, this might be some kind of Vulcan mindmeld,  
but without the Vulcan.. But the Klingon lass:  
"What?!"

Janeway struggled mentally to keep from losing herself inside Seven's overpowering robotic directives. It wasn't easy, but she kept herself together. (ooc- sorry for pun)  
"SHE SUICIDED.. TO KILL THE INTELLIGENCE.  
I THINK IT WORKED."  
"she suicided.. to kill the intelligence. i think it worked."

The EMH came over immediately,  
and ran a medical scanner over Janeway's prone form. "I'm detecting an abundance of Borg nanoprobes.. and they appear to be having a side benefit.  
They are destroying the Phage germs easily now that their mastermind is gone."

"How can that be doctor? I saw the Vidiians in sickbay render down."  
Scotty said.

"That was because the consciousness of the Core was anticipating each victim's immuno response and countered any effects so rapidly that they had no chance of survival.  
But I am puzzled as to why the captain here is still...in one piece.  
Any ideas on that Mr. Scott?"  
asked the holodoc.

Scotty shook his head.  
He reached down and picked up the weakened Janeway as she tried to cope with Seven's merging.  
Scotty set her onto the biobed he had just left gently. "Ever felt like you've been in two places at the same time?  
Well, that Borg lassie of yours has managed to do just that with you.  
Hang tight. I'll figure out whether or not we're all safe now for sure.."

She nodded faintly and then subsided into Seven's emotions to learn more of what was happening in sickbay.  
::If I'm a party to this Borg joining,  
I'm going to take full advantage of it.:: she decided.  
"I'll see how K'Ehleyr is."  
'I'LL SEE HOW K'EHLEYR IS."  
Janeway closed her eyes and allowed the images coming from Seven's field of vision to fill her mind's eye.

She saw that McCoy and Dr. Crusher were frantically working over K'Ehleyr's unmoving body on a surgical table. Then a curious thing happened.  
Janeway suddenly saw a third aspect enter her link with Seven. ::What's happening here?::

She felt Seven reassure her.  
"My surgical nanoprobes I created for Commander Chakotay are being untilized inside Ambassador K'Ehleyr. We are seeing inside her body through them."

It was then Janeway realized that K'Ehleyr had completely pulverized her heart with a S'tiphar dagger.  
::She knew that her death would take out alien disease mind. But at what a cost?:: She concentrated on watching how the surgery progressed.

Scotty saw Janeway drift elsewhere but he felt it was for a purpose. He asked the computer for a status report.  
"Computer, what is the status of the Vidiian mother ship?"

##Attacking vessel has surrendered.  
Shields and cloaking device have been deactivated.##

"Now we're in business."  
He opened a channel to Holozimm.  
"Scotty to Zimmy boy."

=^=Is that you, Captain Scott?=^= he answered.=^=I take it things are going well. You have given me a new name.=^=

"Just in high spirits, laddie. But it's not all golden. Ambassador K'ehleyr killed herself to stop the alien intelligence."

=^=Can she be salvaged?=^=

"I dinna know. Listen, have you found the Commander's eyes yet?"

=^=I have them right here. But, there is a problem.=^=

Scotty rubbed his face, "I don't think I like the way you said,  
Problem laddie."

=^=I'm sorry, captain. But those organs are scheduled to be implanted into a new host within the hour.=^=

Scotty glanced down, hoping that Janeway hadn't heard that little bit of news. But he replied,  
"Do what you can to delay it,  
Holozimm. I've got a plan in the works already. Hang tough.  
Scotty out."

Montgomery looked around the Holodeck and spotted Moriarty who seemed to be standing still without interacting much with people nor the events unfolding around him. He approached the holographic Professor and asked. "Moriarty,  
are you fine? I need ya for a bit."

The Victorian holoman opened his eyes and said, "How does one feel being a witness to all of this? I've learned how to access the database on the Borg, the Phage and Klingon honor codes. The fair lady has done your ship a great service. I did not understand the concept of self sacrifice until I saw her death in sickbay."

"Well, snap out of it. You want to do something good yourself? I need you to help me on a little trip to the neighbors. Janeway can't go,  
neither can Chakotay, or Seven of Nine.  
And Kirk has to stay aboard to keep the bridge informed of what WE'RE doing so you've been drafted as of right now."

It took a moment for Moriarty to comprehend the gist of what Scotty wanted. Then he smiled. "I do believe , Mr. Scott, that I would be glad to agree to accompany you. Are we in the market for say, a pair of eyes perhaps?"

Scotty nodded knowingly,  
"Aye.. We don't have much time.  
Let's go."

---------------------------------

Montgomery and Moriarty found Holozimm on the Vidiian mothership soon after they beamed over with a security detail sent to make sure the sick Vidiians cooperated their terms of surrender fully.

Their tricorders located the stasis room where the Commander's DNA trace was coming from and they entered it.

It was a simple thing to stun the ones guarding the organ vault and find the container holding Chakotay's missing eyes. The eyes scanned as completely undamaged and he tucked them inside his tunic carefully.  
::Whew.. That's a relief..:: Scotty said.  
Then he scanned the morgue near them.  
"Oh my. The EMH will like this little mystery here."

Professor Moriarty came closer but didn't read Scotty's tricorder as he did not understand the readings displaying there. "What mystery?"

Scotty said, "These bodies in here.  
They're members of the mothership's crew that have expired. Interesting.  
Their DNA is almost entirely human now. Might explain why the Delta Quadrant cure Janeway mentioned didn't cure all of the infected Vidiian population for they are no longer a pure race. I'm seeing rates as high as 87% human in these corpses. They've had to get Terran transplants more and more just to keep themselves going."

Moriarty said, "That's logical."

But then Scotty paled. "And there's another thing. The Vidiians have company.."

And he turned around when a lifesign that was fully healthy bloomed on his scan. It was coming from the room they had just left.

A small figure in blue appeared in the entrance of the vault door looking at them with sheer malice in her eyes. "I knew you'd come.  
Janeway's ship told me where to find you even as she searched for me then. A human and his holoproduct.  
How pathetic." Her blond hair framed her child's face in a wreath of straw.

Scotty said, "Professor, when you snooped in the database on Excelsior did you encounter anyone like her in Voyager's logs?"

He nodded. "Yes.. does the word Caretaker mean anything to you. This is the female one."

"Doesn't ring a bell." Scott said.

Sospiria smiled acidly. "I'm disappointed but not surprised that not all Janeway's race knows me. But they soon will.  
I have a score to settle."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Scotty looking mad.

Gif: Many many Star Trek character's eyes in a bar.

Image: Sospiria, the female caretaker.

***************************************

From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Heart of Courage Date : Wed, 10 Apr 2002 10:13:30 +0400

Dr. Crusher stood by Dr. McCoy with her hands elbow deep in the sterile field over K'Ehleyr's torso. "Let's get her open. Computer.. I want a countdown, from the time of lifesign cessation on combadge K'Ehleyr Ambassador in a continuous ongoing readout. Begin.."

##Lifesigns on K'ehleyr terminated at 17:08:47. Current elapsed time since clinical death is four minutes, seven seconds. Four minutes, eight seconds. Four minutes, nine seconds...##

Bev Crusher again adjusted the settings on her viability window. "Computer, display countdown visual only to the main viewer in Ward One, sickbay."

##Parameter is established to visual only.## it replied.

All in sickbay saw large orange numbers appeared in place of the EMH's sleep debt count on a chronometer at the bottom of the viewscreen. 4:12.. 4:13.. 4:14.....

Dr. Crusher nodded in satisfaction, looking to McCoy as they exposed their patient's violated cardiac region with a rib spreader.

Dr. McCoy reached over to a nearby table and snatched the testtube of surgical nanoprobes that Seven had readied for Chakotay's visual restoration procedure and kissed the narrow glass tube in which millions of silver motes clicked against the glass. "Here's goes nothing..." and he poured a measure of the tiny things into the incision they had made. The microscopic probes immediately sank down to the torn shreds of muscle and blood vessels while Crusher clamped off the bleeding vessels one by one so the minute machines could work without being washed away. "Looks like the knife stab was clean. It only got the heart itself, not the pericardial sac surrounding it." she said. The two doctors watched as the nanoprobes formed a net, vaguely in the shape of K'Ehleyr's original heart and began pulling pieces of tissue together into their proper alignment, like thread sealing a tear. But only part of the framework could complete their rapid repair.

Beverly grunted in frustration. "There isn't enough solid muscle left to reconstruct. We can't do it.. D*mn.."

Dr. McCoy had another idea. "We're not licked yet. Sickbay to holodoc. You got your ears on?"

The EMH came over McCoy's combadge. "Yes. I understand the problem. I'm linked through a sickbay monitor overhead. Hang on. I think I may have a solution that may save K'Ehleyr's life."

Dr. Beverly Crusher broke into their conversation as she sponged loose blood out of the way of the nanoprobe's working area. "What solution? Growing more tissue won't work. It'll take too long."

Dr. McCoy grinned. "You're forgetting that we have a mobile organ bank right at hand in orbit. The Vidiian mothership."

Beverly started to smile. "Make it fast. We're losing cohesion here. The nanoprobes can only do so much."

The EMH looked down at Janeway on her stretcher on the holodeck. "Captain?"

"go.. i can wait.." 'GO.. I CAN WAIT..' said both she and Seven in their Borg sounding voice.

The EMH tapped his combadge. "EMH to Holozimm. I'm on my way over in two seconds. We need a Klingon/Human heart or the next best thing located yesterday.. You're in a vault.. Find me one. Doctor out."

He nodded as Kirk beamed him to the coordinates needed on the Vidiian mothership with a portable stasis cylinder to hold the transplant organ they needed.

------------------------------------------

The EMH materialized and the first thing he saw was Holozimm and Scotty and Moriarty, looking very serious. "Don't just stand there. You got Chakotay's eyes? Good. We'll bring them with us with the new heart for--" he broke off when he saw the individual the three of them were looking at. "Oh no.. Don't tell me. You sent this Vidiian ship to do your dirty work, Sospiria. How unoriginal."

The tiny girl like female Caretaker only laughed. "I had forgotten how amusing the humans make their holo characters. Be nice to me doctor, or I may not let you save the one who killed my harbinger."

The EMH erupted, "You considered the Phage intelligence a personal pet of yours?! I should have known the time wrinkles the Traveler and the Guardian of Forever had spoken about were your doing."

Sospiria smiled. "Those two and I are old adversaries. I take great pleasure in finding loopholes in their particular brand of civilized law. Such as now."

Holozimm grew bolder in his searching for a heart fitting K'Ehleyr from the dozens on one shelf. His tricorder blipped. He had found one. "There.." he said to Moriarty.

The professor picked up the preservative filled cylinder holding the proper heart. He peered at it as if it were an interesting jewel for appraisal. "Not much to look at for size, but if you say it'll do..." and he shrugged.

The EMH frowned in irritation at the holovillian, "Give me that.."

But Sospiria snatched it out of their hands with a telekinetic thought as it passed between the two holograms. It nestled in her arms. "Not so fast. This ship and its crew are mine. And any biological cargo it contains.."

The EMH was livid. "You consider the body parts of all these murdered beings to merely be... salvage?" he said throwing his hands at the rows and rows of fluid flasks holding skin and organs and bone in them on each shelf ringing the small group.

"I do. But I'll be generous. You may have the tattooed one's visual organs for nothing. I had them taken just to be sure Janeway was paying attention. But that heart will cost you. A life for a life.." she said cooly.

"Absolutely not.." the EMH said sharply. "What's makes you so sure that we won't disable your ship and forcefully take back what we need?"

Sospiria's smile faded into a frightening sharpness. "I could destroy you and your puny world with a thought. It is only the Traveler's favor with his talking stone gate that keeps me in check. I have to play by their own rules or risk the Guardian undoing all I've achieved."

Holozimm scoffed. "Shanghai-ing this vessel and augmenting their disease to sentience is no achievement. It cheapens the sacred laws of nature itself. No predator shall be stronger than its prey or the cosmic balance will fail."

Sospiria said. "But my dear young bald holoman. I am not attacking any stronger than my prey. It is the Klingon Ambassador who used excessive force in this campaign. She murdered my Phagemind."

Moriarty said, "In self defense.. It attacked her."

Sospiria walked nearer to the Professor, still clutching the Klingon hybrid heart to her tiny child's chest. "Phageminds never kill their host. They merely....reside in them. She overreacted.."

The EMH shouted over them. "Oh hush up. Sospiria, what do you want? We have only minutes to save K'Ehleyr.."

Sospiria fixed the holodoc and Scotty with a stare. "As I said before. A life for a life. K'Ehleyr's for ...." and she raised a blond eyebrow.."..Janeway's."

All four facing the female caretaker were stunned.

But the holodoc recovered first. "That's impossible. She'd never agree to the trade."

"On the contrary man made of light. It's exactly what she would do typically. And I demand it.. in return... for this, the only thing that can save K'Ehleyr.." and she held it up in front of her. "Shall I drop it?" and she let the container fall.

Scotty, Moriarty, the EMH and Holozimm all leaped forward onto their stomachs to catch the heart's cylinder before it dashed onto the moldy metal deck of the Vidiian vault.

But Sospiria merely used her mind to halt its tumble and it floated back to her firm grip. "That's more like it. Grovel gentlemen. And do what I demand."

The EMH said nothing, angling his jaw. Then he spoke silently, "What gives you the right to take Janeway hostage. She'll be helpless under your power.."

"I have every right..." she fumed. And the light in her eyes seemed to brighten a brighter green. "I am claiming revenge against that woman for desecrating my mate's remains."

The holodoc sighed. "The captain didn't know what else to do. She knew she was going to destroy the Array. And she knew you were still out there somewhere. She made sure you'd have a body to bury.."

"She stored my dead mate on a bookshelf in Voyager's sickbay, like a sculpture.." Sospiria shuddered. "That is not showing reverence for the dead. And that is what caused his essence to tarnish even though I tried hard to clean his exudate once she gave it back to me over the Ocampa colony. And that tarnish is what caused him to be forever banished from burial in our home star. My people would not permit it." The child being seemed to shake in rage at the memory, but then her wrath cooled somewhat. "By the Guardian's own view, I am claiming right of vengeance. Perfectly legal, too, with the Traveler.. That is why they did not stop my attack on Excelsior. So I say again. Give me Janeway, for this." And she tossed the heart up in the air where the EMH leaped to keep it from dashing on the floor as it fell back towards the decking. "All of you, go.. " the girl like caretaker snapped. "Use that as a show of my caring generosity. I'll overlook the Klingon's murder of my pet. She was only acting according to her nature. I always admire that kind of moxy. The one whose heart you hold was one such individual."

The EMH's forehead puzzled at that last remark but he was swept away in an alien relocation beam back to Excelsior's sickbay.. the last thing he heard was, "I want Janeway, alive and in my possession by your Earth's morning. Or I'll let my crew begin their interrupted harvesting once more on all your ships. I've another Phagemind in storage just waiting to be born."

---------------------------------------

Dr. Crusher grabbed the heart transplant from the EMH as soon as he materialized and nodded to Dr. McCoy to take the cylinder holding Commander Chakotay's eyes from Mr. Scotty. "Get him ready for surgery as well. These eyes will only be viable for another twenty minutes." she said, scanning them.

Bones, nodded and lifted his hands from K'Ehleyr's surgical field.

Bev Crusher told a nurse to unseal the cylinder and she lifted the hybrid heart from its amber fluid carefully. She nestled the wet organ gingerly into the nanoprobe's construction net still trying in vain to repair the original shreds of K'Ehleyr's cardiac muscles. The tiny machines instantly detected the better option suddenly in their midst and they rapidly restored all vessels and nerves from K'Ehleyr to the new heart. Bev Crusher nodded when the nanoprobes suddenly vacated from the inside of K'Ehleyr's body and flowed out over the sheeting until none remained inside.

Dr. Crusher waited until the last tiny benefactor was clear of the new heart before she released all the blood clamped off back into the heart and shocked it into beating again.

She turned up the transfusion of whole universal blood replacement on K'Ehleyr's bed arm unit and watched as the ambassador's skin flowed once more into its normal hues. She began to breathe. The nanoprobe river returned at the first heartbeat to seal up muscle, bone and skin until only a thin gold line of scar tissue marked where the surgical incision had once been. Their work completed, the nanos returned unerringly back to their storage test tube to await their next surgical task.

Dr. Crusher sighed and lifted a medical tricorder up to scan the health of the transplanted heart. It was free of Vidiian Phage. She set her bioscan to a deeper setting..

-----------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, the EMH along with Holozimm and Moriarty clustered around Captain Janeway who had been carried into sickbay and placed next to Chakotay. She immediately noticed that he was being prepped for surgery to return his eyes. "you've found them. Good." "YOU'VE FOUND THEM. GOOD." she and Seven said and suddenly coughed.

Seven of Nine lifted her head and said. "Our linked voices are tiring her. I'll sleep so she can speak normally to you.." 'OUR LINKED VOICES ARE TIRING HER. I'LL SLEEP SO SHE CAN SPEAK NORMALLY TO YOU..' and suddenly, the exBorg woman's vital signs on her monitor softened into a self induced resting state.

The EMH didn't even notice Seven's change. "Captain. There's something else you should know about that Vidiian ship. Someone we know very well is aboard her."

"Who?" Janeway sighed through her white Borg lips. Her tone was tense.

"Sospiria, the female caretaker.. And she is here to claim revenge on you for "defiling her mate's remains." She gave us the means to save K'Ehleyr but wants you turned over to her at daybreak."

Over on the next bed, Chakotay's face was being unbandaged by McCoy and Dr. Crusher in readiness for his procedure. "Kathryn. Don't you dare go over there. I know this is something you find irresistable. A chance to self sacrifice for the benefit of a crew. We've got all of Earth and Starfleet behind us this time. You don't have to give into her demands."

Janeway turned her Borg implanted face until he could feel her orbital laser warming his cheek. "I'm a free citizen Chakotay. No longer subject entirely to Starfleet protocol. I'm no longer captaining a starship." she said.

Chakotay cursed sharply, "That's b*llsh*t, Kathryn. And you know it. Do me a favor. Try your next strongest instinct first, huh? The diplomatic one. That way you can safeguard yourself and still have the upper hand too."

He didn't even have to be able to see to know how her expression must have been even through the Borg machinery. "Do this for me, Kathryn. I'm only watching out for your rear. Just like you ordered me to do the day we were decommissioned."

The EMH harrumphed loud in his throat. "Excuse me for barging in but you've a date with your eyes, commander, and we can't wait." he said holding up sterilasered holohands.

Chakotay sighed and let the surgical head clamp close around his temples. He said one last thing before his anesthesia took effect. "Kathryn, I beg you, do what's right for us for a change, not what's best for all. There's plenty of others to make the hard call now.."

Captain Janeway watched as Chakotay's body relaxed into sleep and she sighed, "But that would be going against my nature..Chakotay." she whispered.

Just then Dr. Crusher looked up from the scan she had been making on K'Ehleyr's new heart. Her face paled as a definitely familiar DNA signature filled her computer display next to her. "Doctor! Captain Janeway.."

Both the EMH and Kathryn glanced over at the new screen shining over K'Ehleyr's bed.

A series of pictures scrolled in one window as the computer sought the identity of the person whose heart it was originally. The photo settled on a single individual. One very familiar to both Captain Janeway and the EMH.

Kathryn gasped. "Oh, no.. that heart's B'Elanna Torres's."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Dr. Crusher looking down with a tricorder in her hands.

Image: Chakotay and the EMH standing over an unseen biobed in sickbay.

Gif: A Collage of Janeway faces in different emotions.

*animated gif* An ekg rhythm on black in green light.

Image: B'Elanna Torres looking seriously thoughtful with background crew watching her on deck.

Banner- Four starships on a starfield with the question in yellow wording reading.  
'Are you crazy for Star Trek?'

*************************************************

From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Duty and Beyond~~ Date : Fri, 12 Apr 2002 03:57:42 +0000

A series of pictures scrolled in one window as the computer sought the identity of the person whose heart it was originally. The photo settled on a single individual. One very familiar to both Captain Janeway and the EMH.

Kathryn gasped. "Oh, no.. that heart's B'Elanna Torres's."

Tasha Yar's head shot up as the exVoyager captain spoke that name. ::B'Elanna? That's impossible.:: She said nothing out loud but moved by the screen left on by K'Ehleyr's bed and cross collorated the data in an instant recheck. But the DNA data remained one hundred percent correct. This heart was hers.

A million thoughts raced through her head. ::I am so glad Chakotay was asleep when we found this out. He won't take it easy knowing the deep space mission she's on ran up against Vidiian raiders. I've been trying to reach her ship for days. Secret mission or no secret mission. Starfleet has to know about this right away. They still think the Talon is under cover.::

Tasha drew away Kirk's arm. He seemed to be starting to speak to Janeway about something but Yar didn't care about that in the least. "Sir.. I have to speak with you both, please. Maam.." she said to Janeway. "Only a few on Enterprise D know about B'Elanna Torres's mission back into the remains of the Borg Queen conduit hub. She was only supposed to be mapping out some of that area. " Yar said quaveringly. "Not having this happen..." she said throwing an arm back to the screen showing the positive cardiac tissue DNA match to the organ now beating in Ambassador K'Ehleyr's chest. "I have to find out the truth of what happened. You see. I owe it to her to find out.."

K'Ehleyr's soft toned heart EKG monitor rang jarringly in their ears as the realization of what was creating that sound slowly sank in to each and everyone of them as the shock of Crusher's announcement lifted from numbness to the hyperawareness of emotional instinct.

Kirk's face levelled off into a deep compassion even though his features remained hardened on the exterior. "Lieutenant. I think you should start from the beginning. If this information you've just told us is in anyway classified material..."

"Sir,.." Yar insisted. "It's not. The Conduit mapping mission I found out about while reading the newsvid a few days after you pulled me out of the Guardian of Forever before the fire. It's fairly common knowledge among the civilian docudrama newscasters. They showed at least five starships, one of which was the Enterprise D, helping coordinate the mapping grid. I wouldn't be surprised if Commander Riker and Colonel Kira both know about this same thing. And Captain Janeway here for sure hasn't had time to worry about facing the conduit again. Not after having seen her older self die there. Captain. I just mentioned this because the area Talon was mapping was in a running silent comm frequency mode on the far side of 8472 space. Starfleet may not know anything's wrong if Talon was taken by Sospiria's Vidiian raiders. We may be the first ones knowing about this if we have Torres's..." she broke off, turning away, not being able to finish her sentence..

A new hand, sprouted with implants and ghastly pastewhite flesh grabbed her sleeve. It was Janeway. Her grip was not crushing, it was comforting. "Lt. Yar." said Janeway from her bed. "I had no idea you and my ex-engineer were close. How can this be?" Inwardly, she added. ::Yar is dead inside history, but alive with us for now, by the Guardian's good graces. And she has never left Starfleet's grounds in the week she's been with Kirk and I.::

Yar looked up, partially flinching at the travesty Seven's assimilation had made of Janeway's features."I...I never met her, maam.. I .. I did a lot more reading during the hours we rested after we all got out of the city dome. You see, B'Elanna and I share...the same background. We were both..outcasts with our families and homes for a time. I was a refugee on the Hamline Colony running from the gangs and she,..refugee herself as a Maquis in the Badlands. Captain..I wish I could have met her.. I can't help feeling a bond with her despite us having never met. Captain.. I'm..I'm so sorry she is dead.."

It was Janeway's turn to study the ceiling above her bed with her one good eye. "We have no proof of that, lieutenant. Hearts can be cloned. There was a time my engineer was kidnapped by a Vidiian and made to participate in a hideous separation of her Klingon and Human genome. Perhaps this heart was grown from some of B'Elanna's stem cells. When the doctors are through with Chakotay and myself I'm sure they'll look for such telltale earmarks before signing off on any death certificate on her.." To herself she worried. ::I'm not going to Tom and Miral with this until it's absolutely confirmed the Talon is destroyed.:: she fretted. The thought of B'Elanna's five year old daughter facing life without a mother cut her to the core but Janeway wasn't one to let hypotheticals rule her emotions. It was something she had learned from Tuvok, finally, during her long journey home.

Yar saw that Janeway was lost in thought and she had a moment of pause herself. ::How can I feel a kinship for this half Klingon woman I've never met? But I do. I only have Deanna as my closest friend. But if Torres and I ever had the chance, I know she'd be my next one.::

Tasha wonder how Deanna felt about the events in sickbay and she looked up, locating the counselor sitting by K'Ehleyr's bed, studying her sleeping face. It didn't take an expert to see that Troi was trying to compare the emotional feeling the woman had now with the one she had before she killed herself. ::There's no better way to find out if any brain damage has occurred. I hope she'll recover without trouble. I won't bother Deanna with this detail on B'Elanna. The less pain she knows, the better.::

Yar set a hand on Janeway's where the robotic fingers clung to her arm. Her reflexes weren't quite normal and they couldn't let go on their own so Yar peeled them off. "Your theory is as good as any, maam. Maybe I can help confirm that if I can't locate any of Talon's crew's remains on the Vidiian vessel. I'll let you know.." and she left Kirk and Janeway alone.

~~~~~

Jim studied Janeway's face as she worked through the latest news on the possibility of an old crewmate being butchered for parts. He decided to break her out of her musings. "Does it hurt?" he said. and poked her optical implant lightly until it irised in and out in reflex.

"I beg your pardon?" Borged Janeway said, reaching her still human hand up to the Borg eye and feeling it in a subconscious repeat of what Kirk had just done.

"Those Borg implants inside of you. Do they hurt?" he asked again.

Janeway said. "Not at all. Seems Seven managed to soften the blow the moment she felt that holovaccine program failing..So far, I'm just having a really bad hair day.. Thanks for asking though." The captain's hand wandered up to her head and sighed in relief when her fingers encountered a tangled nest of it. "Nice they cured me of the Phage but the sooner they're gone. The better. I have a trade agreement to keep tommorrow morning."

Kirk's amused smile toughened into a reprimand. "So you're not going to listen to the advice your first officer gave you? What makes you so sure that I'll let you disregard his viewpoints so lightly?"

A bit of the famous command tone entered back into Janeway as she answered him. "Nice try, CAPTAIN. But I think we're decidedly the same rank here. You've no authority to make decisions for me in any command capacity. Especially not in a hostage negotiation."

Kirk lowered his face until it was right over hers. "All right. Off the record.. In offduty terms, I'm telling you this in keeping with the Captain's Table agreement. I'm sure you've visited that bar before . Don't lie to me. I've seen your gecko spirit guide running all over the place over there.. I will not let you risk yourself needlessly."

Janeway lifted her Borg arm and experimented on opening and closing it's pincer claw but stopped immediately when its rhythm slipped into a cadence countering K'Ehleyr's audio heart beat. "Starfleet regulations specify that decommissioned high ranking officers reserve the right to--"

"Starfleet be d*mned. This isn't about Starfleet. It's about one ex-starship's captain's duty to another. Kathryn.. Don't be stupid.." he said.

"I never am." she shot back.

"Sure are. Oh, but only when it's convenient such as a situation where it calls for a sacrifice on your part to save the ship or crew. I know you. I've memorized your personnel file and all your logs."

"And I yours." she glared. "You've shown just the same tendency for Hornblower knee jerk reactions as I do."

Kirk angled his jaw. "Fine. So we'll both go."

That got her attention.

"Just as soon as you've shed a few pounds.." he finished.

She glared a little stronger.

"I mean the Borg ones, captain. See you after your surgery. I'm sure the doctors are just about through with Chakotay's. I'll be on the Commdeck, going over tactical data on that Vidiian mothership and I promise.. I'll share everything I find out with you in a briefing before we go. Deal?"

Janeway relaxed on her human arm and smiled for the first time. "Deal. Glad you've decided to go to bat on my team. Had me worried for a while. I thought you were going Chakotay on me."

"Oh, is that anything like my officers "going Spock or McCoy" on me from my perspective?"

"Probably." she grinned. The expression made the harsh Borg lines scarring her face soften for a few seconds.

"See you in a few hours, captain."

"Likewise. So will Chakotay. Then both our eyes will be wide open and ready to deal with anything that comes our way. Count on it."

Jim tapped his combadge shipwide. =^=Kirk to the bridge. I'll be on commdeck analyzing the latest tactical on the Vidiian raiders. Here's a progress report. Seven of Nine's nanoprobes can cure the Phage. Captain Janeway is now clear of infection. Ambassador K'Ehleyr is alive in stable condition. The doctors found a transplant for her from the local neighbors. Montgomery Scott is clear of infection." And he got a vigorous yes in affirmation from the EMH as he operated on Chakotay. "Commander Chakotay is in surgery to reattach his missing eyes. and I've a possible report of foul play with the long range scout vessel, Talon, currently on her mapping mission inside the Borg Conduit Hub ruins. We've... recovered... a body part id'ing to a B'Elanna Torres, one of Captain Janeway's old crew members. She is/was assigned to Talon's mission. Unfortunately, that transplant used to save K'Ehleyr's life belongs to this young woman. I ... think it would be a good idea to have someone try and contact Talon to confirm any Vidiian wrong doing.. Kirk out."

He didn't even wait for Excelsior's bridge officers to acknowledge him. He closed the connection, knowing that Sulu had open comm's and vid feeds to all areas of the ship open. His report was just honoring procedure.

Kirk gave the Voyager captain a nod and left sickbay.

~~~~~

Lt. Yar didn't have the heart to continue searching for evidence that other Talon crew were on the mothership. The idea of finding something turned her stomach worse than the idea of finding nothing more. So she took a break.

She noticed that Sospiria had sent Holozimm and Moriarty back to the ship with the EMH and the heart transplant. So she went over to them to see if she could aid Kirk in finding out details about the Vidiian ship that way.

She was rattled emotionally but her training as a Starfleet officer made her push all that aside. "So, how did it go, boys?" she asked the two holograms.

"It was awful. The worst of my whole three week existence."

"The madaam Caretaker is truly an honorable enemy. She let us return, sight unseen with the means to return K'Ehleyr and the Native Commander back to health. Remarkable."

Yar's face fell. "Didn't need to hear that. Got any good news for me?"

HoloZimm took an object from behind his back and deposited it into her outstretched palms. It was the Tribble Chakotay had used to break the Vidiian transporter beam free from himself and Janeway in the messhall. "Yes, lieutenant. You can give this little creature back to Dr. McCoy when he's free. I'm sure he'd be glad to have him finally found. Sospiria wasn't kidding when she said, "All of you, go.." "

The Tribble's gentle cooing managed to drown out the heart beat monitor with purrs of its own until Yar closed her eyes and hugged it to her cheek. Her tension left her like snow slipping off a sunwarmed stone and she sighed. "Thank you.."

She didn't even see Uhura come to her side.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Kirk looking very suave.. Promo shot.

Image: Yar by a medical arch.

Image: A Starship in spacedock near Earth.

****************************************

From : "Katherine Bird" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Wolf In Sheep's Clothing Date :Sat, 13 Apr 2002 04:55:48 +0100

The Tribble's gentle cooing managed to drown out the heart beat monitor with purrs of its own until Yar closed her eyes and hugged it to her cheek. Her tension left her like snow slipping off a sunwarmed stone and she sighed. "Thank you.."

She didn't even see Uhura come to her side.

"May I lieutenant?" the communications officer asked as she reached for the Tribble.

Yar nodded, and handed it off as she took a seat next to Deanna Troi as she fathomed the emotional health of K'Ehleyr on the bed beside her.

Nyota smiled and held up the dusty Tribble who coo'ed with pleasure as she brought it up to her face. "Oh, what a dirty fella you are.. " she said to it. "Getting sent to a Vidiian ship like a football through the goal posts.. Don't worry.. Auntie Uhura will clean you up... Christine.. Can you scan the little guy to be sure it's not injured too?"

Christine left the foot of Chakotay's bed where she had been observing Dr. Crusher and McCoy's surgery reattaching his eyes. "Certainly. " she said,  
stepping away from the sterifield. "Be but a moment,  
doctors.."

McCoy grumbled. "Check its teeth, too. Don't know what Petunia munching might have done to them knowing what Boothby uses in those gardens of his."

Uhura giggled. "Hadn't thought about that. Earth isn't its native habitat. And I don't think a tribble has ever met a Boothby in battle before. Wise precautional check doctor.." she said.

"Hmmpphh..." Bones muttered.

Nurse Chapel set the Tribble onto a biobed and immediately a rapid small lifesign registered on the biomonitor in tiny puppy squeaks eluding to its tiny patient's size. "Computer, convert to humanoid norms audiologically."

##Change is established.## and the tones settled to deeper ones the crew in sickbay could tolerate.

Nurse Chapel finetuned the readings with her bioprobe that she learned how to use with one of Excelsior's med tricorders. She turned it over onto what she thought was its maned back so its slightly milkier stomach was exposed. "Stay...." she said to it.

The Tribble dutifully stopped its pulsing purrs,  
falling silent for its scan.. Christine moved her bioprobe over its entire rounded body and then looked up again at the overhead. "Its fine. In all areas. No dental damage, no fire inhalation,  
no bruising from its surprise trip through the Vidiian transporter enhancers.. Nothing."

Uhura scooped it up and cradled it into her arms and soothed. "That's good, That's my baby tribby."  
Then she looked up, "He is a baby, isn't it?"

"Oh yes.." Christine said, "See those small intercostal spaces in its ribs here and here? Each of those centimeters tells how many days old it is." She said,  
pointing to the bedside videoscan. "And it looks like,  
it was a day old when Dr. McCoy rescued it from those illegal racers.."

"Why those cradle robbers!!" Uhura exclaimed.

"That's what I thought!" McCoy grumbled from where he was operating.

"Glad you rescued him quickly, doctor.." Christine said. "This little fella still kept its darling personality."

Janeway regarded them all and picked up her heavy implanted head, trying to see the tiny creature. "So you think it won't remember Chakotay kicking it in the messhall?"

Christine said, "Oh, no captain." she said expansively.  
"These creatures are very attuned to those they are near.  
I'm sure he knew how desperate the situation was for you two if he came to you despite the danger of those enhancers.  
Maybe it even planned it that way. They're just like dogs,  
sometimes when they sense a companion is in trouble."

"I know about that in dogs. " Janeway smiled. "Had my Molly do that lure away the danger trick once or twice. She got that way whenever little Miral wandered off too far in the backyard and the local coyotes came to call."

"He's not an it, captain. He's male until he's two months old. Then he's both.. And this little one's just reaching his change.. He'll be all female in about two days."  
Christine said teasingly. "Pregnant, and giving birth then too."

"I stand corrected.." Janeway said, flourishing her Borg appendage in a jaunty loop. "Congratulations two days early. Just make sure none of his kits run away and get lost on Sulu's ship now. You remember what happened on the original Enterprise.."

Uhura and Chapel laughed.

Then Uhura said, "Miral.. She's B'Elanna Torres's daughter, isn't she?"

Janeway turned until her human eye regarded the Enterprise communications officer. "Why yes.. When Naomi Wildman moved to Cygnus Five with her mother, I sort of became Miral's adopted grandmother and watched her when B'Elanna had a particularly long mission to go on. Usually, whenever the Talon was away for over a month."

"Where is she now?" Christine asked.

"Who.. Miral or B'Elanna Torres?"

"The little girl captain.." Nyota said gently. "Her mother's fate is still unknown.."

Janeway sat up so she could watch both the progress on Chakotay and the rising lifesigns on K'Ehleyr.. "She's with her father in New Zealand. I still get comm cards from her every Sunday. I...gave her Molly, so that she'd remember me from time to time.."

"Who?" Christine asked, finishing up the baby Tribble's bath and toweling it off. It screeched a protest at the tussling until she soothed it with a soft shush.

"Molly. My dog. She's an irish setter. I'll be d*mned if the little darlin didn't wait most of her life for me to come home. Then when I did, she linked right up with B'Elanna's daughter right off and from then on, I never even existed as far as Molly was concerned. Go figure."

Christine, meanwhile, was still struggling to bathe the tiny thing. Until...

"Here.." Uhura said, grabbing both silver towel and soaking furball. "You have to act like another tribble when you groom them.. and they know some inherent tricks.  
Watch.." and she grabbed a comb and parted its fur along the grain and got two waves of mane,  
one bigger than the other on top of the creature's body.  
One more flip and it had a cowlick. "Who does this look like?" she said..

"Kkkkiiiirrrkkkk." the Tribble purred in a merry sound.

Everyone in sickbay laughed. Even Seven..

Then the Tribble took over, mimicking the EMH's flat head, and then Crusher's feathering style and then Uhura's chiffon bun.

"I never knew Tribbles could do that.." Bev Crusher said as she finished a step in Chakotay's surgery.

Uhura snugged the Tribble back in her warm hands and rubbed until his fur was dry. "Not many do.  
They are masterful mimicks. Its a survival trait.  
I wouldn't be surprised if it was following the rabbits around before the fire when it first got lost."

Janeway gestured with her good hand. "Hey.. Give him here. Let's see what he'll do with me as me."

Christine whispered to the tiny creature. "Launching.  
Up we go....!!" and she tossed the Tribble who squealed with pleasure as it sailed to Janeway's side of sickbay. Her Borg reflexes caught it effortlessly and she snugged it on top of her stomach. "Hey boy.."  
Then she rolled her human eye at the watchers. "I don't believe I'm babytalking again. Haven't done this since Molly was a puppy.." Then she pursed her lips and said.  
"Who am I? I got funny things going on... Come on, guess sweety if you can.."

The tribble's purr warbled from thoughtful comtemplation to almost a low whine. Its tone wiped the smiles off everyone's faces as it grew morose and very grief stricken and he seemed to shrink in on himself.

"Pphhhaaggggemminnddd" he trilled sadly.

"What?" Janeway whispered in horror. Then she trembled with an uncontrolled moan and her eye rolled up into her head and she dropped into a convulsion that caused the Tribble to leap off of her in terror.

In an instant, the EMH was by the Captain and scanning her cerebral area as HoloZimm and Nurse Chapel restrained her until the bed arm was lowered to keep her on the bed. A quick hypo ended the seizure but Janeway's consciousness had fled. And a growing mold appeared out of nowhere to flow the length of the captain's body.

Even the EMH backed away without touching her.

The main viewer came online with nobody doing anything themselves. It was Sospiria. "Ah,.. so you've found the incubator for my second pet Phagemind. Didn't count on a tribble sniffing him out so soon. But, ah, well.  
Call it insurance to assure Janeway's delivery to me in the morning. I'll remove it once I have her over here with me. Don't be late." and the view snapped off,  
showing the four starships ringing the massive Vidiian mothership once more.

Seven of Nine awoke instantly aware of the change.  
"We are invaded!! Doctor!!"

The EMH shouted back erecting a protective isofield around Janeway. "We know. It's just manifested itself." He walked back inside the glowing envelope and immediately awakened Janeway again with a hypospray.. "Captain.. Listen to me and Seven.  
Another Phagemind's been spawned inside of you.  
It must have been in Sospiria's beam when she sent back the others to sickbay. Go into a trance or you'll lose yourself inside of it.."

Something of what the holodoctor said must have communicated itself to Janeway, for suddenly,  
her vital signs sank into a deeply hypnotic state,  
and her body relaxed.

The Tribble danced around the bed until the EMH thought to pick him up and set him back onto Janeway's stomach. He said to Uhura. "Can tribbles track a mental presence as good as they can sniff them out?" he asked.

The dark lieutenant nodded her head, "Even better. He might be able to stay in touch with her as well whereever she's dreaming.  
I'm not an expert on Tribble psi ability but Mr. Spock is. He wrote a paper on it during his last visit with Cyrano Jones."

"Good enough.. I just hope the little thing knows what it's going up against." the EMH said. "He only has to make sure Janeway's winning from afar, that's all. Not fighting it directly."

"It knows if you've just said it doctor.  
They're intelligent."  
Christine said, "But how did Captain Janeway reinfect after Seven's immuno nanoprobe vaccine ended her illness?"

"It must have adapted." HoloZimm guessed.

Moriarty looked surprised. "I didn't know Tribbles had even half these abilities."

Deanna spoke up to him. "Of course you didn't know.  
All you were concerned with was breeding them for a particular shade of gray in a fur stole.. Most furriers don't know about the sentience of their animals typically." she snapped.

"I resent the implication counselor.. That was a one time incident with holoTribbles I might add."  
he said.

The Traveler spoke loudly but gently over them all. "Emotions are high in all of you. But those states should not rule how it makes you behave towards each other for that would be giving in to the Chaos that Sospiria wants you to feel.  
Don't let her gain an upper hand. Your captain's life is not in danger. It is merely side by side with the darkness for now."

"Easy words from you purple seer.." Moriarty said.  
"You've no invested interest in this race of peoples beyond entertainment value.." he said to the Traveler. "I know because I once felt that way myself.  
But I've...I've...grown beyond that now and my compassions have sided with them most extraordinarily. So if you're going to say anything at all, let it be a pronouncement as to how you're going to help them.." he declared with passion.  
"Not about how ineffectual you are going to be henceforth..!"

The Traveler seemed to grow less taller than he was and a true sadness seemed to weigh him down. "So often I've been with others on their ships and have wanted to act as freely as do the Q. I've watched those omnipotent beings harass and torture those less powerful than themselves all for the sake of their own agenda.  
I have been afraid that one day, I'd become just as shallow and petty as they. But then the Guardian moved to us in a fold and showed us how to be. But even It isn't infallable and sometimes, my people find the instances where something should be done.  
Like now. Let me go speak with it about what has happened. Touch nothing on her.  
For the Guardian must see only truth.."

And he phased out of sickbay until his lifesigns registered once more in a clear pocket in the cargobay where the Guardian of Forever rested on board Excelsior.

The EMH studied the place where the Traveler had vanished from and said to no one in particular. "Well that was interesting.."

Uhura and Christine exchanged worried glances with each other and studied the floor.

Even Kirk was speechless.

There was a rustling from the other side of sickbay as something new happened to change the moment.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Uhura holding a tribble.

Image: A Phagemind looking like an evil cloud in a jeffries tube.

Image: Nurse Chapel promo. Pretty in Pink.

*  
From : "Clairissa Fox" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Mums scar and the Captains slimeface. Date : Sun, 14 Apr 2002 02:10:02 +0000

I had checked a lot of one huge deck with my sword when something told me everything wasn't right anymore. I didnt see any more slimefaces but I still had crawly skin. I tapped my pin and said. Alexander to mum. You cant fool me. What did the bad guy do?

But she didnt answer. The telly doc did. "Alexander? You won't need that kitchen knife anymore. We've..sort of come to an agreement with our unfriendly ship. But I need you to come to sickbay for an innoculation. Your mum had an accident but she's resting comfortably. Do you need a security guard to show you the way?"

I tried to make my Klingon growl sound like a warriors but the little boy got out instead. Ill be right there. And no. I always know my way around dumb human ships. A warrior always knows whats around him. Are you sure shes ok? You answered for her.

"I wouldn't lie to you as your friend so what makes you think I'd lie to you as your mum's doctor? She's just killed an enemy and .. ran into a little trouble with her weapon. We fixed it. She's only having a little lie down. If you don't believe me, see the medical scanner for yourself. I know your mum taught you how to read one."

All right. Ill take your word as an honorable hollow doctor. Ill be right there I told him.

I got down there sooner than I let him believe. Always be there when others dont expect it mum said once. I never forgot it.

It was still scary in sickbay even though the grownups said things were safe for now. Mum looked ok but the red head captain didnt. She was all rotten and smelly and it looked like 7 had to redecorate her. I dont know how the V'Dmerr could stand sitting on her belly like that. She wasnt awake like 7 was.

Doctor I said. Did the slimefaces hurt Captain Janeway? She looks like the ones who melted in the jail room.

The EMH came over to Alexander and picked him up and carried him over to K'Ehleyr's bed where Deanna Troi and Yar sat next to her. "They aren't being very nice right now and have a well, a sort of bossier slime face inside of her trying to tell her what to do. It's called a Phage mind. But Janeway's running away from it in her mind and isn't in any danger. Now your mum's soon to awaken. I'd say about an hour more."

I jumped down from the hollow doctors arms and went to her. I pushed down the blanket so I could see the place where mum got hurt. Cool! It was a boot blades mark. She mustve fought neck and neck with it all snarly and then tried to get it on her sword so she got hurt that way. It also looked like the human doctors had to fix her with an operation. A boot blade was the best way to die. Lots of honor. I knew the grownups didnt want to tell me mum almost ended it all but then they were stupid humans. They didnt know anything about getting honor that way. I ran my hand down the scar on her chest and touched my forehead ridges like dad told me to do whenever a new battle scar met my eyes. Then I pulled the blanket back up so she wouldnt get cold and because I knew Earth humans didnt like to see female chests uncovered in public. Then I turned to the hollow doctor and said. I am ready for my shot. A warrior doesnt let the enemy find ways to the Klingon heart of battle. Mum didnt so I wont.

The EMH frowned in surprise when Alexander mentioned the word "heart." "Alexander. Do you understand these readings on her monitor and what she did earlier?"

Yes. Of course I do. You fixed where she struck with her honor blade. The slime face was in her heart so mum had to kill him and it too. Mums only an ambassador but sometimes I think she makes a better Klingon than dad does. Hed never send himself to Stove o coor neck to neck with an enemy. He uses his human faser too much. The readings say what you guys gave mum inside isnt hers since that blippy heart line is orange and not mums usual purple. Who gave up their heart for mum? I have to honor them in tribute because they are family now. Our blood houses have touched.

The EMH blinked again in amazement. :: Alexander is proving to be a well travelled little boy. Must be a side benefit for having an ambassador for a mother and a security chief for a father.:: "Don't worry about that detail Alexander. We're not positive this heart actually came from the woman its DNA says it belongs to. You know how these things go."

I know. On a starship. Anything can happen and often does. Mum says that to me everytime she tells me not to go off on my own to play battle monsters during a red alert. But let me see my mums new blood sister and give me her name so I can remember it in case I see her soon. Then I wont dishonor myself by being stupid.

The EMH smiled and showed the tiny Klingon boy the picture of B'Elanna Torres and her visual image. "Her name is B'Elanna Torres. She's taken a human spouse, a pilot, TomParis. Her daughter is Miral, firstborn to the house of USS Voyager."

I will not forget. Klingons never forget family. You find out if MemBelanna is in Stove o coor. That way I know what to do for her right.

The EMH stifled a grin and said solemnly, "I will hold to that task you so direct to me Alexander, son of Worf and K'Ehleyr of the House of Moug."

Good. You show respect for Klingons like the other dumb humans dont. I like you I said to him.

"Hmmm." the EMH said, pressing a hypospray against the boy's neck which gave him some of Seven's vaccine nanoprobes in a small dose. "Helps to be well versed in etiquette for all family members of one's patients. So, what are you going to do now? An hour is a long time to wait for your mother to finish recovering from her anesthesia.."

I am going to go where she is. I said pointing to Captain Janeway. Shes the closest to the enemy slime face and so that is where Im going. Somebody needs to guard her. And I took my knife out of my boot that I had found in the human food room and marched away.

The EMH chuckled at Yar and Deanna's dismay over a minor holding a sharp instrument so he told them. "Ladies. Don't worry about him. Klingon children are more careful with their weapons then most beings are with their credit vouchers on Risa.."

I saw that the other doctors, the human ones, had finished making Chakotay all better and his monitor showed that he had had his eyes fixed. But they werent new like my mums heart was. They were the ones he had been born with. I wondered what happened to him. Then I smelled that he had fought with a soldier slime face but missed killing him in time. That was probably why the doctors had to fix his face like that. Humans werent too good at honor killing. He would be awake soon too. His monitor showed that he had an hour to go before he burned off his sleep medicine just like mum did. Now I had doubly reason to guard Captain Janeway. Chakotay wasnt there yet to do his job watching her. So I would.

I ignored the females staring at me as I sat down indian style right in front of Captain Janeway's glowy field by her bed. I could still smell what the slime face had done to her clothes and stuff but I now knew that they could be killed. My mum had showed me that.

So I closed my eyes and went into a place with my dream brain where I could be there for my commanding officer if she needed me. I gripped my sword tighter when I saw where Captain Janeway the redhead had gone. She was in Chakotays world again.

I crouched into the bushes so I could see her but the slime face couldnt. I saw the slimeface fagebrain walking behind her so I hissed. Captain Janeway whirled around at my warning noise and saw it.

Near me, another somebody hissed too right at the same time. Now that was weird. It was 7. What was she doing here? Then I remembered. Captain Janeway was not only slimy she had Borg stuff growing out of her too. I guess her shot didnt work for her because of the fagemind. Borgs can talk to each other so it made sense that 7 was here with the captain. I watched as 7 walked out without giving away my hiding place to talk to her.

It was almost nighttime in the dreamplace and I saw them by a viewscreen there over a big picture of Earth.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Alexander Rashenko in a med shot.

Image: Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine squaring off in front of a large tactical screen showing Earth. Nice.

****************************************

END WEEK TWELVE RECAP 04-13-02

WEEK THIRTEEN RECAP 04-14-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Hub

*****************************************

From : "Fran Catrair" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] ...And Into the Fryer Date :Mon, 15 Apr 2002 00:06:04 -0500

Riker glanced over at his companion. "He did what?" Riker asked, shaking his head humorously. Kira's face was animated, as she repeated her last phrase. She had been somewhat unsure about her trip, but she had enjoyed herself immensely. "He put a bowl of ferengi punch over his head, then proceeded to dance on top of the bar." she said, laughing. She knew Captain Sisko would not be happy she related this story, but she figured, what the h#ll...she was no longer his subordinate. And, Commander Riker just had a way of bringing out the story. She felt totally relaxed, and at ease.  
Riker shook his head, chuckling humorously to himself. He would have to tease Benjamin Sisko the next time he saw him. The former Captain of DS9 was famous for his cool demeanor.  
At that moment, a beep from the helm caught his attention. =^= This is the Federation Starship, Excelsior to unidentifed shuttle. Identify yourselves. =^= =^= Commander William Riker from the the U.S.S. Enterprise D and Colonel Kira Nerys, Ambassador from Bajor. Request permission to come aboard. =^= A brief silence from Excelsior. =^= Permission granted, Commander Riker. Welcome, Ambassador. =^= the communications officer of Excelsior said before closing the channel. Riker looked over at his companion, smiling grimly. "Well, I guess the real fun starts, eh?"  
A few moments later, they were informed that Captain Kirk wished to speak to them. They looked at each other. :: THE Captain Kirk?:: Kira wondered to herself. Thanks to the briefings from both Captain Picard and Will Riker himself, Kira had had some preparation for the summons.  
As Commander Riker commenced with the shuttle docking procedures, he felt a sudden jerk in his console. ::What the h#ll?:: he wondered. Just as suddenly, the shuttle began to be pulled rapidly; as if by an invisible force. A voice filled the cabin. ##YOU ARE INVADERS! YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE! YOU WILL BE MADE EXAMPLES OF! THE FEDERATION MUST KNOW I AM NOT PLAYING GAMES#  
The voice was female; of a child-like quality, yet as Will and Kira frantically worked to re-establish control of their ship, they felt a high pitched sound invade their minds, filling them with pain and undescribable terror. Before blacking out, Will thought grimly. ::Oh yes, the fun is just getting started:

(attachments)

Image : Kira in a closeup promo.

Image: Riker injured and lying on a medbed.

Image: Riker and Kira standing side by side at Ops.

*animated gif* - A spinning Voyager combadge.  
*animated gif* - An electric energy bar gif in blue.

*************************************

Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 12:03:14 -0700 (PDT) From: "Myron Ojala" Subject: Scotty Takes an Existential Leap of Faith

Scotty was feeling more like himself than he had in years. ::Those wee nanobeasties must have taken a few years off me in the inside:  
he chuckled. ::Too bad they couldn't do that from the outside.:: he thought rubbing his face as he looked in the mirror.

The emergencies in sickbay were slowly settling down. The Klingon Ambassador was recovering nicely. The doctors insisted that Scotty remain for a short time for a complete scan to be sure that he was clear of the Phage. Seven and Janeway were still both on the biobeds. The captain's situation was the most serious because of the discovery of the Phage mind. ::I just hope that something can be done without sticking a knife into her chest too.:: he thought sarcastically. He left Janeway's bedside and addressed Dr. McCoy and Captain Kirk,  
"Sirs, I just don't believe that I'll be of any use here.." he said pointing to sickbay's floor. "I'd like to go to the cargobay and have a wee chat with this Traveler and the Guardian, if that's all right with you sirs.."

McCoy smiled but didn't say anything as he completed his final check on Chakotay's surgical results.

Kirk nodded as he said, "Good idea Scotty.  
Keep me informed if you learn anything new."

"Aye sir.." Scotty affirmed and he turned to leave. He noticed the small Klingon boy sitting by Janeway's biobed holding what appeared to be a very sharp, large, kitchen knife. He noticed upon closer inspection that the boy appeared to be in a meditative state. Concerned, he called for the holodoctor.  
"Hey Mr. holodoc. Is this Klingon lad all right?"

The EMH walked over with a medical tricorder and scanned Alexander with concern. After a moment he visibly relaxed and said, "He's gone where the captain's gone. I wouldn't be surprised if the boy's somehow watching Janeway's back right now for that infant Phagemind."

Not understanding a bleeding word of what the doctor just said, Scotty replied. "Just so the lad is ok. I've got to go get me some answers from a certain talking rock. Hope the lady captain will be fine in the meantime.  
And the commander, too. Is the Klingon lass out of danger?"

The EMH closed up his medical tricorder he had used on the boy and put it away.  
"She came through her surgery very well.  
The donor organ was a near perfect tissue match. There should be no complications foreseen," under his breath he added, "At least with the physical ones."

"How so?" Scotty asked.

"The heart that was implanted in K'Ehleyr may belong to a former Voyager crewmate by the name of B'Elanna Torres. The captain is very fond of her and her family."

"Did she take it well enough?"  
he asked of the captain.

"She barely found out before the Phagemind manifested itself and forced her to retreat into Chakotay's spirit realm."

"Where's that?"

But the doctor had turned away to speak with Seven about something and Scotty was left behind.

::Spirit realm? Is that where the boy and the captain are. I'll be darned.::

He exited sickbay and made his way to the nearest turbolift down the hallway on Excelsior. As he past crewmen, he noticed that they were in good spirits as they believed the Vidiian threat to be over.  
Montgomery mumbled to himself.  
"Sometimes I wish I wasn't a high ranking officer knowing so much. Ignorance can be bliss. Things are as bad as they seem and they ARE out to get you..:: he mused.

He was only minutes away from the cargobay.

---------------------------------

The Traveler stood in the exact center of the cargobay as the Guardian of Forever was speaking to him.

##I SEE THE WOMAN'S CONDITION.  
THE DISEASE MIND PURSUES HER EVEN NOW.##

"Surely you aren't going to let this Sospiria destroy the captain."  
the Traveler interjected.

##INTERVENTION IS POSSIBLE ONLY BY AFFECTED PERSONS INVOLVED IN THE SITUATION WHO CHOOSE TO TAKE ACTION. YOUR VIEWPOINT HAS BEEN NOTED TIME WATCHER.## the Guardian resonating voice said.

The cargobay was quiet which didn't surprise the Traveler at all since there was restricted access to the Guardian. ::These humans are so protective of technology they don't entirely understand. But I see their need for secrecy.::

Suddenly a thought occurred to the Traveler. He approached the Guardian. "What we need is someone who is willing to...."

The cargobay doors chimed a tone and they opened, their sound echoing around the darkened cargohold. Someone was coming.

The Traveler didn't even turn around as he started to smile in his gentle way, "It's about time you showed up Captain Scott. I've been expecting you.."

"Huh?" Scotty said. "Oh, uh, hi Mr. Guardian and uh,..Mr. Traveler.. I have a few words I'd like ta tell ya about Janeway and her wee brain beastie..."

"I know what you're going to ask Mr. Scott and the answer is no." The Traveler.

Scotty frowned. "What do you mean, no!  
No, that you can't help? Or no, that you two won't? What a stupid answer.."

The Guardian remained silent and impassive allowing its silence to weigh heavily over the two beings standing before it.

The Traveler raised his hand up slowly in supplication and said. "We can only assist you with information. We cannot take physical action in this matter. Sospiria's freedom of choice must be allowed to continue just as your fight against her must also run its course.. However... nothing prevents us from telling someone ELSE what can be done. Have you seen where the captain has gone? She is safe for now and the boy is watching over her with Seven of Nine, but a way must be found around the Phage creature before Janeway goes to the Vidiian vessel in the morning with Captain Kirk..."

"But lad, the only way to help Janeway where she is now is to go to this spirit realm thingy and I dinna have a clue where to begin getting there...." Scotty said..

"Ah, " the Traveler said, smiling, "Observe.  
The Guardian and I recorded what the Commander did when he and Janeway were trapped in the mess hall when they last entered that mind trance state."

Scotty watched as a familiar mist flowed over the Guardian's entrance obscuring the gaping hole in its middle. A scene appeared overlaying the mist which at first, Scotty didn't recognize.. Then he saw the familiar forms of Janeway and Chakotay sitting by a fire and a wolf. "Oh..." he said.

He watched as Chakotay seemed to be manipulating the environment, polticing Janeway's pock marks and building the fire higher to ease her fever. "Ah,.. I get it now. The commander was the Guide there then. He controlled the place where they were, trying to help her. Can I do that?"

The Traveler said, nodding slightly. "Most certainly. All you need to do is to learn how to get there. Whether or not you succeed is an outcome that neither I nor the Guardian can predict.  
What you see here is what was. The moment going on in that spirit place is now different. A mobile Phagemind is stalking the captain and Seven and Alexander have just noticed it."

"I've got to get in there!! Show me.."  
Scotty demanded.

The Traveler shook his head. "I'm sorry. But my direct involvement is absolutely forbidden. But yours is not."

Scotty finally knew what he had to do. He just wondered how he could kill a spectral plague entity.

--------------------------------

Montgomery got to sickbay at a dead run.  
::Not bad for a hundred and twenty six year old engineer if I do say so meself.." he wheezed.

Dr. Crusher started over, seeing the sweaty panting Scotty as he leaned over Chakotay's bed leaning heavily on its armrest. "Captain Scott.. are you all right?" she said.

Scott nodded breathlessly, wheezing great gasps of air.."...How.......much...*gasp* longer will Chakotay be asleep??"

The EMH replied, "He can awaken anytime.  
The anesthesia has worn off."

Scotty said quickly,"Wake him up then.  
I need the lad's help. Now.."

Christine Chapel was alarmed. "What's wrong?"

"Nothin's wrong..But it will be if I don't get in there.." Montgomery said, pointing to Janeway's head.

The EMH understood at once. "Oh. Joy.  
I sense another vision quest in the making.  
But don't you think it'll get a little crowded in there eventually? I'm sure Moriarty here's all ready to jump on the mindtrip bandwagon.  
Aren't you?"

The professor nodded eagerly. "I've caught up on my reading on the matter. Yes.  
Please.."

The EMH shrugged, and walked over to a cart and took a hypospray and a curious bundle of fur from a cupboard. He held up the shot and said, "Chakotay's going to need the hypo. But you.." and Scotty caught the tied bundle he was tossed.  
"..are going to need the commander's prayer blanket and talismans."

"I don't understand.." Scotty murmured.

"You will. I'm sure the commander will be more than happy to explain it to you.. Wakey wakey..." the holodoc said, giving the stimulant to the commander's neck. "Rise and shine. Open up those brown peepers of yours.. We've got them working now and an irate Scotsman really wants you as a tour guide."

Scotty heard the telltale hiss of the hyposhot complete. He watched as Chakotay blinked awake and then squinted at the bright light overhead. "Ah..." he said painfully, slinging an arm over his face.

The EMH apologized. "Sorry commander. Computer dim lights. 60%."

The overheads dimmed significantly.

Scotty made sure he was the first thing Chakotay saw, "Commander!  
We've got ta go. That mind beastie's after your Kathryn."

Chakotay instantly became fully aware.  
"What are you talking about Mr. Scott?  
What's going on?"

"We both have to go help the Captain in that spirit realm place of yours. But I don't know how to get there. You do. Get up lad.. We've got the Traveler's blessing.."

The Commander sat up and steadied himself while he tested his balance. "I'll need some things..."

"You mean this??" Scotty said, tossing the prayer bundle into Chakotay's arms.

"Yes.." Chakotay said, smiling ruefully.  
"You're way ahead of the game. Are you sure you know what you're volunteering to do, Captain?" he asked Scotty.

"I know. I saw yer wolf and the aide you tried to give the lass from that time in the messhall. Only thing different is that there is another "wolf" running around."  
Scotty said.

Chakotay turned to the EMH running a probe over his eyes. "Am I good to go?"

"Of course.. Shoo.." the EMH replied.

Chakotay slid off the bed and pulled off his uniform jacket. "Get yourself comfortable Mr. Scott. " He then noticed the small boy tranced by Janeway's bed. "Looks like we'll have company once we get there."

"Add Seven of Nine to the equation Commander.. The Traveler says she's with them too." Scotty said.

Chakotay sat down and spread out his medicine bundle with only a short concerned glance for K'Ehleyr. Inwardly he was glad that the ambassador had life signs again. He was content to wait for those answers for later.  
"Sit down Mr. Scott. And hold this.."

Scotty glanced down and frowned at the severed bird's wing in his hand.  
"Oh, my.. what have I gotten myself into.?"

"Too late to back out now Mr. Scott.  
Put your other hand here.." and he placed his palm over Mr. Scott's on the akoonah device. "Achoocheymoya. I am far from the lands of my forefathers. I am far from the bones of my people. Please send us one to help us gain the answers we seek....."

Scotty felt his consciousness dissolve.  
"Here we gooooo.........."

---------------

The first thing Scotty did when he got to the other side was say to the Phagemind stalking Janeway.. "I wouldn't try that if I were you.. Mr. Beastie.. You see, the lass here's got a lot of friends here now and we don't exactly like anyone who messes with her......"

A phantom Claymore appeared into his hands to back up his words.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Scotty against the wall.

Image: The EMH in dim light looking down.

Image: Chakotay entering a vision quest seated on his medicine bundle.

**********************************

Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 23:02:33 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: Two Sides of the Same Frontline

Borgs can talk to each other so it made sense that 7 was here with the captain. I (Alexander) watched as 7 walked out without giving away my hiding place to talk to her.

It was almost nighttime in the dreamplace and I saw them by a viewscreen there over a big picture of Earth.

"Captain Janeway. " Seven of Nine called out when she thought she saw the shadow form of the newborn Phagemind following her.

But before she could act much beyond her warning cry, another person entered the vision quest spirit realm and acted.

The first thing Scotty did when he got to the other side was say to the Phagemind stalking Janeway.. "I wouldn't try that if I were you.. Mr. Beastie.. You see, the lass here's got a lot of friends here now and we don't exactly like anyone who messes with her......"

A phantom Claymore appeared into his hands to back up his words.

Seven of Nine wasted no time. She tapped Janeway on the shoulder and they stepped nearer to the vision setting's massive viewscreen that Alexander had thought up.  
"Captain Scott's right on time for once."  
Seven sighed. "Now that you know the disease mind is present. It can't harm you here."

Another shimmer filled the dream tactical room. It was the Edwardian hologram.

"Moriarty..." Seven murmured. "No doubt the doctor sent him in to also,..run interference.."

Sure enough, Moriarty stepped by Captain Scott's side, with barely a sidelong glance at the sword the older man was holding and he, too, created a weapon, a pull shaft one armed bandit, a meter and a half long came into being at the merest touch of his holographic will. The light brass pole was very like the one he had used to control the Enterprise D in a power struggle so long ago with Picard. "So..." the professor addressed the Phagemind he could barely see as a smokey outline against the dreamscape bulkheads.  
"It's now two against one." he said to the Phage mind. "Be a good virus and dry up and blow away..." and he gave a great yank to his controlling lever.

A sharp wind came from behind Moriarty's back and blew the infant Phage mind back and away from Captain Janeway. Eerily,  
the rising blast of air didn't touch any of the others near it. Not Alexander in his bushes nor Janeway herself as it built in velocity and dealt with the Phagemind instantly.  
It tumbled end for end and seemed to collide with the phantom viewscreen showing Earth and fell into its surface and into the "outer space" beyond into a deeper recess of the vision quest's reality.

Scotty gave an ironic look to Moriarty, who replied.  
"Oh. It's not the first time I've had to manipulate my surroundings.. The commander's dream world works only slightly different than any holodeck and I'm sure you all know what I can do with a holodeck... Don't worry I'll keep it from returning too close while you and the rest of your fine colleagues find a better way to combat and ultimately defeat the entity."

-----------------

Janeway's physical and mental clarity was back to normal inside the vision quest.  
She spoke independently again without being vocal tandem with Seven and her skin was glowingly free of the Borg implants. She held up two hands and flexed both sets of fingers reflexively. "That's better.  
I almost feel like myself again." she muttered.  
"No offense, Seven.." she said to her old crewmate standing before her near the dreamed up observation rail.

"None taken captain. It took me years to feel accustomed to Borg integrations. It's unrealistic that you could adapt to them in mere hours. Besides, in here we are in your mind, in a setting that Alexander Rashenko has crafted. Of course your mental image of yourself is free from my assimilation effects."  
the exBorg woman shrugged.

Janeway turned to admire the view of the Phagemind struggling in dream Earth's orbit to cohesively reform itself back into solid vapor. But it remained mired without resolving into its attacking shape at all.  
The captain smiled. "It's not the first time I've been assimilated into Borg form.  
I've seen two or three occasions, depending on which timeline one choses to remember."  
She nodded to Moriarty and Captain Scott,  
who were eyeballing the struggling Phagemind without taking their eyes or their weapons of choice off of it. "Thanks boys.. Appreciate it.  
That thing's annoying.." she grumbled, looking over her shoulder to glare at the alien Sospiria had transported into her body.

She turned her back only to hear another crashing coming out of the bushes aft of the ship like part of the vision quest. She started smiling when Chakotay dashed out wearing only a loincloth, and a poised long wooden spear held over his shoulder as he charged to her location hastily looking for the now distantly located Phagemind. "Don't tell me you're going deer hunting again,  
Commander." she quipped. "Kinda breezy for that, don't you think?" she said, glancing down at his scanty clothing.

Her exfirst officer shifted his weight and leaned on the butt of his spear end when he saw that the professor and the old Enterprise engineer were taking turns hefting rocks from the forest part of the deck and seeing if they could hit the suspended disease entity from where in hung in space.  
He was not at all shy about his appearance,  
casting her a tolerant rolling eyes look accompanied with a sigh. "You know full well what I was doing." he said, and he changed the subject, fully admiring the ship aspects of the setting around them all. He winked at Alexander.  
"I like what you've done to the place Alexander. Nice.." he chuckled.

"Captain Janeway said I could keep the ship stuff up for a little while longer cause it made her feel better." The tiny Klingon boy standing next to Captain Scott and Moriarty brandishing his own weapon and rock for the alien presence, gave him a thumbs up.. "Glad you like it sir.." he said and gave the Indian Commander a clumsy human Starfleet salute with the wrong hand.

Chakotay chuckled. "Getting a little bolder with your mind shaping eh, Kathryn... It's not easy to let others mould thoughts inside your own head so intimately. My hat's off to you."

"Just be sure nothing else of yours comes off Commander.. " she teased again. "We've small children here.." Then she leaned close and stared into Chakotay's eyes. Her move made him vaguely uncomfortable and aroused feelings in him he usually kept suppressed,  
so he looked away. "What are you doing that for?" he said.

"Shh.." she said, grabbing his chin until she their eyes were inches away from each other.  
Finally she said, "Yep.. They put them in their right places commander.. And didn't mix them up.  
The left eye is properly on the left side and vice versa.." and she stepped back from him with her hands on her hips. Then she wished him into his usual vision quest white buffalo skin trousers and shirt and laughed. "Ah.. I like this even better." and she winked at him to the point that Chakotay's eyebrows rose in surprise.

Seven of Nine had been watching the light hearted exchange and missed all the teasing friendly banter like only Seven could. "There are more pressing matters than concerning ourselves with mere appearances,  
captain, commander. Forgive me but isn't the lethality of that plaguing personality more important than renewing an emotional bond?"

Janeway smiled and took both Seven and Chakotay by the shoulders as she led them away from the viewscreen area of the glade.  
"You're both absolutely right." she said expansively. "On all counts.. I shouldn't be taking my tormentor..." she cast a few fingers over her shoulder at the mired Phagemind in the "Sky". "so lightly. I have no idea whether or not Sospiria could shape it to be set into a killing mode." So she stooped and took a particularly heavy geode from the ground and flung it with force until it passed through where the Phagemind's slimy mouth seemed to be.. The gaseous shape moaned but slowly pulled it's smokey face back together again. "That felt good."  
she said, dusting off her hands. "Now, let's see exactly what hurts it the most,  
shall we..?"

Next, she hefted up Chakotay's spear..

--------------------------------------

As Commander Riker commenced with the shuttle docking procedures, he felt a sudden jerk in his console. ::What the h#ll?:: he wondered. Just as suddenly, the shuttle began to be pulled rapidly; as if by an invisible force. A voice filled the cabin. ##YOU ARE INVADERS! YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE! YOU WILL BE MADE EXAMPLES OF! THE FEDERATION MUST KNOW I AM NOT PLAYING GAMES#  
The voice was female; of a child-like quality, yet as Will and Kira frantically worked to re-establish control of their ship, they felt a high pitched sound invade their minds, filling them with pain and undescribable terror. Before blacking out, Will thought grimly. ::Oh yes, the fun is just getting started.::

Mr. Data began shouting from Commdeck Five.  
"Something's wrong with the docking clamps.  
They're not committing to a seal." he told the ensign monitoring the docking of Riker and Kira's shuttle. "Strengthen the magnetic restrictors!"

Then he tapped his combadge. =^=Lt. Commander Data to Commander Riker. Boost your forward thrusters by 17%.=^=

There was no reply.

Again Data tried his hail. =^=Data to Colonel Kira. Please respond..=^=

Failure once more.

Then Excelsior's bridge com snicked on and her captain's rich oriental bass outlined even more details. "The shuttle is not taking a tractoring lock. Rigging a site to site transporter beam to your location. Notify sickbay immediately.  
I don't like their lifesigns level one bit."

Data's hands flew into high speed motion and he sent a squirt to sickbay for someone to response to the Commdeck. "Understood. Data out." he replied to the man who was also his starship host.

The shuttle on their main viewer strained against an unseen force as the sound of a transporter sang in sparkling labor as it snared Riker and Kira from the tiny vessel. The energy chorus ended abrupted and there were two bodies on the deck at Data's feet.

On the viewscreen the white outline of the tiny shuttle was suddenly recoiled away from Excelsior like a paddle ball at the end of its elastic string and it tumbled into Earth's atmosphere where orbital security drones hastily caught it in manual grapplers before it impacted the planet's protective shield grid.

"Now I wonder what caused that?"  
Mr. Barclay said. "That kind of trajectory path...is is is ...impossible sir" he said to Mr. Data as he stood frozen with stress near the top deck.

"Mr. Barclay.." Data gave a terse order.  
"Your assistance please with two medkits.  
Our guests seem to be injured and are unconscious.."

Lt. Barclay hastily grabbed two from underneath a companel and opened one each for himself and Mr. Data while the android physically examined Riker for adequate lifesigns.

"Check and treat her, lieutenant.."

Reg nodded animatedly but stayed mousy quiet. He parroted Data awkwardly, copying his medical tricorder scan and quick hypo of cordrazine for Kira who lay closest to him while they both worked to counteract their mysterious symptoms..

Kira moaned but didn't come immediately to wakefulness. Neither did Riker.

The EMH suddenly appeared at their side from sickbay and knelt down to scan their heads. He noted the care they had already received and said. "Nice try gentleman.  
But I'm afraid there's a mental abhorration going on here inside their brains.."

"Another Phage mind? " Data asked.

"No." and he frowned. "Looks like Sospiria's mental activity here. She's attacking them."

Data looked up with alarm at the viewscreen and the Vidiian mothership hanging there.  
The EMH began shouting loudly and shaking Kira and Riker to jar them back to their senses.  
He figured that the multiple stimulus along with the effects of the cordrazine, would overpower the female caretaker's hold over his two patients.  
"Mr. Data.. Get ready. They're not going to wake up calmly.." he announced.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Janeway and Seven by a rail of a dusty ship looking at a glowing viewscreen we can't see.

Image: A Data Study in black and white.

Image: Chakotay smiling in embarrassment.

**********************************

From : "Cory Anda" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Exorcism and Snaretrap Plans. Date : Fri, 19 Apr 2002 07:54:26 +0000

Mr. Barclay watched with horror as Captain Janeway metamorphosed back into the Phage's possessed condition shortly after the tribble made its stunning pronouncement.

His own stomach did flip flops but the doctor's stabilizing injection made it impossible for his hypochondriac tendency to fire off again. ::Oh, man. And I thought I had good cause to faint then?:: He found it easier to look away from her and at the more restful K'Ehleyr. But his horror didn't have long to flare. Soon, an antiseizure medication had calmed the worst of Janeway's symptoms and soon thereafter, Mr. Scott had made an appearance back into sickbay to gather a newly restored Chakotay with him for a trip into the dream realm.

Barclay shuddered and the effect didn't go unnoticed.

"Are you well, lieutenant?" came a rich baritone from his left.

Without turning around, Reg knew who it was. "Yes, Mr. Spock. I am fine. It's just this..intelligent plague idea. Gives me the willies." He turned and regarded the Vulcan ambassador seated at his tactical chair. He had resumed that seat in the ward ever since Captain Kirk had left for the Commdeck on level five of Excelsior. "Do you think that our quarantine'll hold? I mean with Commander Riker and Colonel Kira on the way to our location...I.."

Just then the ship went into red alert for the fourth time in as many hours. ::What now?:: Reg thought.

Spock's fingers tapped his board and it revealed the scene ongoing on Commdeck. Everyone in sickbay saw on the overhead the scene of Riker and Kira's rescue from the Sospiria controlled shuttle craft.

McCoy said sharply. "Well doesn't that just beat all? First the blond headed Goldylocks reinfects Janeway, now she does this.. And still.. I can't help wondering why.."

Just then, Moriarty came out of the vision quest with some good news. "We have it on the run.. I dare say that Captain Scott and I had a wonderful time hunting the hound sirs.." he said by way of pronouncement.

Ambassador Spock regarded his long time companion Bones with steepled fingers and commented with a tone even those who did not know him very well could recognize as mild humor. "One does not overanalyze one's enemies. Only their tactical strengths and weakness of the ships and forces they carry with them.." he said.

Moriarty had a thumb toying with his lip as he considered an issue that had kept him quiet throughout the drama in sickbay and the equally tense rescue just played out on Commdeck. "Maybe that is precisely what we must do Mr. Vulcan. " he said. "Now isn't it true that the heart implanted inside the Klingon lady comes from a potential crewmate of the captain's?" he said, pointing in Janeway's direction.

"Yes. That is a possible scenario.." Spock remarked.

The Victorian hologram called up the quadrant just above and beyond the Space dock where Excelsior was sheltering and being shielded by two starships in defense against the massive Vidiian vessel looming nearby. "Now this transport hub of the mechanical ones who stole Seven when she was a child... The Borg were they? Could some residual power still be active in those areas where several transwarp tunnels come out into the same realspace coordinates?"

"That is a theoretical certainty. It has only been five years since Voyager's return following the destruction of the Borg city and its Queen by Admiral Janeway. A structure that large would take centuries to "cool" down." Spock replied.

"Mark my words ambassador. But why don't we flush your plaguing Vidiian wasp's nest back into the hole from which she came? It would be easy enough to use one of this gallant ship's pushing beams to confine her, wouldn't it?" Moriarty asked.

Reg Barclay shot off his steel stool, startling Deanna Troi at K'Ehleyr's bedside. "Oh Reg.. remember what I told you about getting overly excited.." she warned.

"I'm fine counselor..." Barclay said and he actually smiled. He went over to the tactical map showing the positions of Space Dock, Earth, the four starships and the Vidiian vessel. "Yes. That idea could work.. distract the female caretaker with Janeway while keeping a subdermal transporter lock on her. Then use the conduits own residual energies to slide the Vidiians back into their own quadrant. Brilliant.."

"Thankyou.." said Moriarty with a slight bow.

Reg just blinked at the professor without comprehending.

Then McCoy harrumphed loudly in his throat. "Uh, is everyone forgetting that Captain Janeway has a particularly nasty case of demon possession going on? And she's got three friends on the sidelines in there trying to throw holywater at Mephistopheles himself..."

Mr. Spock stood and walked over to where Captain Janeway lay and place his fingers over the psi marks on her forehead. "She is holding her own integrity against the Phagemind doctor. As the Traveler has said. She is in no danger."

The Holozimm was insistent. "That's for right now, ambassador. But we don't know WHAT might happen if we aggressively attack that thing from the real world. It is far less dangerous letting those three figure in there things out than it is for us to manipulate any dendrites from out here." he said.

"Spock is right doctor." Deanna said. "If I'm feeling anything from the captain, it's...it's..." she focused in getting feelers on the emotions she was getting off the dazed Voyager captain. "..satisfaction?.. and a touch..." she blushed.. "Never mind."

HoloZimm asked what they all wanted to know. "What Miss Troi?"

Deanna smiled a bit and said, .."Flirtacious.."

That made Reg stare in Chakotay's direction to where the commander was seated on the floor next to the original Enterprise Scotsman. He didn't even guess which of the two was the target of that emotion. He cleared his throat nervously and changed the subject... "Sirs, " he said to Spock and the others. "My idea could work. And it's something that the Vidiians won't suspect. Getting pulled back through the mouse hole into the wall."

"Apt analogy, Lt." Spock said. "We shall give it some thought." and he turned back to his station to monitor the situation on the Commdeck with Kira and Riker. Just then, he noticed Kirk had arrived on the scene just as the EMH warned everyone that the newcomers to Excelsior might have a rough road to consciousness. The Enterprise captain crouched near to offer his assistance to the EMH.

All in sickbay watched the scene on the viewer, transfixed for a change with the two injured officers in front of a kneeling Kirk.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Janeway rubbed her hands with tremendous self assuredness as she watched the Phagemind from where it was pinned against the viewscreen by Chakotay's spear in its "stomach".. "I hope you rot.." she told it.

Chakotay nearest her, chuckled. "Ooo, I wouldn't say that Kathryn. That's what it seems to be doing to you right now... How are you feeling?"

Janeway focused outside the dreamscape world to her real body lying in sickbay.. "Like I got cotton in my mouth. Seems the doctors have pumped me full of medication again."

Seven spoke up. "You needn't have done that." she said admiring the skewered sickness overhead." My Borg nanoprobes could have pinned the Phagemind into nonactivity as well as your.....javelin did. It was just a matter of you allowing them to do so captain." she told Janeway.

"No thanks.. I like to fight my own battles if you don't mind.. Especially in such tight quarters.." and she tapped her forehead ironically. "If I've learned anything at all about my past visits inside Chakotay's spirit world, it's the premise that inside your own head, you are the top authority.. even over your own illnesses.. Such as that thing.." and she hefted another rock at the disease entity impaled on the spear. "Eventually. I'll have it licked.."

Seven merely rocked back on her heels and placed her hands behind her back.

Janeway wandered over to the thicker forest and away from the ship part of the dream setting. She crouched and a warm fire burst into existence at a thought." Let give it a taste of its own medicine shall we? A fever perhaps?" and she took a pitch soaked knot of wood from the ground and held it over the fire until it was a burning brand.. "I feel a great case of heartburn coming on... don't you?" she challenged her disease.

Above them, the Phagemind squealed and disappeared.

"Good riddance.." she replied. "Shall we all get out of here? I've had enough of nightly dreams for a while.."

Alexander, Scotty, Seven all left the reality of Janeway's tranced vision quest at the same time, leaving Janeway and Chakotay alone. A soft nightly rain began to fall on the silent woods around them. Something hissed out the fire Janeway had begun and they both looked down. She saw that it was steam rising not from water but the burying activities of a coating of nanoprobes doing the deed. She lifted her hands and felt a mist of Seven's protective nanos gently fall on her skin.. "Seven wasn't kidding they provided protection from harm. They won't even allow me to forge a tempered burn for very long."

Chakotay smiled. "That fire was a manifestation of your anger at being sick. And it worked. " he said casting a hand about their forest glade. "You purged the Phage yet again."

"Hmm." she grunted. "It was too easy."

"I'll just bet when we leave here, " Chakotay said, drawing her into a hug as they walked back to the margin between ship and forest. "That the docs will confirm you are Phagemind free.."

"Yeah well what about the Phage part..?"

The Commander's eyes twinkled. "One step at a time. The Black plague wasn't cured overnight you know. This Phage virus can't be any different. I have confidence in our crewmates out there to come up with an antidote. Isn't that how it always works Kathryn? The faithful crew storms to the rescue to save their captain at the last second?"

"Only works on a starship that that captain commands.."

"Who says?"

"I do.. And this is Sulu's ship. Not ours.."

"Oh ye of little faith.. Trust the native instinct.." he said tapping his tattooed temple. "An Indian guide will never lead you astray..."

Janeway sighed and released him. "Speaking of guides... Where's ours?"

"You mean Matseyeho and your tiny friend?" Chakotay asked.

"Of course..." she answered. "Just how many wolves and geckos are running around these parts anyway.."

Chakotay laughed.. "Just the two. And to answer your question. I think Seven's rainfall has something to do with it. It's calming both our minds.." and he too, watched the nanoprobe shower salt over his skin and through the branches above them. "Helping protect against the ravages of the illness. we don't need our spirit guides to psychoanalyze every move tonight."

"That's some sedative..Usually your lupine friend is irrepressible." Janeway muttered, sitting down on a birch log that lay by the lake. "Let's not hurry out so soon. I don't fancy checking into all that excess Borg equipment just yet. I just want to enjoy feeling like me for a change.."

"As you wish.. this trance'll last as long as you want it to."

"Make it last forever.." Janeway sighed.. staring at a full moon she willed into being over the lake.

"You know the doc will five alarm us the moment they're ready for your surgery to rehumanize you."

"That's fine. In the meantime. Let's just ...... talk.. we haven't done that yet in the history of my recollection.. Not since New Earth when we were stranded with that other fatal illness."

Chakotay didn't say anything at all but inside, he smiled. From somewhere in the distance... a wolf called in joyful abandon.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Spock's ironic look.

Image: Barclay in a good portrait.

Image: Janeway and Chakotay smiling at one another in front of a super nova on a viewscreen.

*animated gif* A wolf's head howling at a full moon.

********************************** From: "Lotten" .se Subject : Fallen Heroes and Determined Proteges. Date : Fri, 19 Apr 2002 20:46:43 +0000

Tom walked with determination through the empty and dim lit corridors of starfleet medical's section of Excelsior.

Only the skeleton med staff was on call, the building itself was shut down for the night. The general theme of it all was mired in Tom's mood. Not bright and cheerful as he had felt this moring when he went up early to take Miral with him on a picnic in the Segalian mountains.

It had been a bright cheerful, close to perfect day, the only thing he found that he missed was B lana. She was yet again off working on some Engineering project, mapping the Borg conduit grid. He didn't blame her for being gone.

He knew Belana was the best and that she needed to be needed in a professional capacity other than being Mother and wife.

::Well that is not the case now.::, Tom thought to himself. The little egocentric need of wanting B lana's attention and presence all the time was a petty little thing to the hardness that now darkened his heart.

He turned in to the corridor where he knew Janeway and Chakotay were being tended to. He raised his eyes up as he came into the room to stand before the biobeds.

The entire walk from the transport had been hard and long, his steps heavy, his mind filled with memories of times spent with his mentor and companion now in trouble again.

His vision had constant focus on the ground just a meter in front of his feet, he had seen nothing and he wanted to see nothing. The news had traveled fast, not in a nanosecond or times warp 10 speed as it had on Voyager, but HQ`s "Jungle telephone" was rather impressive too. The accuracy of the initial message was not always correct, but the core of this message was hard to miss. It burned its way into your memory. Tom had heard the news and like all the other hurtful things he had to endure through his childhood; he still reacted the same way. Denial. The news Tom had heard he knew, became of whatever character you wished. It was just total nonsense, but deep down Tom knew it was all too true.

Captain Janeway was ill and it was no cold or some interspatial flu thing either.

He had stopped a few times on his way over there to take a deep breath. The emotional panic was close and he had not experienced it in a long time. After his mum died it had been so intense he had simply shut himself down. Tom knew he did not handle personal loss good. He went into deep depression and almost came down to a catatonic state of just existing. After Caldric Prime, it had happened. When he lost his mother....It had been so intense he had to be hospitalized for a short time.

Images had shown up in his mind as he walked to his current destination. Happy times with the crew of voyager. With Janeway in their middle like the core that held them all together, and just a step or two from her, her own trusty side kick, Chakotay. There were hard times and interesting times playing from the memory of Mr Paris.

Now as he closed in on the biobeds in the dim lit room all the news he had heard had all become so true.

They would both die if a cure to the phage was not found soon.

Tom slowly went up along side the captain's bio bed, he took a quick check over her readings. They were stable for now. :: But for how long?::

He looked at her. This little lady...larger than life, strong , beautiful, intriguing,  
contradictive in so many ways, tender yet forceful, passionate and cold as ice when the situation demanded it, a skillful chameleon. Caring and above all, loving of all life.

She was just a reflection of her true vibrant self as she laid there on the greyish surface of her bio bed, almost a mirage of the Captain Janeway that had steered the borg queen down many times, protected the her crew and mothered all that needed the chicken mum to be there for them.

::She has probably a million different versions of herself to pull out just to satisfy the needs of her crew.:: Tom thought wryly.

He knew the hardship she went through everyday and the blame she laid on herself for"her getting them lost in the DQ". How could he now tell her that he owed her for everything that he held precious in life?. Everything that she deemed bad with her decision to blow up the Caretaker's Array turned out all good for him.

Tom thought in a sad voice :::Oh Captain this is not the way it is supposed to end...How will I ...How will we ever go on without you there?.If you were to go now..where will we all be.  
Shattered and lonely ones again..no longer a crew, without you there to tie us together, we are only fractions of what we would be with you there....With you around, so many people WILL BE MORE ..::

He sat on her bed and took her palm. ::No you are not allowed to go..not yet and not now..there is still to much you have to accomplish; still some things you have to say..and do:::

Tom looked up from her little hand to the face that could hold a million and one expressions and still not reflect and betray what the captain was truly thinking. Now it was calm and gentle, almost childlike as she lay there in deep sleep.

Tom's memories traveled into the present in front of his eyes, Once again triggered by the face he knew so well yet never had figured out .Her voice rang in his mind " Get us out of here, Mr Paris", " Tom I need some of that fancy flying you have been bragging about." He heard himself say the "Yes maam" line that usually made her face softer and the eyes shine with mischief and devious plotting of revenge. The " Yes maam" line was usually followed with Tom's famous fly boy grin that he knew sent the message to the captain of friendly teasing. The little teasing game the captain and he played was something he dearly missed after returing home to Earth. He did not see her eyes light up in that special way every day. He missed her presence in his every day life.

Not until now had he contemplated how much he got used to having both Belana and the captain near, as well as his other Voyager family around him every day. He missed Harry's companionship. Harry was like the little brother he never had, his best friend.

Tom smiled as his thoughts brought Harry's innocent face. He thought in a almost laughing tone:  
: Poor Harry. The things I tricked you in to doing with me...haha..::

Many of the tricks and teases they played on Voyager was all in good fun and most of them did get those eyes of the captain, too, lit in that special way like a child's eyes on x-mas morning. Janeway, of course, was by the book and reprimands were placed upon them both.

And all the reprimands and scrubbing manifolds was worth it....just to get her eyes to say" Do you really want to go there, mister?" Those were the best moments on voyager.

Tom's thoughts returned addressed to the captain in a regretful and promising tone. :::I know I will never be able to tell you what you mean to me..and to Belana. where would we be without you and Chakotay's influence?...I owe you everything I have today .I owe you the time on Voyager that shaped me into who I am today. I am proud of who I am and what I do and I can only say it is because of you and your guidance. You are probably the only mentor I have. The only role model that made a difference in shaping me into the man I've become. ::

He studied the grip he had on her hand, looking down.

"I remember the ready room when you demoted only thing that hurt worse was the look in your eyes. I had betrayed you and let you down. I swore to myself that I would never cause you that pain again I would not let you down. And if I could make it up to you I was gonna try. I know that I alone was the cause of the hurt you felt that day. I will not let you down has to be a way out of this. If there is one thing I have learned from being around you is that defeat is not an option if there is no solution, make one.. "

Then to himself, he started a new vein of thinking. ::Yes there has to be a solution; a cure to this Phage. There is always a way...The Vidiians took Belana back then in the DQ, with the belief that she held the cure within her DNA. The split her into one human part and one Klingon...we only got the human part back with us to Voyager but at the cost of the klingon counterpart.  
and later we learned that the full human version of Belana could not survive without the klingon part being reintegrated back into her. Doc integrated them because of the degradation of the DNA changes.. in a way the same occurence that is happening with the Phage in humanoids::

He let go of her hand and circled the bed, to its other side, studying the monitor and the readings displaying of her life functions. ::Maybe there is a connection..DNA resequencing but that is only half of it..not the cure..ok Tom focus...you have some medical knowledge...what has the doc been trying to tell you? .Connections, similarities ..DNA resequencing alone would not be enough. The DNA mapping structure would break down just as soon as it was reset.  
something needs to strengthen it.. to hold the cell membrane and molecular structure together..the Phage slowly eats the cell membranes. The myelin of,...Klingon DNA structures are not the same but it is stronger...can that be it?...Belana being a hybrid with a special blend of genes might hold the actual structure needed to support the DNA after resequencing them? .  
Belana's chromosomal makeup would be close to what is needed and the amino acids would probably be stong enough to interact with the captain's and Chakotay's own DNA.... This is a DQ bug We need a DQ medic specialist....yes yes Bingo..what was that doctor's name that helped Janeway and Chakotay the last time they were in deep medical trouble?...Dr Denara Pel. She would not be impossible to track down now with the Pathfinder's new development... Yes now we are getting somewhere:::

Tom was beginning to feel hope again, his off mood was disappearing with each nanosecond and replaced with determination of success and hope.

He leaned down and kissed Janeway on her head then leaned down to her ear and whispered in a gentle voice , "I will not let you down again, ever. I will make this right, even if I die trying. I will not give up. I owe you so much. I know you would not rest until you had the cure to make ME better.. I won't do any less. You still have some unfinished business here so don't you dare go away until I find the cure...the over grown Indian over there deserves to know what is in your heart and you both need to follow the destiny dealt to you." he teased. He knew full well the change in how they were relating to each other. "You can't bail out now because you are scared. You and Chuckles have some things to say so you just stay here and rest ok? I'll be back with the calvary, Belana and the doc."

He straightened feeling again the grateful emotion which had brought him back to Starfleet. " If it wasn't for you and Chakotay, me and Belana would still be alone and in pain. I would not have a beautiful family. No Bea. No Miral. You need to find your own family so don't go anywhere ok.?"

Tom stood up taking a final glance at her before he was leaving. And then images came of Queen Arachnia laughing back at him in her jovial way and it made him smile.

He said in his best and charming voice " Remember you are the queen."

Smilingly he turned to where Chakotay sat by Janeway's bed. He simply placed his hand over Chakotay's heart.

Tom told him in a gentle yet firm and promising tone, " I will make it right somehow..You watched over Belana so many times when I couldn't be there. I have not forgotten, big guy. I owe you many times over...You just have to stay and hold on. The little lady over there still needs her sidekick. Just like Captain Proton. Give her time , Chakotay, and you will see.  
things will turn out the way they are supposed to."

With that Tom left with determination and with many plans spinning in his head.

Believing he had not been seen by anyone, Tom left the now once again quiet room where the two sleeping humans rested.

But oh yes someone had been watching and listening to everything that had happened in the room.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Tom Paris toe to toe with Janeway in the ready room going on report.

Image: Janeway as Queen Arachnia.

Audio: Janeway- Thanks for the briefing.

Tom Paris- I'll see you at the fortress of doom.  
and remember you are the queen"  
Image: Janeway grinning in front of the warp core.

Audio: Tom Paris- Yes, Maam..

****************************************

From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Layers Date : Sun, 21 Apr 2002 21:25:56 +0400

But oh yes someone had been watching and listening to everything that had happened in the room.

Dr. Crusher had noticed the new arrival to her ward and she didn't know who he was. ::Now I wonder who that man is. Surely, he's seen the quarantine buoys outside the ship, warning against boarding. Data said he'd keep anyone from beaming off but maybe he overlooked the idea of anyone covertly beaming IN.::

Beverly went over to Deanna Troi seated by Ambassador K'Ehleyr's biobed and got her friend's attention. "Did you see that Lt. over there by the captain's bed?"

"I sure did. And no, you don't have to look into an investigation of who he is. Counseling Mr. Barclay on his holoaddiction has gotten me very familiar with the Voyager crew which was his favorite 's Lt. Tom Paris. Captain Janeway's old pilot from her Voyager days. And I wouldn't be surprised if his father, Owen Paris pulled a few admiralty strings to get him on board Excelsior, either. There are ways around a quarantine field. Just look at the way Riker and Kira got here on orders."

Beverly thoughtfully glanced at the scan she had taken on him from across the room while he was visiting Janeway and Chakotay. "He wasn't infected before. But he is now. Just like the rest of us. The short time that second Phagemind had Janeway, the disease overrode all the innoculation nanoprobes in our blood. The spore is adapting more rapidly than Seven's little friends can keep up."

"Are we all sick then?" Deanna said.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. All except the tiny tribble, and Captain Janeway. " she smiled ironically. "Somehow, she's managed to cure herself in there." Beverly said, watching Alexander wake up out of trance and soon there after, Moriarty.

"The Tribble?"

"Yes. He's...wait..., now he's a pregnant she, is clear of Vidiian infection. Most likely because it's naturally changing itself physically with hormones and with the pregnancy's progression."

Troi angled her head in amusement. "Are you saying being with child prevents infection?"

Dr. Crusher's eyes narrowed as she smiled. "Don't even go there. Everything I'm saying is a wild theory at best." and she emphasized the word "theory." very clearly. "Last thing we need is all of our women soliciting the male crew on board to foster conception."

OOC- (sorry, about the off the wall ludicrous idea. But it's funny. Let's all agree to not follow this plot angle up.. We have child readers here in the theater.*grinning hugely*)

BIC-

"Amen to that. I know what it's like to be pregnant and, despite of my incident's painless state, I didn't enjoy it very much." Deanna mused.

Beverly set a hand on Deanna's shoulders. "Still hurts, doesn't it? That curious energy being who used you to visit us didn't take into account the power of the maternal instinct."

"Ian was special. But he was right to leave Enterprise. His natural radiation was lethal to us all. And there was nothing Dr. Pulaski could have done then, to reverse that situation for us either now that I think about it. " Troi said.

"Hmm.. " Beverly said noncommitally. "Still it wasn't all emotional pain for you. Katherine Pulaski said in her logs that you would have made an excellent mother and recounted an incident where you brought Ian into sickbay for a minor fall. She said your joy at his clean bill of health was palpable even to NON empaths. " But already her mind was moving on to other things. "Speaking of emotional states, how's the Ambassador doing?" Beverly asked Deanna about K'Ehleyr.

"She's fine. I'm sensing nothing that shows her time arrested damaged her personality. She must still be remembering her confrontation with the first Phagemind. Her battle anger is still very much in place. She's continuing where she left off."

"That's good. Useful having you around. You're even better than a Feinbeurger brain scan."

Deanna Troi rose from her stool next to K'Ehleyr and she took Beverly's tricorder to do some reading on the file the doctor had up on Tom Paris. "Can I borrow that?.. I've just put two and two together. Tom Paris is B'Elanna Torres's husband. And he'll go absolutely ballistic if he learns about that heart beating in K'EHleyr right now."

"You think so?" Bev asked.

"I know so. I watched a few of Reg's Voyager programs enough to know that Tom Paris is a vertible loose cannon when it comes to anyone or anything hurting his friends or family. I don't think the huge chance of that transplant being just a cloned organ is going to appease him one iota." Troi said.

"I'll watch out for that." Beverly said. Then she turned to Janeway and Chakotay and noticed they were still staying inside their dream quest trance. "Someone's taking a break from it all. I'm jealous."

And with that, the counselor moved off to visit with Alexander to see what had happened inside his vision quest.:: I'd rather get it from the boy than from Moriarty, who's archaic way of speaking grates on me. ::

Beverly Crusher went over to the EMH in the other wing where he was setting up the field for Janeway's surgery to liberate her from Seven's assimilation collective. She asked the EMH a question. "Doctor, will Seven suffer link shock once we remove Captain Janeway's presence from inside her central cortical node?"

The holophysician smiled and said, "Not at all. She's spent a good deal of twelve years now as an individual. She's used to that state now almost as much as she was accustomed to her Borg one."

"That's a relief." Beverly sighed. "Looks like the psychological damage on all of us is going to be light this time across the board."

"Don't hold your breath." the EMH said. "My captain has still to face Sospiria tomorrow morning. By far the most psychologically risky situation to date."

"Then let's be sure Kathryn has the best chance she can have physically. Shall we begin her surgery?"

"Of course. We have to have Janeway on her feet in four hours. For then it will be dawn on our side of Earth." he said. He waved over Dr. McCoy. "Sir, would you like to over look this one? The procedure to remedy Borg assimilation is a fascinating study.."

McCoy grumbled as he came by with two cups of coffee for both himself and Beverly and a smallish beaker of juice. "I'll be right there." He detoured with his tray of drinks over to Janeway's bed and he waved a cup under her nose. "Hey.. coffee's on. Hurry up in there..!!"

Deanna and Beverly both started to laugh. Even Alexander, nestled in the counselor's arms. To him, Troi gave the glass of prune juice. "Your dad likes this, Alexander. Try some." Then she turned back to the EMH. "Aw, doc, let em take a break. They've been through a lot since we all came to Starfleet. The time looping with Data's head and the mystery of my attack, the big fire, and now this formidable alliance between Sospiria and the Vidiians. Bound to wear out anybody. Especially them being high ranking officers."

Beverly clucked her tongue. "Do I have to remind you again Deanna? We're both commanders now ourselves just like Chakotay is."

"Well, yes, but we've never had a ship of our own nor Starfleet's first priority status as problem solvers. We've been cushioned from the worst of reality.." she giggled.

"I aim to fix that someday.." Beverly said.

Bones handed Beverly her steaming cup then motioned a hand over to Troi at the replicator. She shook her head. "No thanks, I'm fine."

Troi watched the three doctors maneuver tools and equipment they would need for Janeway's deBorging. "Can I watch to? Never seen this except when Picard was rescued ten years ago. Even then, I didn't have time to observe much. Data and I were too busy sensing, making sure he stayed with us."

"You won't be squeamish?" Bev said. It was a fact that she really didn't know about her long time friend.

"That's Reg's department. The only thing that bothers me is emotional trauma. Not the physical kind." she nodded.

"Oh." Bev grunted in discovery. "All right. Why don't you have a seat next to Dr. McCoy. I'm sure he'll give you a running commentary as we go."

Soon, the doctors were deep into liberating Janeway from her implants.

From another bed, Seven of Nine watched silently. She was too busy mentally directing her nanoprobes in all the ship's crew in a vain attempt to overtake the new Phage within them.

But a part of her joined McCoy and Deanna as an observer.

------------------------------------------------------------------

"OO, that tickles.." Janeway said as she lay on her back on the lake's beach admiring the moon inside the vision quest.

Chakotay, who was stirring the dying embers of the fire, looked up. "What does?"

"Everything.. I think they're yanking out my Borg attachments. With gusto..." she gaped in earnest.

Chakotay chuckled. "Better leaving a collective than joining one I guess. How's Seven holding up?"

Janeway focused inward to the rapidly fading voice of Seven in her head. "She's...distracted for some reason. I wonder what's going on out there?"

"Are you so eager to return?" Chakotay said.

"It's tempting.. I'm smelling coffee.." she said with discovery.

"Oh, so a cup of perked beans wins out over time spent with your long acquainted first officer..." he said without sting. In fact, high amusement colored his voice.

Kathryn rolled the thought over. "Hmm..caffeine or absolutely captivating companionship.." she teased. "Which shall it be?"

Chakotay sat down, handing Janeway a woven Indian blanket for her to use as a mat to sit on, frowning.

She decided to let him off the hook. "Ok, you win. I've logged too many hours with the replicator for coffee mugs over the years and not enough hours with you.. Have a seat commander.." she said in a light command tone.

"Yes, maam.." and then he sneezed, suppressing a shiver.

That immediately got Janeway's attention. "Chakotay? What's wrong?"

"I don't know.. I just felt a chill, that's all.."

Janeway's face fell into seriousness. "How can you be cold or have allergies inside a vision quest?"

"That's just it, you can't.." he answered.

She felt his skin, just under the angle of his jaw. "You're warm. And your heart rate is picking up."

"Maybe that's because I'm here with you.." he quipped.

Kathryn rolled her eyes. "Having close hearted feelings..doesn't bring out chills of being cold, Chakotay. I think Seven's nanoprobes aren't working any more. I think you're getting sick." she said, voice arising in alarm.

He stopped her from getting to her feet and going to where the forest turned starship. "This Phage isn't going to kill me in the next few hours, Kathryn. Or even the next few years. So let it go. Let's let the medical experts out there handle it."

Janeway studied his dark eyes with worry for long moments, until she dropped back down on the sand next to him. She shifted the indian blanket from under her, to around their shoulders until they both were wrapped, snuggly. She reached out and handed him a stick upon which she had cooked a mushroom. "Eat this, I know it isn't real but just going through the motions will be beneficial. You remember how my starting that fire effected the Phagemind."

Chakotay nodded. "You too."

Janeway focused inward, looking at the fading bond between Seven and herself in her mind. "That's odd. Now why am I the only one now healthy?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

"I'm still vaguely tapped into all the immunization nanoprobes in everyone. All but mine are reacting. That's how I guessed you might be ill." she said. "I may be wrong. I'm not the typical Borg drone. Seven's the expert here."

"Is she telling you anything?" Chakotay wanted to know.

"Nothing. She's silent in a listening mode and she's multitasking something in a losing curve. I think she's trying to adapt everyone's vaccine nanos into new forms to get ahead of the new Phage's progression." Janeway said.

"Kathryn. Don't worry. We all are in sickbay. No one is going to die fighting this Plague." then he frowned. "Well, maybe just K'Ehleyr. But she's better now. I saw her out there before I was anesthetized."

"She is?" Janeway said, gripping his arm. "Oh, that's a relief.. I watched her die through Seven."

Chakotay gingerly split the hot mushroom between the two of them and they tossed the delicate cap halves back and forth between their fingers until they were cool enough to eat. "Not a good supper subject matter topic, Kathryn. Let's not dwell on it."

"Can't help it. I'm a captain." she quipped, chewing her bite.

"Who's in a sickbay bed and therefore off duty.." he amended.

"Rats. Thought I got around you there." she said.

"A good first officer doesn't let his captain get mired neck deep in negative thinking. It's bad form."

"So, I'm stuck neck deep in a blanket instead, eating roasted mushrooms by moonlit firelight, shoulder to shoulder, with you." she said ironically flip.

"You got that right.." he said with a smile.

"I guess I can live with that.." she shrugged.

"I was hoping you'd say that someday." And his eyes never left the fire so he missed her look of surprise when it came, about his revelation to her about his changing feelings towards her.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Troi talking to Beverly on a couch in her blue dress.

Image: Crusher in a green olive off duty velvet shift.

Image: Chakotay in Revelations, taking Janeway's hand in their shuttle hut.

Image: Chakotay's medicine bundle in a close up.

*animated gif* A white dove flying in slow motion.  
Beautiful photo image series. Image: Janeway taking Chakotay's hand, looking like a doe caught in the headlights.

*****************************************

END WEEK THIRTEEN RECAP 04-21-02

WEEK FOURTEEN RECAP 04-22-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Site.

*************************************

From :"Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] The Death Dance~~ Date :Mon, 22 Apr 2002 22:36:19 +0000

Jim Kirk studied the faces of Will Riker and Kira Nerys and he began to relax. Their physical conditions were stable. Whatever was troubling them the Voyager EMH seemed to know about. So he asked the holographic projection a question. "Doctor, this female caretaker...has she jeopardized Federation starships before? I'm not that familiar with her case history."

The holodoctor shifted his glance off of his medical tricorder monitoring the two downed officers. "Only one, captain. And that was for personal reasons. Apparently, the entity which flung the USS Voyager into the Delta Quadrant was mated with Sospiria but they were separated when he died of old age. Unfortunately, It was Captain Janeway's ship that was around when he did. Naturally, Sospiria blames Captain Janeway for that outcome citing petty offenses just to get over feeling guilty about not being there for him at his death."

Kirk mulled it over. "So she's controllable?"

"Definitely. I've already given tactical and the bridge the anaphasic energy frequency which stuns her should she try to invade Excelsior."

Jim frowned. "Seems like she doesn't have to, doctor." Kirk said as he looked at a sudden bleeping on the EMH's tricorder. "Looks like round two of the Phage has reinfected us."

The EMH looked down at the new readings in alarm. "It's those mutations again. Its as if each successive individual Phagemind has its own brand of the Vidiian Phage disease, programmed to mutate at random at a phenomenal rate. This one's particularly good at circumventing Seven's innoculatory nanoprobes.. I'm reading the infection is growing rapidly in Riker and Kira, and they've just arrived..." the holodoc said urgently. "But progressing less slowly in Excelsior crew because we're innoculated. Wil and Kira aren't. I just wish these two would have thought of that before they decided to follow orders coming here...." the EMH said.

"Ever known Federation officers to turn away from a really good no win situation?" Kirk said with his hands on his hips.

"No." the holodoc said honestly.

"Well, there you go.." Kirk said. "There's nothing you could have done to have prevented them from infecting themselves. They were of sound mind and body when their shuttle cruised on in."

"Are their lives in danger this way then?" Lt. Yar asked. She had entered Commdeck on the heels of Kirk and was helping get Riker and Kira onto their backs near the med team so everyone would be ready for their jolt to consciousness when enough of the cordrazine got to their brains.

The EMH shook his head. " Not right away. It could be up to forty hours before the stage where insanity sets in. But physically, their bodies could last for years." the doctor admitted. "It is only lethal faster, if they are still sleeping by the time the Phage fully insinuates itself into their DNA. If that happens...."

"They'll be soup when the mutations run wildly unchecked.. I know.. I saw the captured Vidiians in sickbay go that way."..Kirk admitted. "Keep me posted doctor." And he rose to his feet, drawing Yar away from the group of med staff clustered around the Colonel and the Commander. There was still no change came on the audio tones displaying their lifesigns showing a shift to wakefulness. Kirk met Yar's eyes directly and he lowered his voice. "Lt. I just thought you'd like to know this. Protocol in the case of a runaway contagion is clear. Sulu up there may opt for a self destruct before allowing Sospiria to take her pets and her shipful of Vidiians anywhere deeper into Federation territory. If this occurs, I want you to go down to the cargobay and get set to jump free of here..."

"I understand, sir.." Yar whispered. "I am aware of the risks. But, no, I won't run back through the Guardian of Forever to my own time and abandon all of you. Deanna knows that. It was her shuttle crash I was responding too when I was pulled away from trying to go past Armus.. I still think I can succeed when it's time to return...."

Kirk kept it to himself how wrong Tasha was about the fate waiting for her. "Very well, Lt. ..Captain Janeway and I will be boarding. But you are going to be the one who tracks us through subdural transponders and keeps a continuous transporter lock on the two of us. Yes, that should work well here."

"Sir.. Reginald Barclay has already thought of that. He and Mr. Spock are working on those arrangements right now." Lt. Yar said from her place by his side.

"Good." Kirk thought ironically. "I think. Feels odd being outsolutioned by others. I must be getting old."

Yar tactfully didn't say anything. "Permission to speak freely sir.."

"Go ahead." Kirk said, "We're all friends here."

"Will the Guardian of Forever and the Traveler be allowed to leave before that self destruct option comes about?" Tasha said.. "Neither of them will be carrying the contagion with them."

Kirk smiled. "I'm sure a matter anti matter explosion of just two ships, ours and theirs, won't have much of an effect on them. The Traveler can just phase out of the way. As for the timegate, remember that it was submersed in that plasma fire in Building Five and it came away unscathed. We have nothing to worry about there." he said as he watched the holodoc and the med techs place Kira and Riker onto antigrav stretchers but strangely, they weren't going to sickbay. He spoke up. "Doctor, shouldn't you be leaving soon?"

The EMH rolled his eyes. "We've just downloaded the logs from Riker and Kira's shuttle. They've direct orders to report to you face to face. I can handle anything complication that might happen to them medically right here." and he cast a hand over the equipement the techs had brought with them.

"Oh." Kirk said. "Then I guess I'll wait right here. Thankyou doctor."

"No problem captain."

Lt. Yar circled the Commdeck, getting her first really good look at the place that wasn't a bridge. "This deck is a lot like an observatory. It's not like any secondary bridge I know."

"That's because it was never meant to be one." came a new voice. HoloZimm appeared with a datapadd for Kirk. "Janeway's surgery is progressing normally. She should be fully human in two hours.." Then the Zimmerman simulcrum turned back to his line of thinking. "The new class Commdeck is a first. Excelsior was the first starship to be fitted with one. It's a combination of part stellar observatory part conference briefing room and it's designed to work and function in tandem with all main bridge systems on deck one."

Kirk glanced around the spacious deck. "No chair. There's no center seat here."

"That's because the captain's place belongs on the bridge, sir.." Holozimm said. "The commdeck is for everyone else who isn't ship's weapons, tactical nor helmsman."

Kirk smiled. "Spock will get a charge out of that. His science station being relegated to the starship equivalent of the basement."

Holozimm's holoface fell. "But science is now closer to the main computer core and the holodeck. Both critical tools for any good science officer. Excelsior's earliest missions proved crisis resolution was increased ten fold through the type of network setup we have here." he said.

Kirk nodded his head noncommitally. ::What happened to face to face conferencing on the bridge? Viewing through vidscreens and combadges seems... impersonal..:: he thought to himself. ::But, who am I to fly in the face of progress. Sulu seems to have adapted to this new kind of starship just fine. I only regret that his pride and joy is now a plague ship.:: "Nnmm." he said pointing a "that's it" finger at Holozimm. "Nice researching son, your "father" would be proud of you. I guess you tore through the data and schematics of this starship even faster than you did everything Starfleet on Earth."

"Oh yes sir.. This is my first starship experience."

"Hopefully, it won't be your last.." Kirk mumbled, checking a railing for dust.. Of course, he found none.

"Pardon sir?"

"Nothing.. Thankyou for the run down, CadetHolozimm."

"Anytime sir.." and the holographic twin of Zimmerman moved updeck to a terminal to help Reg and Spock in sickbay get ready for Kirk and Janeway's awaymission to the Vidiian mothership.

Kirk glanced down at Kira and Riker again, but there was no change. They were still mostly out and moaning. ::That's some mind control Sospiria's got overpowering the cordrazine like that. Why, I remember Bones throwing off me, Spock, Scotty and two security guards under the influence of that stuff.:: Then he decided to help out a little. ::Divide and Conquer, as they say..:: he mused.

He tapped his combadge. =^="Kirk to the Vidiian mother ship. Sospiria. Are you game for a rematch? I say it's round two for the Federation crew, don't you agree? Oh, and I'm coming with Kathryn over there at dawn. Just a price you pay for upping the ante with that second Phagemind." =^=

Sospiria's voice seem to come from all over the ship. ##My pet is dead?##

"Oh yes.. I'd say he's met his final match inside Janeway right about now I should think. She's no longer ill."

##Then I shall take great pleasure in killing you both when you finally arrive. Or maybe.. I should let you both go. A few decades of organ harvesting your own kind should be revenge enough for my needs. And then the insanity aspect will be twice as sweet. Yes. I think that is what I shall do. Come then. You and she. I will have a meal prepared and waiting.## And the comm frequency to the female caretaker was closed.

Kirk sighed. "Now that was easy. Now we know she doesn't really want to kill us."

Lt. Yar said. "She doesn't have to worry. We might do just that for ourselves with that auto self destruct."

Kirk turned to look at her firmly. "Sulu's not a man to squeal with his back to the wall, Lt. Yar. So far, there's no SD order gone out. It's all pure speculation. We may find another way to defeat Sospiria and her Vidiians.."

"Better make it soon.." the EMH said. "The moment anyones sleeps, it's instant puddles remember?" he said, peering closely at the eyes of his patients when he peeled them open to test their reactions to light.

Kirk frowned. "How can I forget?" and he yawned. "Looks like we'll all be glued to a coffee cup until this crisis is over."

HoloZimm studied the carpet. "I'll keep it coming sirs.." and he trudged off to the bevslot on the other side of the Commdeck.

Kirk found himself watching the computer panel light that was attached to the self destruct mechanism. It was still dark. ::Wait longer, Sulu. We're not dead yet. Let the trip to the Vidiian ship reap an advantage first on another try before you make the ultimate call.::

-  
(attachments)

Image: Lt. Yar looking tired, but eager. Close up

Image: Kirk in his green tunic in the center seat signing a report.

Image: The EMH in front of a large stellar view screen.

Image: A sweeping view of Excelsior's Commdeck and crew in it.

******************************

From : "Lotten" .se Subject : Thoughts of home makes your heart ache Date : Tue, 23 Apr 2002 15:38:22 +0200

This post has been translated with the help of a beta reader Theater Host ...to English..

B'Elanna was mapping the Borg Conduit grid from her Engineering station in the little cockpit of the Delta Flyer III, the Bella Mio. B'Elanna and her two man crew had been mapping the grids for about two weeks now. It was not the most fun assignment she had been on since she got back to the Alpha Quadrant, but it had to be done and B'Elanna was one of the few that had the knowledge to work the technology that they were using to map the systems with.

As on any other ship, Flyer or shuttle B'Elanna had been on, there were always engineering troubles and she was the one who fixed them.

But it looked like her name sake Flyer did not want to be in deep space on this assignment. Tom and the rest of the Delta Flyer team had been asked to design four new Flyers from the first prototype that Voyager had in its cargobay when the reached the Alpha Quadrant again. The Delta Flyer Bella Mio was the specialized engineering and astrometrics vessel. It was the perfect Flyer for the mission and B'Elanna had been the one appointed to lead the mission. Now in to the final day on the mission before heading out of the Borg Conduit and back to Headquarters, the Bella Mio had displayed more errors and breaches then ever in its one year since it was commissioned.

B'Elanna herself had fixed four neurogel pack couplings that had been fused in a power overload which had led to a cascade failure in the Inversion Crystal's core. It meant that they now only had impulse power. B'Elanna's tempermental mood had been rising three times the speed of the temperature inside the Flyer, since the last time, when the environmental system was only on forty percent.

B'Elanna cursed the interference that made communication with anything outside the conduit impossible. " I can't believe we've been cooped up in this thing for two weeks! More to the point, I can't believe I accepted to go on this away mission.." grumbled B'Elanna,  
remembering how much she dislike cramped shuttlecrafts.

She was definitely beginning to feel like a caged animal. She had been working double shifts trying to modify the Natrium refiners on the Environmental Systems. She continued to mumble irritatedly to herself, "You came on this mission because you designed the technology that's going to process and map these conduits, who else were they going to send?"

The other officers that had sat, watching her for the past few minutes, had thoughts rushing furiously through their minds. But they dared not say any of them out loud.

B'Elanna glanced at them out of the corner of her eye but they still would not look at her. She wasn't puzzled by their reaction. ::They are probably just as upset.:: she figured. They had been tramping around on each other's feet, for the last two days.::And today, is when all this went against us.:: she thought darkly.

Tensions and frustrations were running high.  
The whole thing was getting a bit too personal for B'Elanna. She was a private person and letting anyone get too close to see her Klingon self, was not easily displayed. She had spent her whole life trying to suppress it. It had only been since she and Tom got married, that she started to accept and care for both sides of her parentage. She did her best to teach and give Miral a positive view of both the Klingon traditions and heritages as well as Earth ones.

" PugqIj..my child..puqmaj...our child, Miral..." smiled B'Elanna as she let the Klingon words slip from her lips. She hadn't heard from them in over a week and she dearly missed her little girl.

The hardest part about staying in Starfleet,  
was the absence she felt, like the one she once had felt in childhood,  
when she was on away missions like this one. Tom and B'Elanna had decided that they were both going to stay in Starfleet.  
The first two years of Miral's life, they had stayed planetside and oversaw the building of the four new Delta Flyers.

They got to work on their pet projects and creating something that had never been done before. ::First in the field to create a new type of shuttle.:: And to be able to create four different specialized flyers was a dream come true to Torres. And three years later,  
they were ready.

The Delta Flyer Kes was the medical Flyer with the topmost of the line of medical technology on board. The Independent, was the cruiser type with long range sensors with the latest in the Science Technologies. The Bella Mio with the minature astrometric lab on board was the faster of the four new Flyers and the "baby" Flyer Lioness, with them, was a search and rescue Flyer, heavily armed, and she had top maneuverability.  
The engineering specs for each Flyer was unique. B'Elanna was very pleased with how they had turned out.

"But today, the Bella Mio is just about the most unwilling participant," she sputtered,  
"Sparing us almost no cooperation on repairing these damaged systems..." She broke off suddenly taken with another thought, one not so passionate with frustration. ::Why do I suddenly feel a nagging ache in the pit of my stomachs when I think about Tom and Miral?:: She had never had this intense longing for her family before. ::Miral and Tom..I can see them before me,..just there:  
she thought with her eyes closed. And memories began to surface..

--------

:: Tom, doing his best to get Miral to say Daddy although he knew full well that at the age of six weeks, it was impossible...... Or the time Miral tried out her teeth really good on her father's thigh. :: B'Elanna laughed softly.

Tom had screamed like a little pig. Miral had left a mark on him that really showed up.  
Tom had said he wanted to keep it but B'Elanna insisted,..."That you take that other woman's bite mark off you" , seeing herself as his one and only "owner." Then they had laughed loud and long.

---------

B'Elanna hastily threw the padds down and moved towards the back of the shuttle to inspect the dilithium reserves. ::Enough of this.:: She thought. ::I have work to do.  
Longing for Tom and Miral and getting lost in memories will not make me rejoin them any faster.:: B'Elanna left her seat and busied herself with needless adjustments to the flyer. This wasn't the reaction she had expected from herself, but in a way, in was just the one she had been hoping for all her life.

She now had a home, and a family that she cared for and they cared for her. She never had to doubt Tom's devotion to her or Miral.  
He was still a bit of a playful boy and would probably be always a kid at heart. ::But he is a wonderful father.. He has really grown since Miral joined our family.:: She chuckled to herself and thought that she had come a long way herself since Miral entered the world.

Miral had brought B'Elanna peace at heart.  
Her life had always seemed like a struggle,  
with frustration and anger, which came from not belonging anywhere. But now, she had a place. A home, a family where she was always wanted and she was loved unconditionally.  
It didn't mean that B'Elanna's Klingon temper had gone into hiding..::I may have mellowed a bit.::

She turned to the crewman at the pilot's station. "Set a course for the first access port. Take us out of here so we can go home,  
ensign. The Flyer is as good as we can get her. We have done all the necessary repairs we can, out of her. Full impulse.."

The young crewman sighed with relief. They were getting out of there, finally.

The three officers resumed their seats at the flyer's controls, running through the data that the sensors had compiled. The ensign said, "Warp engines are intact but offline,  
and the computer matrix has been fused. It doesn't look like we'll be using them anytime soon." he stated glumly. "Hull is intact but compromised with multiple microfissures.  
We should be all right for the time being."

"Our main concern is life support, " countered B'Elanna. "According to these readings,  
we're on minimal power. I can't even transfer any from other systems."

"What if we divert the power from the secondary environmental controls? That should buy us a bit more time.." suggested the young man.

"Hmmm." murmured B'Elanna thoughtfully. "That might just work, but it's going to get hot in here."

"Well, I've always like the warmth," he smiled.  
"It reminds me of home."  
B'Elanna hastily moved to the front of the shuttle where she busied herself with the near useless console. She was going over the communications array again, trying to find something, ANYTHING, that would help them contact Talon. She wanted to get the reports in and make a request to Talon to pick them up.

B'Elanna breathed a quiet sigh, a mixture of relief and regret, and moved away to look over the now incoming messages from Starfleet.

Two personal messages from Tom and Miral.

She was sure however that they would not be able to transmit back due to the electromagnetic interference. But it was still nice to get in touch with the world outside the conduits where it had only been just the three of them.  
She moved into the back to get some privacy and activated the first message from Tom and Miral.

----------------------------

=^=..............=^=...............=^=................

Tom's face appeared on the screen, smiling as he looked back at her in with that famous Fly boy grin.  
" Hi gorgeous, you finally had a minute to spare from those power grids, I hope the mapping is going well. With Seven consulting and laying out the basics, I don't think you wil have any problem,  
and if there is, you are the best one to fix them."  
Tom said lightly from the screen in front of her.  
"Well me and Miral are trying to keep busy,  
we miss you every second of every day. It is not the same when you are not with us but I know you are probably having a great time out there too. Dad was in here yesterday.  
Stayed and had lunch with us.  
Miral tried some Gagh and ended up decorating her grandfather's black head with it. Looked like he had gotten the ugliest type wig ever."  
Tom laughed on the playback just then and B'Elanna had to chuckle too. Admiral Paris dressed in his best and most crisp uniform with a head full of gagh must have been a pretty funny sight.  
Tom continued from the screen.  
" I wish you had been here. It was priceless.  
Anyway you only have 3 days left on the mission and then Miral and I can have you all to ourselves for the next month at least.  
Anyway, the planet is still sleeping. It is not that late yet nor too early. Miral is obsessed with getting 'the trusty companion, Tobie the targ' up right now. Tobie, Miral and me are going to the Viking museum up in Oslo. We are going to learn about something else today other than Klingon Bat'leths..I know Miral loves your stories and just yesterday she was wrestling....." a Mighty targ that had the temper of 20 full battle ready Romulans.  
Poor Tobie the targ who got cast in his fiercesome yet honorable part, got his first battle scar. He needed surgery.  
Lucky for Miral and the targ that her father actually knows a thing or two on medical care.I stitched him up and now he is as good as new.I don't dare imagine what these weeks would have been like for Miral without Tobie. Miral misses you terribly at bed time. I can tell that the great bed time stories, and not even her favorite, "the Arrival of Kuva Magh" will put her to sleep. We are counting the hours and days until you are in our arms."

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

B'Elanna saw the image change on her screen as Tom looked over his shoulder up against the stairs where a little girl was making her way down the few steps.  
"Miral come over her and send your message to mummy, so mum too will have something to look at before bed time." Tom disappeared from her screen for a second and then reappeared with the five year old Miral on his shoulders.

Miral looked straight at the screen like she had done so many times before.  
"Miss my mummy..dad is no good at telling my story. He doesn't do the Klingon any good.  
"SoS Bee (mamma Bea)"

Miral talked slowly in a little voice until she got to the klingon parts then her tone got more serious and she had more fierceness in saying what she wanted to her mother.  
"SoSwIj Roy Duy Sos HIghos tlhIng jIH HeQ"  
(my mother, emissary of peace,Come here, I am klingon, Comply.)"

The message to her mother was there, loud and clear. Though Miral didn't have the whole language and grammar of Klingon yet, she was good at mimicking and putting her phrases together.

B'Elanna felt proud of her daughter. Not just for trying so hard to mimick her mother but for her actually trying on her own. B'Elanna was deeply touched and as she sat there in front of the screen in the Flyer, she felt, for a brief moment, that she was home again. She opened her mouth and the reply she whispered mutely to the air came out slowly.  
"wa puq majQa bang Miral bang royDuy"  
(very good my first child,beloved Miral,the one who is loved, Emissary of peace)

The recorded image of Miral looked back at Tom, and went back to her native tongue.

Torres listened closer to the rest of the playback with tears in her eyes and she heard Miral speak again. " Daddy should we tell mum about the Vikings?.. That they are almost as honorable as the Kingons? ..And that they did have big ships just like Voyager.  
but that theirs did not float in space but were moving on the water?"

::Miral talks very good for her age.:: B'Elanna thought.  
Tom had talked with her from day one, about anything and everything. Sometimes, she even looked like she understood the complex mathematical things Tom had told her when they built the Flyers.  
B'Elanna smiled, she could hear it in Miral's voice how excited she was about the Vikings.

How honorable they had been, was debatable from what B'Elanna could remember. ::They were considered plundered many countries from the west and all over the European continent.:: She opened her eyes again.

Tom looked like he was expecting a good time too with the Vikings.  
" Why don't we do this when mum gets home? She can join us for an afternoon,  
once, in the Viking Museum in Oslo." Tom knew full well that Miral would be ecstatic over getting the opportunity to guide her mother through the Viking wonder she was going to see today. "Yes daddy, can we? "  
Tom nodded and Miral threw her chubby arms around his neck and said. "You are a pig daddy ..just as mum says but I love you. And you are the best dad...and you are mummy's Targ so I guess she has to love you too like I do,  
Tobie!!" she called to her pet who wasn't listening. She stopped and contemplated for a moment...about mum, Pigs vs Targs, and then her thoughts got back to the Vikings.  
" Daddy did the Vikings have targs?" Tom laughed out loud and turned to the recording screen.  
"You see what we have turned her into.  
Everything has to have a pig or a targ in it or with it" Tom laughed.

He loved to tease B'Elanna that every little Klingon girl needed a Tobie, the targ.  
Sometimes to defend their honor in the battles that were done when asleep and also to play with, when awake . It usually led into a chase with Tom chasing B lanna half around the kitchen or sofa and then just as quickly, the game would turn, and B lanna would be chasing a mock frightened Tom until she wrestled him down to the ground and they both would start laughing. And when they were getting into a romantic moment a little "Targ" would press in between them and a little voice demanded. "Kiss Tobie first mummy".

B lana felt all warm inside as the playback wound down. ::It would be good to come home now.:: she thought.

She saw Tom kiss Miral and say that they should hurry so they get a good spot at the Museum. But Miral rustled out of her father's lap and ran out of screen range.  
Tom looked after her and shouted something about getting her jacket. Then he turned back to the Screen again and his fly boy grin once again was plastered over his face.  
" You know that I love you B' lana more then life itself, You and Miral are now best things I have. Don't work too much and come home fast. We miss ya."  
Tom looked once more in the direction of where Miral had disappeared and then back at the screen again. But this time he crept in closer and started whispering to his wife across the distance of the space and time still between them.  
" You know love, If there weren't children running around here, I'd tell you my most recent dreams" he winked with his left eye like the men Tom had watched in the 21st century movies, when they were flirting with some lady.

B'Elanna started muttering. "I'll tell you something about pigs, and just you wait until I get home." she told his recorded image.

Tom called to Miral "Come on honey, come into view and say goodbye to mummy before we have to go."

Miral was there in a flash, dragging her Starfleet jacket behind her. She crept up pretty close to the recorder and said. "Mummy we love ya hurry home"

She then turned to her daddy. She crawled up into Tom's lap and together, Tom and Miral said,"Bye for now.." then in their ordinary and traditional way,"Qapla " and the screen went back to the Federation emblem.

=^=..............=^=...............=^=................

------------------------------------

B lana had never truly had a home until now with Tom and Miral. ::I miss them so much I'd gladly run all the way home if I could.::

She took in the "Home." that she now had and enjoyed the feeling of actually wanting to go back to Earth. But there was still a message from Tom left after the vid send file and this one was only in text.

B lanna opened it.

------

"To Lt. B'Elanna Torres. From Paris.  
...Body as follows...

Our old commanding officers seriously ill. Stop.  
Recall from mission effective immediately. Stop.  
Signed orders for release from current mission,  
signed Admiral Owen Paris.. Stop...

B lanna,... Chakotay and the Captain's condition from contracting a mutated version of the Phage is moving rapidly into a dangerous situation.  
Their only chance might be assistance from you.  
Hurry home Bella, love. Tom. "

-------

B lanna was confused, that her mission had been cancelled and her best friends were seriously ill.  
::Oh how will Tom handle this? Every time the captain got injured severely on Voyager Tom never acted like himself.::

She needed to get home and there, fast.  
"Helm we have received new orders. We are to return to base immediately in best speed possible!"

" Yes maam!" said the ensign. " I will squeeze out the most power I can give you for getting us home..Bella Mio is five hours to Talon.."

And so, B lanna was on her way home, from longing to get home to her family to spend some quality time with her daughter and husband, she now rushed home to her best friend's biobeds.

Hope and helplessness were truly related.

-  
(attachments)

Image: A smiling B'Elanna Torres in closeup.

*animated gif* A spinning UPF symbol in navy.

Image: Tom Paris sitting on the edge of Torres's bedroom bed, both in civvies.

Image: A new style Delta Flyer warping in space.

Image: Tom Paris looking urgent in a vid message lcars frame image.

From :"Clairissa Fox" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] I learn how scary things are Date : Thu, 25 Apr 2002 13:19:46 +0000

I woke up out of Chakotays dreamplace thinking a few things I didnt know before. Captain Janeway makes a really good Klingon warrior. She stabbed that slime face through the middle with that spear and made it squirm! I wished I could do that but the only monsters I could kill were the ones on the hollow deck.

I got up off the floor surprised to see that the other grownups had beaten me out of there. Mooreyarty was over by hollowZimm and they were talking about transporters and how they could lock onto people from a long way away using a piece of metal under their skin. I guess it was almost morning.

I was thirsty so I walked across sickbay over to the food slot and got me some more prune juice.  
It looked like the doctors had a long way to go to make Captain Janeway human again. The red head doctor and the old one were operating on her and taking out all the Borg stuff. I wonder how 7 felt about that. I hoped they could still be friends even though their brains werent stuck together any more.

I stood by where they were doing the icky surgery and watched just like what the counselor and Dr McCoy was doing. But I made sure that I could still see mum, she wasn't awake yet. I guess it took a long time to wake up from getting a new heart put in.

Then I realized that there were three more humans on the ship! I smelled one of them, but he wasnt in the sickbay any longer. I only had to listen a little bit to learn his name. Tom Paris. What a funny name. I remember mum telling me that Paris was a dumb human city by a black metal tower. I got bored after my prune juice was gone so I walked over to where the doctors had put the V'Dmerr on the table to be off the captains stomach and I picked it up. It started purring when I did that but the stupid noise didnt bother me anymore.

I spoke out loud to the hollow doctor while he was making some stitches in Captain Janeways arm where the Borg hand used to be.  
Is the Tribble ok? I dont smell that hes sick any more. How come?

The holographic doctor looked up at Alexander from his surgery and replied cheerfully. "That's because the tiny creature is expecting, Alexander.  
She's going to have kits."

The Vd'Meer is a girl?! That's dumb. She was a boy when I went into the dreamworld.

"Things change, Alexander. Happens sometimes.  
And with tribbles, one never knows. You blink and suddenly there's twice the number sitting in front of you." the EMH quipped.

McCoy grumbled. "Don't I know the truth of that."

I was still confused but I had to get an answer for my next question. I still smell the slimeface bodyweak in everybody. Is my mum ok?

"She's fine, Alexander. That heart's free of the Phage..." the holophysician said evasively. But the boy saw right around the unspoken meaning.

But what about the rest of her? I feel icky so I know its got me somehow and it has her too.  
I said angrily. So what are you going to do about it?

The EMH finished removing an implant from Janeway's shoulder and dropped it into a clear cylinder so the nanoprobes could drain out of it into a collection vial fitted at the bottom.  
"I'm sure it's just a matter of time before Seven can get her immuno nanos ahead of the problem. Vaccines work, but they need a bit to take effect. This is not a cure Alexander,  
because this is a new version of this Phage."

Where did it come from?

"It's origin point came from the......slimeface you saw in Captain Janeway's dreamworld when you all were fighting it for her. Seven only gave nanoprobes that worked against the first Phagemind, which your mother killed. The second brought one that is a little stronger."

I thought about that. But Captain Janeway made it go away. Its dead too because she told it she was going to burn it up in there.

"Yes. But this strain is more virilent. It is changing so rapidly, that even the vaccine Seven of Nine gave you all is having trouble eradicating it."

I got mad. It was dumb for a bodyweak germ to beat anybody. We were bigger than they were.  
Who is doing all this? Who sent the Phagebrains?  
And I took my knife out of my boot.

I saw the dark hair, dark eyed counselor look up when I did that because she thought I didnt know what a sword was. That made me madder yet.

Then Mooreyarty came over to me and picked me up. "Now that is some sword you got there.. It.  
looks like a kitchen cutlery knife. Did you get that from the messhall?"

Yes. When I was hunting the slime faces but Data had already beamed them off. But I havent had a chance to honor it yet. Theres nobody left to kill.

"Well.. that's the job of these people, Alexander.  
To safeguard any civilian crew on board her." the Edwardian hologram said. "At that includes you.  
Now, to answer your question. Sospiria sent the both the Phage disease and the Phageminds to bother us. She's a powerful adversary who blames Captain Janeway for something she didn't do."

Well why didnt Sospeeria just smell what was true?

"She wasn't there at the time." Moriarty replied.  
"Now run along. I'll come get you when your mother is awake. And don't worry about the humans.  
They...have a tendency of turning the upper hand just when you think they might be down." he admitted.  
The double meaning was lost on the Klingon boy.

Alexander rebooted his knife. Ok. Im going to go down and talk to the Traveler and the Big Donut.  
Can I go there?

"Only if the security guards say it's all right."  
the EMH said firmly. "You know how these red alerts go."

I know. Ok. Ill go ask them. I said petting the V'DMeer.  
It took just a bit to find out from the computer where the gate thing was in the ship cargobay.

It was big in there and the guards gave me no trouble. I guess it was because I had on a sword.  
That was cool.

I walked over to where the Traveler was standing while it talked to the Big Donut. It was glowing but there was no picture in its middle. I wondered what was happening so I said so.

The Traveler noticed the boy and the Tribble approaching from where he sat, cross legged in front of the Guardian of Forever. "I'm not sure I can answer all of your questions today Alexander.  
For I haven't been anywhere before where a caretaker has interfered with Nature."

Do you mean you havent seen these Phagebrains bodyweak anywhere else?

"That's right, Alexander. Sospiria has preverted the natural way illnesses are in this system by creating one that has intelligence. But now it is simply a plague enhanced through Sospiria's unnatural genetic manipulation." the tall time visitor said.

I didnt get all the big words but I knew the purple man was upset. So why dont you fix it?

"I can't interfere." the Traveler said, casting a graceful hand at the Guardian. "And neither can this gateway. We must remain neutral since this isn't our native solar system."

But Sospeeria is making bodyweaks that dont follow the rules.

"I know. But we wont let her end this ship.  
Or this crew without due cause. We are investigating Sospiria's claims."

That scared me. Was the Traveler some kind of judge?  
If he was like a Queue then I had good reason to be scared. I got out of there by backing up really quietly and nodded to the guards as I past by the big doors.

I decided to go back to mum and make her get up.

The doctors were all done with Captain Janeways surgery to make her human again and 7 got all of her Borg making nanoprobes back again from the vial. I went to the pile of stuff on the floor around Captain Janeways bed and took up the green eye piece that used to be in her head. I put it over my eye and leaned over mums bed.  
"Hey..mum.. Boo!!"

-  
(attachments)

Image: Alexander Rashenko in a med shot.

Image: A picture of the doctor's holoemitter.

Image: A Borged Janeway with a blue laser.

**********************************

From : "Cory Anda" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Tiny Steps... Date : Fri, 26 Apr 2002 02:53:23 +0000

Reginald Barclay handed HoloZimm a small device. "This should do it. I've programmed the recall device to be effective up to two light years even through the Vidiian vessel's cloak. There's no way we'll lose a transporter lock on the Captains after they've beamed on board her."

Moriarty took the tiny tweezers from Barclay and peered at the spidery looking device with wonder. "So this tiny bit made of metal has a very large voice. Will wonders never cease?" he sighed. Then he handed it back to Reg who carefully placed it back next to its mate onto the gray foam inside a round petris dish.

Reg smiled. "Only seems like a wonder. There's years of hard work we've put into technology like that. Ironically, the reason we've come up with the universal transporter lock chip is because of you Moriarty.."

The Victorian hologram looked surprised. "Oh? How so?"

Barclay said, "W-Well. That time when you held the Enterprise D at bay and the bridge officers prisoner inside the holodeck showed a weakness inherent in the Galaxy class systems; a holodeck and characters could hold living people prisoner. Your, forgive me sir..hostile actions then, directly led to the research that culminated into the chips you see here. Starfleet wasn't about to get another report of a starship captain being held prisoner on their own ship."

"So the fact of my existence HAS had an impact on your world.." Moriarty said.

His tone was neutral but it caused Barclay to shiver. "Uh, another reason was, for a time, we lost personnel inside the holodeck. There was one case where Geordi LaForge had a medical emergency going on. You see, it seemed he was evolving into a sensor invisible lifeform.."

"That's fascinating Lt. Barclay. But, I should be off to give these to the doctors now shan't I?" Moriarty said jauntily.

His cheerful air only made Reginald Barclay nervous. ::Am I the only one who gets the shivers around a hologram with a history of homicidal tendencies?:: "Quite, right Professor, You-- You do that.." And Reg was quite glad to see the hologram leave his side.

Mr. Spock had missed nothing from where he was running sensor scans from the science terminal he had rigged up in sickbay. Already, the Phage had created weeping sores on his hands but the Ambassador showed no outward signs of discomfort or disability. "It only takes a second to deactivate all independent holoprograms on board Excelsior, Lt. She's fitted with a universal failsafe device."

Barclay's eyes got wide when he saw the green staining Mr. Spock's sleeves. "Sir! You're bleeding.." Reg shouted. That made all three doctors lift their heads in alarm but Spock made a very human gesture to them to show his continued functionality with the Phage by shrugging both his shoulders as he looked at the sores on his skin. "I am not yet impaired. These lesions are only superficial. Please remain calm, Mr. Barclay or you'll alarm the crew around you unnecessarily.."

"But..but.." Reg sputtered, his face going white.

Spock went on, "If my wounds disturb you, I shall cover them. Please hand me those lab gloves, lt."

Reg numbly did so. As soon as the Vidiian pustules were out of sight, Barclay seemed to snap out of his nervous quirk and he sagged against his console. "I do so hate alien invasions. Especially the microbial kind."

"May I remind you, lt, that this disease isn't instantly fatal. It can be offset with transplants and grafts to replace the rotting portions.." Spock said blandly.

Barclay closed his eyes queasily.."Please sir.. don't be so...descriptive.. My imagination running wild is bad enough.."

"So others tell me.." Spock said. Then he looked about the room. No one else had lesions or weepy patches yet evident, despite the signs of the Phage on all their bioscans. "It is only I who is at this later stage. It may be, because I'm a middle aged Vulcan hybrid."

Barclay's eyes bugged out, "Sir you are not old. And and ...and you are certainly NOT weak..."

"The facts state simply how things are, lt. A truth that is obvious to all. I have no hidden emotional reservations about my advancing condition, Mr. Barclay. And neither should you."

Reg animatedly nodded, pursing his lips as he agreed, finally, with Mr. Spock's logic. He glanced at Seven who had been half paying attention to their conversation.

Next to Reg and Mr. Spock at the next work station, Seven of Nine had made significant progress on her next batch of Borg enhanced Vidiian vaccine. :: I may be close to another solution to buy my shipmates time with their infections until Sospiria and her diseases can be neutralized.::

Reg watched Moriarty carry the petris dish over to the EMH before turning back to the analysis of the Vidiian ship's schematics which Spock had forwarded to his screen.

-------------

"My good doctor, the ambassador and the good lieutenant asked me to give these to you. They are the away mission devices you've asked for.." Moriarty told his fellow hologram.

The EMH looked up from where he was scanning the results of his surgery on the sleeping Janeway. He took the dish and set it onto a table which he positioned near her. "Thankyou Moriarty. I'll get these in place momentarily."he beamed at the ex holo villian. "You see? Cooperating with people works so much better than trying to dominate them."

Moriarty looked askance at the EMH and replied while rubbing his unreal nose, "Sospiria doesn't seem to be failing at all in her agenda. I wouldn't be too hasty on that vote just yet doctor..." and he smiled.

The accomodating grin wiped off holodoc's face.

Moriarty busied himself with holding the Klingon boy a little higher so his efforts at "scaring" his mother awake, would work better. "There you go my boy. Now you're right over her face... Give it another go..."

-----------------------------------------------------

Inside the vision quest, Janeway was almost asleep on the beach. Her link to her anesthetized self in sickbay was a very tenuous one but eventually, she gleaned the truth of things. Her skin tingled, her real one. "I think they've finished. I no longer feel like I need to grab a case of Calamine lotion.."

"Stopped itching?" Chakotay said as he put out the fire. The spirit world was showing morning just beginning to break over their lake. "That's good. And just in time. That was fast surgery.. I think our holodoc's improving on his own deBorging time record. It's almost dawn."

"Hmm." Janeway said, rising. "Well this is one showdown I'd rather not have, Chakotay. Sospiria is no small matter, in spite of her physical size.. I'm almost wishing I still had the Borg implants just for security's sake."

Her ex first officer's face glimmered in the first orange glow of dawn in the spirit forest, and the new light made his white buffalo skin shift turn rosy. "You don't have to go over there." he said solemnly serious. "I can do that for you."

"Don't be ridiculous Chakotay." Janeway told him no nonsense. "She might kill anyone else going in my place." And she held up an admonishing finger. "And don't tell me that first officers are expendable. Cause you're not."

That brought an ironic smirk to his lips that lit up his whole face. "So you heard my.." and he studied the ground. "...little hint.."

"What..." It was Janeway's turn to smile. "You mean that tiny, almost whispered one about us..?" And she laughed, tilting her head when he looked away self consciously embarrassed.

Kathryn tilted her head even lower then so she could still see his eyes but she didn't touch him, respecting his privacy at least some what. "I'd be deluding myself if I thought our twelve year relationship as friends couldn't progress into something more.. Lord knows I've wanted throw those hints out myself. I'm surprised that it took until now for me to finally see the ones you tossed into the air too. Didn't know we were so double blind, Chakotay.. Did you?"

He shook his head, as he indicated that they should move out to the ship/forest boundary to leave the vision quest for their return back to sickbay. Finally, he took the hand she offered him and they began to walk. They didn't say anything for some minutes until Chakotay felt it was necessary to fill the silence just to end the emotion threatening to burst him to pieces. "Can I be totally honest with you, Kathryn?"

"Shoot." she said, intently watching his eyes. "Like you mean it."

Chakotay swallowed, then let out the thought around his dry lips."You know, I think the way I feel about you is probably what caused Seven and I to...."

"Drift apart...?" Janeway finished."I sincerely hope that's not true Chakotay. I could never cause Seven pain. She's almost like a daughter to me."

Immediately, the light air of humor returned for both of them, easily and fresh.

"Oh." Chakotay said mock serious. "So you think I robbed the cradle with her. Way to make me feel old Kathryn "She's good for you, so go." Janeway."

Kathryn smiled hugely. "I said that on the ship because I saw the same light in both your eyes, Chakotay. Love can't be denied. And there was no way in Hades I was going to stand in the way of that. Quit making me out as the heavy. I was looking out for your own best interests." Then her face shifted into an amused grimace, "You mean, I'm actually beginning to beat out a twenty six year old? Amazing.."

Chakotay had to laugh as he helped her over a log that marked the crossing from the pine needles of Chakotay's world to the plated decking of the scene Alexander had left behind. "You, me and Seven, it was never a ....a... competition. I hate ideas like that." he said. Then he began to chuckled again at a private thought. "What's with you women.." he chuckled.

Janeway bounced on her toes as she walked. "It's those dimples.. You can get any of us, same as heavy phaser stun, just by smiling more than halfway." and she stopped until he almost ran into her. "Oh, I get it. That's why you never smiled all the way on Voyager. You knew full well the strength of that secret weapon of yours."

"Kathryn..." Chakotay complained. "This is just the face my Creator has given me. It's simply, the way I am.."

"And chalk up brownie points for charm and modesty too to go along with those dimples. Face it, Chakotay, you are a lady killer." she teased. "Glad I've been friends with you this long so now I can enjoy them the way they were meant to be enjoyed. As Cupid's arrows.. straight to the heart.. Pow.."

"Kathryn.." he complained louder. "Slow down." and he meant more than just the rapid pace she was returning to where they entered the vision quest from sickbay. "You're making me uncomfortable.."

"Sometimes growth hurts Chakotay, but I I think we're both experienced enough to know this kind of discomfort is a good one. Not pushing for physical romance here. That's cheap. I'm just entertaining what could be for us, beyond that, my dearest friend. Just getting the lay of the land to see what might be in store for us for the future."

"Let's wait to see if we'll even have a future together, Kathryn." He thought of the massive Vidiian ship somewhere outside and the disease running rampant inside of his own body. "One step at a time.."

"Just one a day.." Janeway promised, slipping her hand into his as she grew nervous about facing Sospiria.

And they both stopped taking their steps when the full sun of Earth blinded them from the vision's viewscreen making both shield their eyes painfully from the glare.

It was morning. For real this time.

Their soft, quiet night of discovery was over.

-  
(attachments)

Image : Spock at board.

*animated gif*: Janeway and Chakotay, spinning in a coin.

Image : Janeway and Chak linked arms and laughing.

Image: The Vidiian ship clamped to Excelsior's hull.

Image: The EMH talking to Barclay.

**********************************

From : "Lotten" .se Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Brainstorming Date : Fri, 26 Apr 2002 20:32:28 +0200

Tom had made it to his temporary quarters onboard Excelsior. They were still within reach of the medical bay. It looked like the quarantine zone had been expanded. Luckily for Tom, he had not crossed out over the line of it.

In his haste to get to sickbay, he had not fully thought of the consequences of crossing into the quarantine zone.  
But in the long run, it wouldn't matter.  
If no cure was found fast, his friends would be dead; and others would soon follow.  
::In a way, this is so typical of me,  
Tom thought to himself. ::I rush into things and then I have to bail myself out or someone gets to do it for me.::, he concluded wryly. But he still didn't regret going into the room where Janeway and Chakotay were resting in. When it came to his friends or family, he just had to do something; anything. And more often that something became anything that most sane people would not have done. He just hoped B lana would fogive his foolishness this time.

There were many things going on at the same time on board Excelsior. The medical department was a busy place on any ship, but here there were lots of things happening all the time. Tom had heard something about a Klingon ambassador getting a new heart. The doctors that had performed it were all the best among what Starfleet had to offer; Beverly Crusher was one of them. Tom had yet to meet her, but there were not many that had had any medical training who didn't know of her.

Tom wondered what she might do if he were to pass along his idea about B elana having a possible cure within herself.  
::Well, it wouldn't hurt to pass the idea on to as many as possible.::, Tom decided.  
Maybe he should enlist the help of the EMH.  
The doc was someone that had most of the knowledge, since he was the one who had cured B lana the first time.

Oh, and he needed to contact his father again about enlisting the help of the Pathfinder Project to track down Dr. Denara Pel of the Delta quadrant. It would have been good to get Reginald Barclay's help, but he was a busy man these days; with what exactly Tom had no idea.

There was something going on betwen Sospiria and the Vidiians. They were the ones who created this type of modified phage. It would feel really great to just let B lana go at them with her bat'leth.

Tom sat down at the comm station in his quarters. The messages to all involved had to be sent out and he also had to get Admiral Paris'  
approval. Dad said that he would back him up all the way.

------------------------------------

Communication to:

EMH of Voyager 7 of 9 of Voyager Dr. Beverly Crusher of the U.S.S. Enterprise D Admiral Owen Paris, Starfleet Headquarters Lt. Reginald Barclay of Pathfinder Project

From: Lt. Tom Paris

...Body as follows...

While learning of the modified phage infecting Captain Kathryn Janeway,  
Comander Chakotay and the other newly infected ones, I have taken the initiative to form a Brainstorming Group, under the command of Admiral Owen Paris. He will sign your orders. The brainstorming group is to come together in a mutual mission for a cure. My theory at this time is this: Lt. B lana Torres might hold the cure within her. B'Elanna's unique DNA structure could hold the cure for THIS version of the Phage. I theorize that grafts of B'Elanna's unique hybrid cell structure could bond with Chakotay and the Captain's and hold together indefinitely after DNA resequencing.  
And, there is more to speak of. B lana was also infected by the Caretaker himself in a search for a possible mate. As a result of this, she could have a higher degree of resistence to the phage. For details and Lt. Torres' medical records,  
contact the EMH. He will also be able to supply you with in depth detail of the inventive procedures used in the Delta Quadrant. Since this is a somewhat modified Delta Quadrant sickness, I request any help available from the Pathfinder Project in locating a Pel. has aided the Federation, namely Voyager, before and is one of the best Delta Quadrant doctors Voyager encountered. She already is very familiar with the original phage,and would most likely be able to help us out.

I know that this is a somewhat unusual way to go about things, but we do not have time for long-winded Starfleet procedures in this matter. Feel free to enlist and pass along this communique to anyone you think might be helpful in aiding us in the search for a cure to the Phage.

I have established a comm server that will re-route your message to the persons on the list. The brainstorming group will be based in the Excelsior's medical bay. I also have a feeling that valuable information about strengthening the immune system of humans found in the discoveries that the EMH on Voyager discovered after two crewmembers evolved when a Warp Ten mission went wrong.

Any information that can shed light on finding a cure is worth looking into. I know I have Starfleet's best minds working together on this and I am sure we will prevail. If you encounter any problems, contact Admiral Owen Paris. I will also be available if you should need me.

...end of communication...

Lt. Tom Paris

-------------------------------------------------

Tom was glad the message had been sent.  
He was beginning to feel a bit disoriented himself, and knew that it was probably the first signs of him becoming sick himself. Once again, he had done something that might backfire on him. ::Well, at least I did the best that I could do. I only hope that B lana can help and that she will forgive me. Miral is safe with her grandfather, and is probably having the time of her life.:: Tom thought to himself. She had been so excited when Tom had dropped her off before heading off to the Excelsior.

His father had assured his son that Miral would be safe, and he would take great care of her. Owen had promised Miral that she could even accompany him to work if she wanted to; saying he needed to have an aide. Miral had been so proud when she got her own combage and heard her grandfather formally proclaim her as his aide.  
The combage was a good idea. If they should become separated, the Admiral would easily find Miral.

Tom's head was beginning to throb and the dizziness had not gone away. A message appeared on his comm panel, and a text file was re-routed from his father to him.  
It was from Talon, and that meant it had to be coming from his wife. Tom's mind drifted to his wife's beautiful face. ::She is so beautiful. I just love her Klingon ridges on her forehead. They are so smooth to touch.:: Tom's thoughts drifted dreamily to her. She intrigued him and he loved how fascinating she could be.

She had completed him and had given him peace within himself. He remembered the screw up he had been before he had met B lana. She, like Captain Janeway,  
had pushed him into becoming something more than the screw up that he was at the time. B lana had made him want to be a better person, so he would be worthy of her attention. He had worked hard in the beginning to charm her; to get her to smile at him, to let him in. It had not been easy. Belana has been hurt many times and had learned fast not to let anyone in or to trust.

Through the hard times, they both learned a thing or two from the other and they grew closer together. B lana was just not his wife or the mother of his child, she was his best friend. He loved the times they talked and spent time working on the flyers.  
She was brilliant and intelligent and while working side by side, they became a strong team.

Tom was momentarily lost in his memories,  
until he snapped back and looked down at the terminal again.

Tom opened the message.

------

"To Paris. From Lt.B'Elanna Torres.  
...Body as follows...

We just reached Talon. We received orders to rendezvous with the Excelsior. Time to arrival is now 3 hours. Have received no information about Chakotay and the Captain's conditions. How did they contract this mutated version of the Phage, and how am I supposed to be of any assistance to them? The mission to map the conduits was already finished when we received your message. I am on my way home.

Tom take good care of yourself and Miral.  
Love, Bella.

-------

The dizziness was getting worse. Tom needed to get to sickbay. "Well, so much for taking care of myself." Tom said outloud to the empty room.  
At least he knew that Miral was safe and sound.  
He hoped that would be a comfort to B lana when she arrived. ::And, if I am lucky, I will be unconscious by then and won't have to face her fury.:: he thought to himself. He knew full well that B lana would have a thing or two to say to him about him walking right into a quarantine zone.  
Well, he had done it and now he had to face up to the music as he had done so many times before.  
::Better get to sickbay or I will pass out here and no one will find me.::, he thought grimly.

Tom went out into the corridor and headed to sickbay, where he had recently been when he had seen Janeway and Chakotay. He had just stumbled through the door and saw Seven working at the far end. He was about to call out to her when the dizziness overwhelmed him. He collapsed and fell hard onto Seven,  
who just barely caught him in time. People had seen him stumble in and were now coming to his rescue. Tom's last thought before his world went dark was ::At least I have given it my best.::

-  
(attachments)

Image: B'Elanna about to kiss Tom in a shuttle.

Image: B'Elanna beaming at Tom in a close up.

Image: Tom watching his wife, Torres.

Image: Paris looking ill in civvie clothes.

Gif: A Voyager combadge .

*  
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 11:49:07 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: [voyagerliveaction]Interplay Among Friends

He (Tom Paris) was about to call out to her when the dizziness overwhelmed him. He collapsed and fell hard onto Seven, who just barely caught him in time. People had seen him stumble in and were now coming to his rescue. Tom's last thought before his world went dark was ::At least I have giv en it my best.::

Seven of Nine eased Tom carefully on to the deck as she saw the EMH come over. McCoy and Dr. Crusher were still monitoring Janeway's recovery from anesthesia but they weren't beyond watching this new emergency as their colleague knelt by the helmsman.

"Tom? Can you hear me?" said the EMH as he felt for a neckpulse on his old ship mate. It was there but very rapid. He glanced up at Seven of Nine.  
And he picked up a Vidiian analyzer from a nearby console and pointed it at Tom's chest.

Seven grabbed his arm in a firm grip.  
"Doctor. Take it easy with that thing."

The EMH shrugged and simply phased out his arm so he could continue what he was doing. "What better way to measure the Phage's progress in a victim than using a device especially designed to do so. I know how these work. And I won't accidently hit the stun setting.." he said dryly.  
"Ah,.. seems Mr. Paris has a sensitivity to the disease.. He'll need to harvest a new stomach before too long. Lucky we have a Vidiian organ bank floating over head." he said sarcastically. "Of all the idiotic things to do. Storming onto a plague ship just because one feels loyal to an old crew. Sometimes, Seven, I think we all should have never split up after Voyager made it back home."

Seven sighed as she and the doctor lifted Tom onto a biobed and he switched on the lifesign monitor. "We had no choice in the matter, doctor. It was Starfleet who sought to disband the crew and give the ship to someone else. How could they know the experience of being lost had strengthened and not weakened us all? I remember your protests to the admirals five year ago concerning the same matter very clearly.."

But the EMH was studying the readings on the overhead. Tom's initial Phage fever was beginning to climb. "Work your magic,  
Seven. I've been watching you augment your vaccine nanoprobes. Are they ready yet for Round Two?"

"I am only partially prepared, doctor. I want to make sure this set doesn't turn anyone else into a Borg as they did Captain Janeway." Seven said. "I'll give him the original vaccine in a few moments. I am ...calling some back into existence now."  
and she closed her eyes.

Right then, the EMH looked up as the computer sent a message hard copy from its communications relay to his program.  
"Huh. That's odd."

"What doctor?" Seven of Nine asked. "Is his condition worsening?" she said, eyes snapping open again.

"No, Seven. He's stable. Just out cold. My vernacular was for this..." and he leaned over to a side wall panel and called up the letter Tom wrote to him a few minutes before. "Tom just sent this to me. Strange.  
I am right here. Why didn't he tell me this when he first came barging in here to deliver a pep talk to Captain Janeway? And a copy of this is addressed to you, Seven. It outlines contacting Denara Pel through Project Pathfinder. Barclay received a message too." The holodoctor pursed his lips. "Tom must have been more delirious than his readings show here because he thought Reg was still at the Project and not here, on board ship."

"Is he in any danger? Captain Janeway will not enjoy seeing her helmsman lying in a coma.." Seven said with a snort.

The EMH sighed. "He's fine. He'd be even better if you gave him the same edge you've given everyone else against this Phage.  
Inject him with your first batch of nanos.  
It may slow the worst of his symptoms until either you or I come up with a better solution."

"But he may become assimilated.."

The EMH rolled his eyes. "You're forgetting,  
Seven, Captain Janeway only fell prey to your nanoprobes original directive because a Phagemind was fighting them. There are no Phageminds left to interfere with the process. You may proceed." he said,  
passing a hand over Tom's still form on the bed. The holodoc turned Tom's head to the side, exposing his neck to Seven's hand.

Seven shrugged and shot out her assimilation tubes until they buried themselves in Tom's neck. A moment later and her vaccine delivery was complete. "I am finished." she announced.

Together, they watched Tom's high fever recede and his vitals climb away from shocky levels. But he still remained unconscious.

Nonetheless, the EMH smiled. "There. That should stave off the worst nasties of the Phage so Tom can work effectively with us when he chooses to awaken on his own.  
It seems humans react badly to the initial onslaught of the disease in both forms. I'm glad you're around Seven. You can help them over the hurdles with your nanoprobes.  
Would you mind zapping Kira and Riker, too,  
next time you see them? I left them on the Commdeck so Kirk could have his little meeting with them par their orders.."

"I shall attend to it, doctor. But one thing puzzles me. Tom didn't leave very far outside of sickbay when he left here a few minutes ago. I wonder why?"

The EMH wasn't stumped there. "He mistakenly thought only portions of Excelsior were infected. Such as this entire deck..." he said,  
holding up his hands. "He had no way of knowing that Data spread spores everywhere when he scraped the Vidiians off our hull with that decompression stunt in the shuttlebay."

"I see.." Seven looked down at Tom's sweaty face and withdrew her tubes from his skin.  
"Speaking of old crew loyalty. We may get our answer on another matter as well doctor."

"Seven, I'm afraid I don't follow you.." the EMH replied as he set Tom on some light oxygen through the medical arm over his torso.

"You're forgetting about the mystery surrounding K'Ehleyr's heart. With Tom here, B'Elanna, if she's still alive, will be here shortly. I've found bonds of marriage among old crew to be the most powerful of all." Seven said.

The EMH smiled warmly at Seven, deep in thought. "Yes. I hadn't thought of that. I'll cancel my carbon dating of the organ a bit to see if your little theory comes true.."  
the doctor returned back to Janeway's bed with Seven following. He lifted a tricorder and scanned her vitals as he said. "As to Tom's written suggestion of Torres having a complete cure for Sospiria's brand of Phage, I'm all too eager to investigate.."

Seven of Nine needed no further encouragement and she said. "I'll start scanning for Talon's arrival from the Borg Conduit immediately. After I've innoculated Kira and Riker."

"Good girl.." the holodoctor said as he handed Dr. Crusher and McCoy his scans on Tom.

Behind them, Tom slumbered on, his vital signs slowly returning to the low end of infected normal.  
::He could awaken any time.:: the EMH thought to himself. ::I won't have to worry about him, at least, not medically anyway..::

Seven of Nine left sickbay to go to the Commdeck.  
On sickbay's main viewer, all three doctors over Janeway's bed saw Seven deliver her vaccine to the Colonel and Commander, where they lay on stretchers before Kirk and Data. Then they saw Seven of Nine nod at James Kirk after briefly filling him in on Tom and Janeway's condition and about the helmsman's theory concerning Torres and the Brainstorming briefing to secure Delnara Pel through Project Pathfinder. The EMH only hoped Starfleet would give yanking another person through the Guardian of Forever a go..

Seven returned to sickbay.

A groan drew the EMH's attention and he leaned down over Kathryn as she came out of her anesthesia. At the foot of her bed, Chakotay was also uncurling from his vision quest trance and getting to his feet. The commander soon was next to her and the three doctors when she opened her eyes.

"Easy, captain." the EMH said. "Implant removal involved extensive invasion into your body tissues.  
You're bound to be a little dizzy for a few moments."

Janeway groaned again. "I'm fine. I just tingle a little."

Chakotay smiled but the doctor decided to not pry into the reason why. ::No doubt, there's been another emotional revelation in there..:: the EMH thought sarcastically.

Dr. Crusher lifted the head of Janeway's biobed and handed her a glass of water. "Interesting procedure." and she threw a few fingers over to the pile of Borg accoutriments on the floor.  
"There must be nine kilos of metal and titanium implants lying there. Must be a relief to be free of them captain."

Janeway chuckled."You don't know the half of it."  
then her smile left her face when she noticed who was on the other side of the room. "Doctors.  
why didn't you tell me?.. That's Tom Paris over there..!" she said angrily and she slid off the bed too quickly.

Chakotay grabbed her arm as a wave of dizziness ruled her for a second. He had just noticed his old friend's arrival too but he wasn't about to let it show that it bothered him that Tom had exposed himself to danger by coming to Excelsior. "Captain.. There must be a good reason why he's come here. So don't mother hen him until you have all the answers."

The EMH took her other arm and the two of them lifted her back to sit on the bed firmly. "If you're a patient patient, I'll share with you what I know...." he said to her.

Janeway made a snatch for the datapadd the doctor was holding.

"Ah, ah ah.. First, a promise.. Ten minutes eating before you and Captain Kirk go dashing off to Sospiria's little dinner party.. "

Janeway frowned. Then she nodded.

"What do you want, Kathryn?" Chakotay said.  
He was already by the replicator.

"Anything.. " she sighed impatiently. "How about a sandwich and..."

"Coffee... I know.." he said teasingly.

At her first sip and bite, the holodoc finally let her have the datapadd with Tom's letter, his orders and his initial medical scan.

Janeway looked up wiping crumbs off of her mouth. "He really thinks B'Elanna's alive?"

"There's no doubt. The context of his letter to me makes it seem like he's been in regular contact with his family."

Janeway turned thoughtfully and looked at Ambassador K'Ehleyr's bed. "Then who's heart does she have?"

"Your original suggestion captain.." said Beverly Crusher. "It's a clone. I've just confirmed it." and she held up a small device she had passed over K'Ehleyr's chest. "This heart is a first generation copy ...of the original.." and she smiled.

"That's a relief.." Janeway sighed.  
"But where's Torres? I don't see her here."

"Charging in like a bat out of h*ll on her science vessel, the Talon.." the EMH told Chakotay and Janeway and he pointed to the tactical Data was feeding them on their viewscreen. It showed a small vessel moving through a newly made map of the Borg conduit network. "Seems B'Elanna's made her map and is its first urgent user.  
Looks like she's three days away, captain."

Janeway frowned. "I don't want her on board doctor. She's a mother.. I can't just let her infect herself like.."

"As if you're going to stop her.." the EMH chided. "B'Elanna knows the risks better than anyone can. Even if she doesn't remember that a cure may lie in her genetic structure."

Janeway shoved her now empty plate to oneside. "So how am I doing?" and she held her hands out wide.

The holophysician scanned her carefully.  
"Fine." he said reluctantly. "That food's returned your blood sugar to normal.  
And there's something you should know captain. Eradicating that Phagemind from your consciousness has cured you of both strains of the Phage.. You and the tribble and K'Ehleyr's new heart, are the only living sources on board registering as Phage free."

"Is this significant, doctor? I guess Seven's nanoprobes are starting to do their job if I'm cured.."

The EMH cast his eyes downward before he looked up again. "That's just it captain.  
They aren't holding their own anymore. Seven's having trouble finding the right nano configuration for this second type of disease. Her first batch, only eases the worst symptoms.. You should know that our new arrivals, Tom Paris, Colonel Kira and Commander Riker are now boosted with them, but they are just as ill as the rest of Excelsior's crew."

"We've more breaking into our quarantine?"  
Janeway said no nonsense.

Chakotay checked his records. "They've orders, Kathryn to be here. They're legit.. Check your padd."

Janeway did so. Her mouth set in a firm line.  
"I never like brash headedness and it looks like more and more are jumping on the bandwagon."

Chakotay said, "You should feel honored.  
Starfleet doesn't want to lose this ship or any of us.. They could have ordered us and the Vidiian vessel destroyed."

"That's true.." Janeway said. "I guess I'll just have to bite my lip and count my blessings. All right, Chakotay. I won't dress down any of them when they awaken. I've no business doing so. But you're going to have to hold me back when B'Elanna gets here. She's opening a chance for Miral to grow up parentless and that, I can't stand."

The Voyager captain knew enough about medscans to know that Tom Paris was stable and newly pulled out of a strong fever. "Will he awaken soon? I thought I heard him talking earlier."

"You did." said the EMH. "He was giving you a reversal of your famous pep talks. And quite a nice one, too."

"You eavesdropped on him doctor?"  
Janeway said.

"No. no. no. no.. I....merely am speculating on its effectiveness because soon after,  
your vitals improved enough so we could start your surgery."

"Well I'll be darned.. I should have a talk with Mr. Paris soon as he's on his feet."  
Janeway mused. Then she turned to her first officer. "Chakotay, inform Kirk that I'm ready to go."

"Kathryn.."

"No buts, Chakotay. I'm sure the others have come up with a way to keep tabs on me and him when we're beamed over there.." Janeway said.

Sure enough, the EMH gripped her arm and inserted a small chip painlessly into the inner flesh of her forearm. "They have.." and he handed the dermal insertion device to her. "Fit Kirk with his when you see him."

Janeway grimaced rubbing her arm, "And I thought I just got rid of them all..." she said of the implant.

The EMH quipped , "Well this one won't make your hair fall out.."

Janeway subconsciously felt her own head.

"Don't worry.. I grew it all back.." the doctor said. "If anything. It's longer than it was before. Like you had it your second year on Voyager.

Sure enough, Janeway felt a soft fall of hair billowing around her shoulders. She fitted it up into a pony tail and Beverly clipped it for her with a clip she had replicated. She laughed, "Feeling inadequate with your own baldness doctor that you can't stand it in your patients?"

"Something like that.." he said.

A commotion over on the other side of sickbay drew Janeway's attention. She saw Moriarty lifting Alexander up over his mother's bed. Then she noticed that the tiny boy had her old occular implant shoved against his own face like a monicle as he made Borg sounding noises to frighten his mother into wakefulness.  
"Are you sure those things are safe for him to play with doctor?" she asked.

"Oh, yes, quite. I made sure I drained the nanoprobes back out of them before throwing them into the pile.." he said.  
"Speaking of which.. Seven.. do you wish to reclaim these? More templates for your vaccine development attempts.."

Seven intercepted his large beaker holding the milling pool of nanoprobes that he held out to her and she lifted it to her lips and opened her mouth. The river of assimilation nanos flowed inside Seven and back into her blood stream.

Janeway and Chakotay winced but Janeway joked, "Those taste any good?" she said with a look of teasing disgust on her face.

"Captain?" Seven said in puzzlement.

"Never mind.. Doctors.. am I free to go?"  
she asked McCoy, Crusher and the holodoc.  
She tossed the dermal device up in the air and caught it again to prove her full awareness to them.

All three nodded.

"Then make yourself busy and get K'Ehleyr on her feet. No doubt we'll need an ambassador once Project Pathfinder locates Denara Pel. I'm heading off to the Commdeck to meet Kira and Riker with Kirk. Chakotay,  
you stay here and oversee things. Meet B'Elanna directly and soften the blow about Tom being sick. No doubt Torres will find a shortcut through that dead Borg conduit to get here..."

"Aye, captain.." he smiled and he watched Captain Janeway get up off the biobed and head down to Commdeck Five.

He soon saw her onscreen, kneeling by the two fallen new visitors on the deck and talking quietly with Kirk about their away mission to come in a few minutes.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Janeway, Chakotay and the EMH all talking in sickbay.

Image: Tom, down on the deck, under a Vidiian analyzer device.

Image: Seven and the EMH side by side.

*****************************

From : "patti keiper" Subject : And then there were.....seven! Date : Sun, 28 Apr 2002 19:19:45 +0000

Moriarty busied himself with holding the Klingon boy a little higher so his efforts at "scaring" his mother awake, would work better. "There you go my boy. Now you're right over her face... Give it another go..."

"Arrrgghhhh!!! You will be assimilaatteeedddd!!" came the eerie child's Borglike voice.

K'Ehleyr opened an eye and saw immediate hologram green of a Borg optical implant. Her hands shot up and grabbed the assailant's neck expecting thick muscle but only met her own fingers around the other side. ::Alexander?:: She quickly reduced her grip's strength as her bleary brain registered his scent in her nostrils. "uugh...." she gasped as she fought the anesthesia. Then came her son's laughter at her reaction. That made K'Ehleyr mad, and instant full awareness returned. "Alexander Worf Rashenko of the House of Moug, You know better than to stimulate a Klingon's blood fever directly from sleep! I could have snapped your spine..."

"You're not Klingon. You're only half.." Bones McCoy quipped. "Let the boy have his fun. Rise and shine. My, aren't you the tardy one for getting up.. Janeway's body work is done and so's rewiring Chakotay's peepers. Up!" K'Ehleyr jerked upright, releasing Alexander's collar when a monitor bleeped, and started showing the end stages of symbiosis on the part of the Phage to her own DNA. McCoy grunted when a particular finding startled him. "Nurse, double check that reading.. Looks like that heart transplant's Phage free in a Phage filled body. I want to know why.." he ordered K'Ehleyr started to lean back over but Alexander gave her hand a pull until she was sitting up again. "Hey.. snap out of it. Surgery's over." and McCoy injected her with a light Henaline hypo.

The last traces of drowiness left K'Ehleyr and she peeked down her patient gown at her chest. "Good you left a scar. I deserve to wear that one. Did I succeed?"

"Succeed how? Destroying a perfectly good heart or killing the Phagemind?" Bones said offering her a glass of water non verbally.

She shook her head at the offer. K'Ehleyr just stared obviously at the older doctor.

"Oh, oh. oh. Yes. You killed it. But Sospiria had another one.."

"What?!" K'Ehleyr said, "We must stop it. It's energies are powerful. It will overwhelm a full human."

"Relax, ambassador. The final host this time was Janeway and we all know that its impossible to overwhelm her mentally once she sets her mind to something. Anyway, it bellied up and that second Phagemind is dead. But it's left a calling card."

K'Ehleyr focused deep in her own senses and felt a bodyweak there and smelled the same illness in her son. "Everyone's infected with the Phage again."

McCoy looked surprised. "How'd you know that?"

"I'm clairvoyant. Look. I appreciate if you'd give me my uniform back. I need to get caught up with things as soon as possible. " Then she paused on the edge of her bed, listening. "Nice choice on the heart doctor. It's a young one."

Bones blinked. "That came with a nasty potential price ambassador. See that blond young man lying fevered over there?"

"Yes.."

"That's Janeway's old helmsman, Tom Paris. And for a while there. It may have been his wife who was also Janeway's old engineer's heart you've got in there.." he said tapping her breastbone. "But luckily, it's been positively scanned with clone characteristics.."

"Lucky him." K'Ehleyr smiled faintly in her usual quiet manner. "And her.." she smirked. Then she lost herself in a hug with Alexander and let him nestle the very fat tribble in between them. A musky scent arose from the tiny animal. The ambassador looked up, and cradled the pregnant Tribble whose trill faded into regular grunting chirps. "Doctor..." she grinned. "It's time. I don't think your shift is over just yet.." And she held out the laboring Tribble to the older doctor.

"Jumpin Jehosiphat! Stupid computer system. Didn't flag us down when she went into final labor.. Give me her.." and he gently set the tiny soon to be mother on a biobed and dimmed the lights. Alexander built a nest of silver sheeting around the creature and leaned in, watching her and stroking her until her normal purring began. Bones scanned the Tribble's middle gently. "Yep. Five in there and whoops, one out here, raring to go.." and he lifted a newborn baby into a sterile towel and dried it free of birth fluid.

Its new higher trill began to chirp in tandem with its mother's and all the people in sickbay began to unwind at the magical sound. Bones plunked the newborn Tribble, who was white with black spots, on Tom's stomach for lack of a warm place to store the baby while he helped the mother finish delivering.

In his sleep, Tom Paris smiled when the baby reacted to his presence by purring. A hand nestled around the baby subconsciously.

McCoy grinned. "Fine. Janeway's helmsman can be incubator for at least another of these little guys.. Here, Alexander, you take the next one.." and he set a rusty little one, now towel dry, in the tiny boy's hands. "Go put him in Tom's other hand to keep it warm."

Alexander did so.

Bones tried to hand off newborn number three to the Klingon ambassador but she declined so Deanna Troi took the next two and Dr. Crusher the two following. Soon, each new baby was sleeping in someone's palm and getting stroked.

Beverly Crusher said. "That was fast.. About.." and she looked at her chronometer. "Two minutes?"

McCoy smiled as he cleaned up the mother Tribble. "Yep. Faster than rabbits. And the little ones won't need to nurse either. They're fully independent at birth." He handed the Tribble mom to Alexander. "There you go. Don't jar her until she's done eating. Go get her about a cup of oats. And no MORE than that Alexander.." he shouted after the eager lad. "Or we'll be up to our eyeballs in another litter before the week is out.."

"Aye sir.." Alexander said. "But what about the babies?"

McCoy said. "They've their mother's lunch under their fur in a sac. They're fine for the next 48 hours. Now go play.." and he gave the boy's back a little shove.

Cooing Tribble and mimicking Alexander left the three doctors in peace.

Then Bones turned back to K'Ehleyr, "You were saying?"

The ambassador blinked a few times and said, "Would you believe I've forgotten what I've just said?" and she smiled wanly.

"That's all right. I'll go take a look at Mr. Paris over here..Excuse me." Bones said and he sidled past the tall elegant Klingon hybrid to the other biobed.

K'Ehleyr gave a smug smile as she thought about the ease McCoy's tribble had in having her babies and thought. ::Some species have all the luck.::

And another thought struck her mind as well. The newborn tribble kits were Phage free. ::Now I wonder if the human doctor noticed that little detail. Perhaps a cure lies there, too.::

Then the scene of Janeway, Kirk crouching over Kira and Riker on the sickbay viewer drew her attention away. And she made for the door. She called out as she walked. "Doctor.. You have a shipwide progress report?"

McCoy tossed her a datapadd, identical to the one Janeway received holding both Tom's letter, his medical condition and a ship's log of the last five hours. K'Ehleyr had read and memorized it all by the time she reached Commdeck.

-------------------------------------------

"Captains. Still going through with it?" K'Ehleyr said to Kirk and Janeway when she reached the upper deck of Commdeck Five. Kira and Riker were still not awake on their stretchers. And the EMH had zapped in to recheck their medical statuses.

Janeway replied. "It's not like we have a choice. I've just fitted Captain Kirk with a subdermal transponder, Reginald's idea. That way, there will be a continuous transporter lock on the two of us through subspace even if Sospiria raises the Vidiian's cloak back up again. And before you wave your ambassadorial credentials at me. No. You're not going. This isn't exactly a first contact situation. I've bumped heads with Sospiria before and the only way to survive with your skin intact is to play the game her way. Don't worry, we'll find something to neutralize her. Barclay and Spock are working on an idea to use Excelsior's tractor beams to push the mothership back into the Borg conduit hub where she'll be pulled into her home turf, the Delta Quadrant."

"Have they made any progress?" K'Ehleyr asked.

"Don't know.. My head's still a little fuzzy. I'm just up out of surgery."

"I know the feeling.." the ambassador sighed. "My son decided to trick or treat me and I almost strangled him."

"Did he survive?" Janeway smirked.

"Oh yes, his neck was too small for my hands to grip and then I became awake enough to hold back." she admitted. Then she noticed something. "Your hair's a little longer, isn't it?"

"Yes. The doctor took some liberties as a barber. It's a quirk of his since his programmer didn't give him much hair up top."

"I like it better.. Maybe you'll get yourself a mate a little faster that way.." K'Ehleyr said with an equal amused smile.. "I know Worf liked my hair long that way."

Janeway frowned. "Hmmm. " ::Does everybody think I'm gonna be an old maid here?:: "Thanks for the compliment. I'll keep that in mind." then the Voyager captain turned to the EMH as she watched Kira and Riker's faces for signs of wakefulness. She saw that they were both half out and twitching. "Sospiria still got them?"

The EMH nodded. "And making their Phage fever rise. Looks like she's trying to get another bargaining chip." he said with a scowl.

Janeway gave an order. "Open a channel to the Vidiians.."

"Channel open captain." came a young man's voice to her left.

=^=Sospiria.. I'm not going anywhere until you've stopped your attack on the Colonel and Commander here. I don't bargain with people who like torturing their victims..=^=

The female caretaker came online on Commdecks overhead viewer. "Why captain. I'm touched you even called before coming over. Oh, did I forget to turn something off? Forgive me.. Here.." and she blinked.

Immediately, Kira and Riker stopped writhing and sagged.

The EMH had to hastily inject them with some more cordrazine to keep them from falling into unconsciousness. "Hey.. not so fast.. do you want to melt them down??" he said to Sospiria..

"Sounds like what your Sulu wants to do with me and mine, doctor. An antimatter/ matter meltdown in that quaint little self destruct device of yours.. I see his finger poised over the red button.." she snarled, moving closer into the image pickup.

Janeway held up her hands. "That is a last resort. We can't breach this close to Earth." ::Lie, Kathryn. Yes, lie about it.:: she told herself. ::Get on less shaky ground.:: "Sulu's just leaving his options open if our negotiation should fail. It'll take at least ten seconds of us pulling you out past Pluto before that could happen."

"What negotiation captain? You defiled my mate's remains. And so I will defile your living ones.. With my Phage.. You've managed to save yourself from that trial, how ignoble. But your being healthy to witness the ravages of the disease in your own people will be revenge enough for me. I don't have to take any further action against you that way. I return Kira and Riker's minds, to you.. Oh, and feel free to come onboard for that dinner. I've a feast prepared for you and your counterpart." she said, pointing to Kirk.

And with that, Riker and Kira began to stir..

-  
(attachments)

Image: K'Ehleyr and Worf in full Klingon gear sitting in Enterprise D bridge seats.

Image: McCoy standing by a life panel with a bioscanner smiling like a banshee.

Image: Sospiria, the female caretaker, looking mad.

*animated gif* Tribble, multiplying rapidly.. Heh. :)

*  
From :"Katherine Bird" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Innocence Lost; A Chance Gained. Date :Mon, 29 Apr 2002 07:01:19 +0100

Tandem post between "Cassidy Meyers"  
killashandrarey and "Katherine Bird"  
via email tennis match....

Characters involved:

MAINS

Christine Chapel Lieutenant Uhura Deanna Troi Beverly Crusher

FREE USE

HoloZimm Chakotay

Deanna Troi sat carefully on a sickbay stool,  
a tribble infant in each hand and held them in her lap, making soft humming noises as she felt her body heat warm the tiny creatures through her skin. Every so often, a wet cough punctuated her soft melody when the Phage illness intruded.

HoloZimm was across the room, a somber look on his holographic face as he witnessed this small act of kindness and nurturing from her.

Troi noticed his expression even if she didn't sense any emotion in him clearly. "HoloZimm?"  
she called out.

A myriad of emotion, selfconsciousness,  
embarrassement, shyness, and a fake confidence all marched through Holozimm until he couldn't deny that he was being spoken to. "Yes, counselor?"

Troi got up and moved her tiny sleeping bundles of fur with her, to a chair in the medical office, near where the Cadet holo was working. "Are you feeling all right?" she asked.

Holozimm studied his fingers, looking down and cleared non existent air out of his throat.  
"I- I should be asking the same of you,  
Counselor Troi.. I mean... Look..at yourself."  
and he gestured.

Puzzled, Troi looked down and saw nothing but a few ulcers on the backs of her hands.  
Nothing that hadn't been there an hour ago.  
Then she realized that he MEANT her illness and what it was doing to her. "You mean emotionwise? Fine.. Or do you mean physically?" She watched his unreal face pinch and thought. ::Bingo. Now I've seen this before. Data was once here at this particular crossroads. The issue of mortality.  
No wonder his manner seemed so familiar to me.:: But she said nothing and waited for the sentient hologram to address her once again.

In nervous agitation, HoloZimm reached and attempted a clumsy stroking of one of the tribble babies, but he withdrew before he even made tactile contact.

"Here.." she said, "Cup your hands.."  
And she smiled when HoloZimm did.  
"Now, just hold still. I'm going to give you this darling little baby..."

Holozimm started a protest vigorously shaking his head. "But I'm not alive.. It'll sense that.  
No, counselor.. I don't want it.!"

Chakotay looked up at HoloZimm's statement but Troi made a subtle gesture with a nod and the commander returned to his monitoring the Commdeck.

"It's all right HoloZimm. He won't bite. And to answer your ridiculous statement. Yes.  
You are alive.." Deanna said.  
She watched as Holozimm showed signs of fear as the baby nestled in his holohands but the tiny creature continued to purr its contented sound. "See? Doesn't matter to the tribble whether or not you are flesh and blood. Only that you are nurturing it."

"But its so tiny.." HoloZimm said.

Troi smiled, throwing an invite with a shoulder to Beverly Crusher to join them and Uhura and Christine with her.. "Yes, new life is often times that way, but its strong, right from the start.. That's it.. now try petting his topfur.. Right there.."

HoloZimm held his non existent breath and gingerly did so. The baby tribble's purring only got louder.

Beverly spoke up as Christine and Uhura laced their elbows together on a medical counter and watched the proceedings. "It likes you, HoloZimm. You're a natural.."

It was the wrong thing to say. The delighted smile left HoloZimm's face and he gave the tribble back to Troi instantly. "But I'm nothing of the sort doctor. I am not "natural". I am the sum of three hundred thousand gigahertz of holo programming stuffed into a series of tactile light beams, tractors and visual images created by people," and he cast his eyes at the tiny infant back in Deanna's palm,.."who start life by being born."  
he concluded.

Uhura immediately understood HoloZimm's unexplained angst, "HoloZimm, You don't have to be biological to be a "better" life form. Why, just look at the EMH or Moriarty.."  
she said passionately.

HoloZimm's features grew strongly bitter.  
"They were created in starship concepts,  
both of them, already inherently perfect for their suited environment.  
Whereas I was not. I was....simply made. A plain generalized, run of the mill holoman. I'm only made to LOOK like that genius Lewis Zimmerman."

Christine regarded the month old hologram thoughtfully. "You don't have to be planned out to serve a purpose.. Do you think we did?  
No.. we're all in careers we've chosen for ourselves by our designs.. Not someone else's."

HoloZimm rose and started pacing, once again he attracted Chakotay's attention. This time, the rugged Commander set his monitoring on computer prompt and leaned in on the conversation, just listening for the moment.

"That's not it Nurse.. I..." he stopped as he thought about what he wanted to say.  
"I am here with all of you. I can do just about any function this Ship may require of me because I am an offshoot of the computer. But still, I am being set apart."

Uhura frowned, not understanding.

Then Beverly held up both her arms so that her sleeves of her lab coat fell away to show her sores. "I think I know what HoloZimm's getting at. We're all sick and he's not.."

"Right.." Holozimm said. "I am supposedly part of this crew trapped inside this quarantine and yet, I am still set apart. I have no wounds like yours. I cannot give birth like the tribble just did and I cannot ever ever die. How can that be? I am destined to be ageless and yet, I suffer inside. It's not fair..When I look at you...and think of what might happen to you all....."

Deanna handed her two tribble infants to Christine who accepted the transfer and took over the gentle humming to soothe the tiny things so they wouldn't be disturbed by the emotional conversation buzzing around them. Then she took both HoloZimms' unmarred created hands into her own, sore ridden ones.  
"Holozimm, you are reaching another critical stage of sentience in your awareness. I wish Data were here because he's been in your very shoes that you find yourself in right now.  
You are finally feeling empathy for others.  
And when that moment comes, it can be the most painful lesson one can learn about existence. The fact that other life around you might not live as long as you. Just look at these tribble infants.. They live about one standard year, and that's all. I remember the first time I learned that fact.. I mean really felt it in my way of thinking.  
And it hurt, because it made me think of my OWN mortality."

Beverly Crusher sighed, "It's true Holozimm,  
everyone faces this damning philosophy sometime in their lives, so have we all."  
she said, spreading her arms wide.  
"It's nothing to be ashamed of feeling pain when that moment comes.."

"And I think that moment has come for you HoloZimm." Deanna said gently.

Something extraordinary happened to the holoman who looked both like a Starship EMH and a retired Starfleet research scientist. He began to weep real tears out of his artificial eyes. "But you all are so terribly invaded by that horrible plague. Your skin is rotting away and still, still, you sang to that infant tribble as if nothing was wrong.. How can y--"  
and his voice modulation failed for a bit.  
"How can you do that? I don't understand.."

Uhura came and sat by the bald hologram and wrapped her warm human arms around him. "It's because we've learned how precious life can be. Each day is something to take joy out of, in spite of the bumps life can bring.  
Like this crazy Phage of the female caretaker's.  
As long as we remember that. There is no pain,  
and never can be."

----------------------------------------------

Chakotay was moved inside by many things during those moments the women were consoling the hologram. The birth of the surprise tribble brood, HoloZimm's charming innocence and the warm glow he was still feeling as he realized a long time lady friend was now a new potential soulmate.  
::Uhura's right about feeling no pain..:: and he studied his own wounds on his arms under his grey turtleneck. A chill made him retrieve his jacket off the back of a chair where McCoy had hung it while Chakotay was in trance with Janeway battling the second Phagemind.

Then a call came through from Excelsior's bridge for general call, all eyes clearance.  
=^=Orders hereby granted for retrieval of Delta Quadrant objective using the Guardian of Forever signed,....senior admiralty.=^=

The Commander's throat leaped. ::Denara Pel. Project Pathfinder must have contacted her via the Hirogen Communications Array.  
She's been found.::

"Now you'll see what it's like to win the fight for your life HoloZimm. There's nothing sweeter than knowing you are going to live for another day.."

Chakotay sent his ident manually to confirm his receiving the comm message from Headquarters and he saw each crew wearing combadges doing the same thing and he began to wonder when she would appear. ::I guess that depends on how far away she is from the Hirogen Communications net and the Borg Conduit B'Elanna has mapped out.::

"I can wait as long as it takes for slim chance we can be cured. Pain indeed. Makes you appreciate the tinier things.." he whispered to himself.

And he reached over to cradle a pure white baby into the crook of his elbow while he worked,  
allowing himself to be soothed by the light purring being gifted to him for his attentions.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Troi, the HoloZimm and Barclay sitting on a couch.

Image: Large pic of Uhura looking somber.

Image: The EMH and Holozimm side by side.

Image: Troi looking sad.

Image: Chakotay looking down from his seat.

Gif: A space design horizontal bar with a sun.

*************************************

END WEEK FOURTEEN RECAP 04-29-02

WEEK FIFTEEN RECAP 04-29-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Hub.

**************************************

From : "Fran Catrair" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] A Touch of Gray Date : Mon, 29 Apr 2002 13:19:13 -0500

Will felt a strange sensation come over him. He felt like he was floating.  
::Am I dead?:: he thought to himself.  
He was puzzled. The last thing he remembered was being in the shuttle with Kira, and then the ship feeling like it was being tractor beamed somewhere.

Slowly opening his eyes, he noticed;  
nothingness. The area all around him was gray, yet there wasn't anything describable there. No shapes. No colors. No sounds. Just emptiness.

He tried to speak. Nothing happened.  
::What's going on?:: he thought wonderingly.

## I HAVE BROUGHT YOU HERE, HUMAN. THIS IS MY WORLD. ##

This became the feminine voice he had heard earlier onboard the shuttle. ::I guess she can read thoughts.:: he ventured.

## VERY ASTUTE OF YOU, HUMAN. YOU PICK UP ON THINGS WELL. IF ALL HUMANS ARE THIS 'INTELLIGENT', I THINK YOU ARE TRULY DOOMED TO FAILURE. ## the voice replied sarcastically.

Will noticed her tone had changed; he noted the hatred now eminating from her.  
As he was about to 'reply' to her observation, he noted he was no longer alone.

---------------------------------------------

Kira felt a floating sensation come over her. She had been in the shuttle.  
Something had happened, and now she was stuck in this; this land of limbo.

::Just what I get, for wanting to have some adventure.:: Kira thought to herself grimly. She could hear Benjamin's voice now, telling her she should have been careful. ::Serves me right, for charging into situations. You figure I would have learned my lesson by now:  
she finished, smiling inwardly at herself.

Soon, she noticed she the area around her. It was gray, for as far as she could see. Yet, she really couldn't say she saw anything for a distance.  
It was more of a void. It kind of reminded her of the area inside of the wormhole outside of DS9.

Soon, she was able to make out Will Riker, who somehow 'materialized'  
across from her. As soon as she saw him, she realized she was in the middle of a conversation.

::Look, I know of a way to help you.  
I know a woman onboard the Excelsior.  
She is a counselor; part Betazed by race. Whatever has caused you this hatred, she can ease it for you:  
Wil implored her.

## PATHETIC HUMAN! CAN'T YOU SEE I DON'T WANT TO BE HELPED? CERTAINLY NOT BY THE LIKES OF YOU! CAPTAIN JANEWAY, A HUMAN, CAUSED ME THIS PAIN! I WILL VISIT ONTO HER THE SUFFERING OF HER KIND, JUST LIKE MY SUFFERING WHEN SHE KILLED MY MATE! #  
Sospira, concluded, a large pair of eyes came through the gray, glowing like bright embers through the haze.

Kira shuddered. ::Who is this woman?:: she thought to herself. ::Boy, does she have problems.::

## HOW DARE YOU JUDGE ME, BAJORAN! I KNOW ALL...AND I SEE ALL! YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS TO QUESTION WHO I AM, OR THE PAIN I AM IN,  
ALL BECAUSE OF THE LIKES OF YOU! ##

Will quickly directed a thought over at Kira. :: She can read our thoughts. Be careful about what you think, Kira.::

Kira numbly nodded at the Commander. She tried to clear her mind, just like she had been taught as a young girl.

Janeway's voice cut through some deep part of their awareness over a combadge.  
=^=Sospiria.. I'm not going anywhere until you've stopped your attack on the Colonel and Commander here. I don't bargain with people who like torturing their victims..=^=

## AH, JANEWAY HAS DECIDED TO COME VISIT ME AT LAST. SINCE SHE INSISTS I CEASE MY 'FUN' WITH YOU, I GUESS I WILL LET YOU GO FOR NOW. HOWEVER,  
I AM PLEASED TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU ARE BOTH INFECTED WITH THE PHAGE I HAVE INFLICTED ON THE OTHERS. MAY YOU SUFFER PAIN LIKE MY MATE DID! ##

She went on... verbally delivering a parting shot at the Voyager captain.  
I don't have to take any further action against you that way. I return Kira and Riker's minds, to you.. Oh, and feel free to come onboard for that dinner. I've a feast prepared for you and your counterpart." she said, pointing to Kirk.

And with that, Riker and Kira began to stir..

Will felt himself coming around slowly. He thrilled at the sensation of feeling his limbs again. ::It's also nice to have my thoughts to myself again. Almost like being around Deanna.:: he thought humorously to himself.  
He began slowly shaking his head from side to side and stretched, like a cat coming out of slumber.

As he opened his eyes, he noticed people standing around him, and Kira in a circle.  
Kira was less than an arm's length away from him. He noticed she was stirring as well.

Licking his lips, he looked around him and asked, somewhat hoarsely, "Um, did we miss something here?" He quickly looked down again. Yes, he did have clothes on.

Smiling weakly at the others, he at last noticed The captains standing above him,  
looking at him anxiously. "Commander Will Riker reporting in, sirs." he smiled weakly at them.

Kira was stirring at the same time as Will. She heard him speaking, and felt as confused as he was.

"Would somebody mind telling me what the h#ll is going on here?" she asked, attempting to sit up.

Several people gently, but insistently, pushed her down. It was then she noticed the captains in the circle. ::Oops.:: she thought. ::Not necessarily the best way to make a first impression.:: she concluded grimly.

"Captain Kirk?" she noted the handsome man standing near her feet, looking at them both with concern. "Nice to meet you, sir. I'm Colonel Kira Nerys, Ambassador of Bajor. I came to offer assistance, but I'm afraid that we're in the same boat you all are." she concluded, smiling weakly at him.

Kirk looked at the newly waken arrivals.  
He opened his mouth to speak.

-------------------------------------------------

(attachments)

Image: Riker on a biobed with bandaids on his face.

Image: Riker standing in a dim bridge.

Image: Kira lying unconscious on carpet.

Image: Kira looking worried in a hazy glow.

Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 11:12:47 -0700 (PDT) From: "Myron Ojala" Subject: See Evil, Hear Evil and kick them right in the ***

Montgomery Scott looked up from the computer screen that he had been working on for the last twenty minutes since K'Ehleyr had awakened.

Scotty's analysis of Janeway's discarded pile of Borg implants on the floor revealed that many of the enhanced sensors could still be made functional despite their lack of Borg nanoprobes.  
::I wonder what happened to all the wee beasties.::

He theorized that he could adapt their designs to boost existing capabilities in the doctors' medical tricorders and bioprobes. ::If I can do that I can possibly help the doctor find a cure for the Phage. :: Scotty wondered just how far that Vidiian doctor was at the moment for whom everyone was waiting. ::Among other things.::

Scotty thought back to his initial infection of the Phage with a shudder. An idea formed in his mind. ::I wonder if these implants could be adapted for use with a hologram? If either HoloZimm or Moriarty could be outfitted with the ability to move around the Vidiian ship without being detected,  
they could insure that the ship's cloak could not be reactivated by Sospiria. I could then be certain that our tractor beam would be able to maintain a lock on the Vidiian ship when we attempt to push her through the Borg Conduit.::

Scotty looked up from his work station in sickbay and gazed over at Moriarty and called him over.  
"Moriarty, would you come over here for a moment,  
lad."

"Certainly Mr. Scott. " said the holographic Englishman.  
He was observing the newborn tribbles with extreme fascination. He turned and walked over to the Starfleet Engineer. "Do you have a problem?"

"Well, laddie, I'm just working on a few things that might help us out. " and he pointed to the discarded pile of Borg implants. "I was just figuring out if they could be used by non organic lifeforms."

In a near Vulcan like manner, Professor Moriarty raised his eyebrow. "Hologram assimilation? An interesting idea.."

"Exactly. These devices could upgrade your tactile sensors enough to enable you to be a veritable undetectable walking tricorder."

Moriarty said, "An interesting idea Mr. Scott, certainly, but what would be the purpose for such enhancements? he asked.

Scotty rubbed his chin and smiled. "Well, lad,  
what would you think of the idea of you and Cadet Holozimm taking a wee stroll on board the Vidiian ship before Janeway and Kirk have to keep that Caretaker lassie dinnerdate?  
Tell me, uh, have you ever seen the inside of a cloaking device before?"

Moriarty put on a puzzled face and replied,  
"No Mr. Scott but I have heard mention of them in the unclassified files in the computer here.. but I would be most interested in examining one first hand."

Scotty smiled at that and said, "I thought you might at that.." and he chuckled. "And here's what I have in mind.."

------------------------------------------

Captain Janeway watched Kira and Riker regain consciousness and she listened intently while they related their confusion about where they were. "Nice to finally meet you two. Doctor. What are their conditions?"

The EMH looked up from his medical tricorder,  
"Well judging from their recent demon possession by Sospiria, I have to conclude that she has been fully exorcised, for now at least. They are fit to go."  
He concluded as he snapped shut his tricorder.

"Thankyou, doctor. " Janeway said. "Now, Commander I've a few tactics I'd like to discuss with you..."  
she said to Riker.. and motioning Kira forward to join them.

The EMH immediately started clearing his throat.

"What is it doctor?" Janeway asked.

"Are you going to offer your new guests something to drink?"

"Doctor, we're in the middle of an emergency situation. Kirk and I are about to beam aboard a hostile vessel in a few minutes. I hardly think that---"

"There's ALWAYs time for coffee, captain.." the EMH said.

Janeway laughed at that retort. She raised her eyebrows in inquiry to Riker and Kira. They smiled but both shook their heads. "See?" she said to the the EMH. "I didn't think they wanted any." She turned to the newly awakened officers and continued, "I was hoping to personally bring you up to speed but there isn't time.. I'm sure our medical staff can do a more than adequate job in that regard. They'll let you know the symptoms of the Phage you may experience in the next few hours. Sorry you took the risk and got infected but we can use all the help we can get at this point. Sospiria is not a small problem.."

Suddenly Janeway's combadge chirped and she heard a familiar Scottish brogue. "Scott to Captain Janeway."

She tapped a reply saying "This is Janeway.  
Go ahead. What can I do for you?"

She could hear Scotty positively smiling over the commline. "It's not what YOU can do for ME, captain. But what we can do for YOU."

Janeway was perplexed, "Who's we, Mr. Scott?"

And that moment, two shimmers appeared before all on the Commdeck. They solidified into two familiar holographic individuals.  
Although Janeway immediately recognized them both as Professor Moriarty and the Cadet looking like Dr. Zimmerman, she was struck by their apparent differences. ::Holograms can't be assimilated by Borg, what has that crazy Scotsman done now?::

Moriarty stood before her in his regular black gentleman's attire, yet, over one eye, he wore a Borg implant with as much casualness as a nautical captain with his monicle. And a thin wire wrapped around from it to two twin servos on top of his head which looked like Borg antennae twisting around as they scanned the scenery around them.

Kirk interjected, "He looks like a mechanized Andorian.."

Janeway's mouth flopped open. She shifted her gaze to HoloZimm and said into her open commline to Scott, "Don't tell me you modelled Holozimm after the Ferengi.."

"I did at that, lassie..' Scotty's voice said proudly.

Janeway saw that HoloZimm had one machine arm and two huge dish shaped radars on either side of his head. ::Now HE looks like a walking Swiss army knife. But I wonder what those enhancements are for?:: Out loud she asked Scotty. "Mr. Scott, this is....uh, interesting.  
But I fail to see why you've performed plastic surgery on our two holoshipmates here."

Scotty said, "I'd like you to meet your two stealthy OO7's , captain. Moriarty is gonna be our eyes and Holozimm our ears after that infernal Cloaking device to make sure it stays inoperative when it comes time for the bridge to give that blasted Vidiian ship the boot.."

Riker started to smile but Kira was still out there in left field. But Janeway was beaming from ear to ear. "Well done,  
Mr. Scott. I assume you're sending them over in our place, aren't you?"

"Exactly, captain." Scotty's voice said, "They'll make sure that the cloaking device is put out of action for good so we can spin a nice fastball on the mothership with our tractor beam. Those attributes I've given them will find it right off.  
We'll only have seconds to make sure Sospiria's on a one way trip back to the Delta Quadrant."

Moriarty and Holozimm faded out as they were sent away.

"They're on their way now, Captain.  
And as holograms they won't be detected.  
Should be only moments for them to disable that cloak."

"Janeway to Chakotay. We've got fire in the hole. Thanks to Mr. Scott.  
Brace everyone down there. Sulu's tractor is about to lock on to start pushing.."

Chakotay's voice said, "Captain, How..??"

Janeway said, "Let's just say we've come to the point where push isn't going to come to shove."

The moment came, the image of the mothership on the viewer flashed as a small explosion in her belly signalled the destruction of the cloaking device.

Janeway heard a loud Gaelic cheer over her combadge as Scotty witnessed the same sight down in sickbay.

Seconds later they all felt Excelsior shudder as Sulu made quick work using the tractor beam to ensnare the Vidiian vessel and fling it deeply into the Borg Conduit and out of sight.

Janeway comm'd Scotty, "Did you get them back, Mr. Scott."

There was a pause for long moments that seemed longer than it actually was.  
"Aye. Captain, They both came through just fine. I have them on the holodeck having their ears bobbed."

Janeway heard Chakotay speak up urgently "Kathryn! Situation report."

"Relax, everything's ok. The mothership is long gone. She's probably half way back to the Delta Quadrant by now.."

Then a horrible thought crossed her mind.  
"Oh, no. I've forgotten B'Elanna's ship ,  
the Talon is still inside the Conduit. If she meets that ship being back tossed the other way...."

--------------------------

Down in the cargobay, The Traveler held out his hand to a new arrival just coming through the Guardian of Forever.

The Traveler said, "You've arrived just in time Denara Pel. The situation is grave and many on the ship already have the Phage lesions and fever.. Come this way. I'll take you to sickbay."

The newcomer sighed gently. "Thank you.  
Yes. But can you tell if Schmolis is on board..?"

"Who?" said the gentle tall being.

"Voyager's holo physician, the EMH. We have a lot of catching up to do." She smiled as she patted her extended belly large with child. "I'd like my baby to finally meet his father.."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Scotty grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Image: Denara Pel, Vidiian doctor scientist.

Image: A Starship uses its tractor in an asteroid field.

**********************************

Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 11:41:00 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: The Changes Over Time

Seven of Nine let go of the railing a few moments after Excelsior's tractor ceased laboring to push the much larger Vidiian mothership into the mouth of the dying Borg Conduit. ::That was a clever use of Borg technology.:: She thought about Mr. Scott using HoloZimm and Moriarty to take out the cloaking device. ::Not many know that Borg implants work equally effectively with machine and holograms as well as they do living bipeds. I will congratulate him when I get back to sickbay.::

The exBorg woman studied her monitor on the progress of Torres's science vessel still showing as moving through the "out"  
side of the Conduit. ::I'm glad I told Starfleet that a ship over 50,000 megatons entering any Borg slipstream will be sent to the Delta Quadrant and not allowed access back to where it came if travelled without shields.:: "And that mothership was definitely massive enough and totally unprepared for our defensive tractor. She didn't have time to raise her shields."

Next to her, Data looked up from his work station. "Yes? Is there something you require?"

Seven came back to the present, "Commander?  
Oh. I was just.....thinking to myself. It is a relief to know that this crew is free of the Vidiian invader threat."

Data angled his head and his emotion chip gave him a small smile. "That is a relief.  
The stress levels will be lower in the crew and in the higher ranking officers to know that the female caretaker is rendered ineffective. Now they can concentrate on fighting the Phage within their systems."

Seven nodded seeing Janeway and Captain Kirk standing around Commander Riker and Colonel Kira by the upper deck. It seemed they were being acquainted with the tactical display of the map B'Elanna had forwarded to Excelsior of the conduit. A complex maze of slipstreams leading to all parts of the galaxy wove around inside its network. She saw that many, many of them were dark and nonfunctional, having died off following the death of the Borg Queen City destroyed by Admiral Janeway. Only one Starfleet blip in blue was showing up. A shielded ship. ::That is the Talon. B'Elanna Torres's research vessel. The Vidiian mothership is already off the map and out of ever reaching striking range. The damage to her hull from the slipstream energies will make her un flightworthy perhaps permanently.::

Then she felt a wave of dizziness go through her. She closed her eyes and willed her immuno nanoprobes to work a little harder to dispel the worst of her symptoms. ::Don't pass out. Or you'll be rendered into liquid, just like the Vidiian invaders did in sickbay.:: Just then,  
a soft chime drew her attention away from how bad she was feeling. She spoke to attract Data's attention. "It's Denara Pel.  
She's arrived in the cargobay. Finally..." she said as she secured her station and moved to the captains analyzing the tactical screen. Data went with her.

"Captain Janeway. The Guardian has emitted Dr. Denara Pel. She is showing as being with the Traveler moving through the corridors leading to our Commdeck and..." she stopped,  
frowning at a biosign echo in the woman's signature. Then she blinked.. "And she's not alone.. She appears to be.....expecting.."

That made the EMH look up sharply and his all doctor expression he was wearing for Riker and Kira's benefit registered shock and embarrassment. "Let me see that..." and he barged past Seven and read the lifesign reading on the panel. The fetal heartbeat was very clearly overlaying Denara's. Everyone on deck failed to see the odder than normal reaction from the holodoctor.

Janeway was oblivious. "Smart of the think tank to send her on through in that condition after Starfleet sent out that contagion distress call. Even better that she's immune to the Phage in her pregnancy, an added benefit. I'm going to go meet her, no doubt the Traveler will bring her to sickbay and to Tom Paris, he's more ill than the rest of us. Without that Vidiian organ bank, any organ system failing in him will have to be treated without the option of transplantation. Seven, Data, Captain,  
the rest of you... feel free to tag along.. I'm heading off to sickbay." and the Voyager captain entered the turbolift.

Sure enough, Denara Pel was in sickbay, standing over Tom Paris's bed where he lay in a half stupor,  
being kept from unconsciousness by only the slimmest of margins. The Traveler was getting a lecture about Borg implants from Scotty on the other side of sickbay.

The EMH zapped in to take advantage of the two minutes it would take the Commdeck crew to arrive. He wasted no time, "Denara...." he said with a frown on his face.

The shortish pretty Vidiian scientist turned from her scans of Paris and looked up, a fantastic smile alighting her features.. "Schmolis!!" and she flung her arms around him. "I've been so worried. Ever since I knew Voyager had run into a lot of trouble here last year journeying home.  
Are you well? No signs of degradation in your program?"

The EMH gently removed her arms from around his neck and refused to hold her hands more than politely friendly. "Denara... Things have changed between us.. I've....Well I've met someone else."

The smile left Dr. Pel's face and she frowned.  
"But I thought we'd wait for each other. That's why I instigated the fetal DNA you made for me from strands of my own family's line. If it wasn't for you. I'd have no one of my line left."

The EMH set a hand on her swollen belly. "In a way, this child is ours and I'm flattered you chose to take the option I gave you, but Vidiian pregnancy only lasts a week. You look like you are three days along. When the baby's born, what then? Your immunity to the Phage on board will be over and not only you will be at risk. So will the baby.. Do you have that much confidence in your ability to decipher this form of the Phage. From what I've found, Sospiria unnaturally upgraded this disease's mutation threshold to impossible levels. Anyone who falls unconscious rots away in seconds, even faster than Seven of Nine's healing nanoprobes can cope."

"Seven of Nine?" Denara asked. "That sounds like a Borg designation.. Did she join your ship after I left?"

The EMH turned away from her, a little regretful.  
"Yes. And ... she's the one I've been sharing my life with..."

Dr. Pel, to her credit, didn't let her gentle smile fade. "I see." And she walked away from him a few paces to reexamine Tom's readings on the monitor.. "I knew someday there'd be a reason for Starfleet to send for me through the Hirogen net. The cost to them is great but I know I can cure this crew's version of the Plague. What we feel..." and she stopped herself. "What we felt for each other then won't effect the service I've come to do for this crew. I..am too much of a ...we're...too much of doctors, to let emotional overtones effect our work. I'll be fine..."

The EMH faced her, eagerly looking for her resolve in the news of a change in their relationship from Voyager days. "I'm sure you both will be.." he said of the baby Denara carried.  
He set a hand on her stomach. She covered his hand with her own and squeezed. "I'd lose you as a love only to gain you as a life long friend, if you'll have me.." she said through tears.

The EMH smiled. "Of course, I'll be there always,  
for both you and your little one."

Pel wiped her eyes, "Shall we get to work? If I only have a few days left on my grace period from infection, we'd better make the most of it."  
and her delightful tiny mouth curled in a brave smile.

The holodoc pinched her chin in affection.  
"The sooner the better. We'd better get Tom on his feet for Captain Janeway. You know how she likes to grill errant crewman about risky behavior.  
And I want to be sure he'll be able to stand up to that talking down with both feet firmly under him."

Denara, moved over to the lab table and the many counter computers showing the EMH's,  
McCoy and Beverly Crusher's research on both strains of Phage on board Excelsior. She was immediately absorbed by the problem. "Oh,  
my.. look at this mutation curve.. This is unbelievable."

"Sospiria was really mad at Janeway.." the EMH said. "And this is only half of it. There were two Phageminds who delivered these two illnesses.  
Intelligent germs so to speak. We've managed to kill off both of them. " and he pointed.  
"That Klingon ambassador over there had to stab herself to death to take out the first one.  
Janeway mentally overcame the other one in a vision quest Chakotay taught her how to enter.."

Pel raised her eyebrows and said, "This has been a difficult confrontation. I can tell.  
Your voice is softer. It gets that way when you've overextended yourself."

The EMH rolled his eyes. "Maybe it wasn't such a good idea having you here.. I won't be able to hide anything.."

Denara Pel laughed.

Just then Janeway and everyone who decided to accompany her arrived in sickbay. "Ah, doctor.  
she said, moving to shake Denara Pel's hand.  
"I'm so glad you've agreed to help us."

"I'm honored captain. It's only right I help you in return once again. It was your doctor who saved my life.." she said informally.

Janeway had not forgotten the drama that had occurred between the EMH and Denara back then on Voyager. Including the emotional tie they had formed. But the captain chose to not pry into that aspect at all. "I remember. Can't forget it. You've made quite an impact on all of us.." she said, winking at the EMH.

Denara studied her shoes in a short burst of embarrassment. "I've been brought up to speed captain. In all respects.. Schmolis.. I mean,  
the doctor has filled me in on all matters applicable." But then Denara was drawn to Janeway's biosigns on the Vidiian analyzer she had taken into her hand just then.  
"Captain.. how long have you been Phage free?. You are showing as clear of the infection."  
she said with startlement.

"Hmm? Oh. Ever since Chakotay and the others helped me fight off the second Phagemind inside my head in trance. I managed to spear him good and then threatened to burn him to bits with a fever."

"This is remarkable.. " she said with amazement.  
"My people have never considered metaphysical trances to deal with the Phage. We have always attacked the problem through the physical symptom side of things."

"Is this significant?" Janeway said, glancing at Tom.  
She was slightly disappointed that he wasn't yet fully aware.

"It can be. Perhaps a more aggressive DNA resequencing in conjunction with that mind over matter trance trick of yours will be very beneficial... Tell me. is your old crewmate, B'Elanna Torres still alive. Did she survive your journey home?"  
Dr. Pel said.

Janeway said, "Yes, B'Elanna is quite well. In fact,  
your first priority patient is her husband. He's Tom Paris.." she said casting a hand at the dozing helmsman on the biobed in front of them.

"Is she here? I'd like to speak to her. Our homeworld medical database still has records of her body scans taken when she was divided by the renegade into both genetic halves. He's placed intriguing parameters into her that may offer a large step into battling your new strains of the Phage. "

"A cure?" Janeway gasped.

"Possibly.. But I'd have to see her face to face to get a fresh set of records off her.  
The ones we have are years old as you know."  
Pel admitted.

"Tell me something, Doctor Pel." the EMH asked.

"Yes, doctor.." she said neutrally. All signs of their previous familiarity was carefully veiled.

"Is is possible that more renegade Vidiian ships who've left your society to illegally harvest, created clone organs from B'Elanna's detailed scans you have in your homeworld library?"

Denara was shocked at the idea. "But doctor.  
There is no more Phage on the Homeworld.  
Karras of the Mastermind Think Tank cured all of us four years ago."

"Not everyone is cured, doctor.." Janeway said. "The Vidiians who attacked us, did it in Earth's very proximity. And they had harvested so many human body parts trying to keep themselves alive ,  
that Karras's original cure did nothing to help.  
They had become too human."

"That.. that is a horrifying fact to learn about captain. It's true that pockets of Vidiians are out there, roaming the galaxy.. somehow perverted into thinking organ harvesting is their true purpose in life. And those are the ones who've gone insane. We....are trying to locate them to euthanize them painlessly. As we will do with Sospiria's crew now that we know about them."

Janeway gave a shudder. "Will your people pronounce such a fate for us if your research in finding a cure with B'Elanna's DNA enhancement should fail?"

"Of course not captain." Denara Pel said.  
"This sector of space is in your people's jurisdiction. Out of our hands. I am here on a mission of aid only. But tell me, when is the last time you all have slept?  
The insanity begins sometime after the forty hour mark.."

Janeway looked surprised, "Well, I don't rightly know.. I think about a day and a half.. for all of us.. No wait... it's been a little longer for Seven of Nine. She hasn't been near her alcove to regenerate since before the fire.."

Denara Pel became urgently worried.  
"How long.. exactly...captain. Her mind may be at risk if she's long away from rest."

The EMH blinked and...remembered.  
"Oh no.. Seven hasn't regenerated since before the fire at Starfleet in Building Five.  
It's been over forty eight hours.."

Janeway quailed. ::Seven...::

Denara Pel stated the obvious.  
"She may already be entering the beginning stages of insanity. Seeing that she's part Borg, she may have been able to throw off the effects but for how long isn't certain.  
She may be in grave mental danger. I must see her at once."

Just then a comm came over the overhead.  
=^=Bridge to Sickbay. Someone's just locked out the Cargobay holodeck where the Guardian of Forever is located. That portal must be safe guarded from anyone infected leaving into any timeline. We can't get anesthezine to fill the space, the environmental controls have been overridden.=^=

Janeway watched as some crew from Commdeck entered sickbay and she pointed silently to the ceiling while Sulu gave his news.

Then the commline closed again, another problem dumped on the Commdeck/sickbaycrew's laps.

"Who is it down there..?"  
She said to herself and the others.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Seven of Nine as a Borg about to regenerate in her alcove as Janeway watches.

Image: Data at a control panel.

Image: The EMH and Denara Pel holding hands in sickbay.

******************************

From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject :[voyagerliveaction] Who Am I? Date : Sun, 05 May 2002 20:50:28 +0400

"Who is it down there..?" She (Janeway) said to herself and the others.

The Voyager captain turned to Deanna Troi. "Counselor. Are you getting anything?"

Deanna Troi set down the tribble kits she had been holding back onto Tom Paris's stomach and drove her empathic sense into high gear. But the attempt drew nothing. "I'm sorry captain. But all I'm getting is intense relief from the crew about the Vidiian mothership being gone. I'm not getting anyone being distressed so whoever's down there isn't upset in the slightest."

Then the EMH spoke up, "Or this individual could be a hologram."

That startled Beverly Crusher and she left Tom's bed long enough to join the others by the main sickbay viewer where Excelsior was monitoring the mouth of the Borg Conduit Hub for signs of B'Elanna Torres's arrival. "That's right. Mr. Scott did say that those two were down on a holodeck getting their exterior matrices adjusted back to normal. What if something happened to them over there on the Vidiian ship and Sospiria altered their programs somehow?"

Deanna Troi was skeptical. "But why would she do that? They were hardy more than thirty seconds on board. Just long enough to destroy the cloaking device."

The EMH said, "Only one way to find out. "He tapped his unreal combadge. "EMH to HoloZimm and Moriarty. Please respond.."

Nothing came over the intercom.

Chakotay moved nearer a computer console. "Chakotay to the Bridge. Scan for holopresences in the cargobay that contains the Guardian of Forever."

"Is there a problem?" came the deep voice of Excelsior's captain.

The dark eyed Commander sighed and reported. "HoloZimm and Moriarty aren't responding to hails. Haven't been since they've returned from Sospiria's ship."

"Do you need an emergency shutdown of all holographic systems?" Sulu asked.

Chakotay shook his head even as he replied. "I don't think it's necessary yet. We need the doctor to research this Vidiian plague. Especially so when B'Elanna Torres arrives on board." He threw an uncomfortable glance at the EMH. ::Sorry doctor. I know how much you hate others manipulating your one holographic weakness.::

Sure enough the EMH fidgetted and had to speak up. "Sirs," he said into the bridge commline and to all surrounding him. "Isn't that a drastic measure? We don't even know who's locked down the cargobay yet. Why don't we ask the Traveler? He was the one down there. If he has a special tie with his partner in time, he should know if anyone's messing with the gateway."

Janeway raised her eyebrows at the obvious reasoning. She turned her head towards the other side of the ward where Scotty and the Traveler were still poring over the Borg implant pile the engineer had spread across one biobed. She got the being's attention and motioned for him to come over.

The Traveler immediately picked up on the change of feel in the air around the humans. "What has happened?" he looked at Denara Pel. "Is there a new development in the Phage's infection in all of you?"

Janeway quickly got him caught up to speed.

"Ah, that I wouldn't know. Although we have an understanding with our work, I do not have any special bond with the Guardian to know what its feeling or seeing. Only it knows that.." the Traveler admitted.

Chakotay frowned at the mention of feelings coming from a stone archway but he let his expression pass and then he looked around for Seven of Nine. "Is Seven here in sickbay yet? She seeded communication nanoprobes into the Guardian's ambience during the fire on Earth. Maybe that link is still functioning."

Deanna Troi shrugged. "Even if we could talk to the Guardian and ask it questions. I doubt it would even give us a straight answer. So far, it's only spoken directly with Kirk, Mr. Barclay and Seven of Nine."

"Yer forgettin me lass." Scotty pointed out. "But I don't think the big monolith will have words with me anymore. That was for only the one time."

Beverly Crusher said. "This is far too much talking. Just turn on a camera in there.."

They tried. But the natural interference aura of the Guardian was blanking out all of the communications bands and transporter scans inside the cargobay.

Denara Pel blinked her large eyes and said. "I can't believe the Phage can effect holographic systems. It's been confirmed as flesh viable only."

Deanna Troi sighed and said. "Well, I'm going to go knocking." she said simply. "Anyone going with me is welcome. Best way to approach a problem is to face it. So that's where I'm going."

Chakotay spoke up. "I'm going to start a headcount of the crew and get commsignatures on where everyone is located. At least in those areas where the Guardian of Forever's influence isn't masking ship's sensors." and he moved to a computer terminal to do just that. He found Sulu had already begun the process and chuckled.

Deanna Troi was already outside of sickbay and headed down to the cargobay.

Beverly Crusher remained behind with the EMH to await a change in Tom Paris's condition. So did Denara Pel.

Troi noticed Janeway had decided to go with her.

-----------------------------------

They arrived outside the massive cargobay doors and found a simple security level one around the door controls. Janeway's clearance easily cancelled the field. The Voyager captain toggled the door pad but nothing worked. The great doors did not open to the computer commands.

Deanna Troi reached out with her sense to inside the cargobay. "I'm still not getting anything. Just.."

And then, she was inside the Guardian of Forever's perceptions mentally before she even blinked. She felt herself sagging down the wall with the Voyager captain speaking urgently to stay awake and felt Janeway's grip on her shoulders holding her upright. "Counselor Troi.. Can you hear me??"

Janeway's voice faded away into a dim echo that no longer seemed to matter.

-- -- -- --

Troi turned toward a heavy presence, calm , close and very very intense. She knew immediately that it was no threat to her. ::Guardian. There's a problem. The holograms inside this room have locked us out. What is happening in there? We must know. Your timelines must be kept inviolate.::

##A JOURNEY HAS NOT YET BEGUN. THE LIGHT MEN STILL REMAIN IN THIS STARSHIP'S SHELL. THEY ARE POSING QUESTIONS.##

::Open up the door. Please. Don't let them enter your gateway. They would not be able to survive for long away from the ship's holoemitters.::

##THEIR QUESTIONS ARE INTRIGUING. NEVER HAVE I BEEN ASKED SUCH AS THESE.##

And a flood of images, sights, sounds and experiences from a billion time periods came shooting into her consciousness as the Guardian tried to match the spoken questions to true events.

....."What is the nature of life?....

....."How can my life be truly free of machines?....

-- -- -- --

Just like that, Deanna was thrown back into herself she grunted as the harsh pain of the wall's hard surface ground into the back of her head from the awkward way she was laying, as yet she couldn't move.

Janeway positioned Deanna until she lay flat and cradled her head until breathing came easily for her. "It's all right. I got you. Just take slow breaths. Whatever it is, it'll pass.. Take your time and think about what was said to you."

::How did she know the Guardian has spoken to me?:: Deanna wondered as the physical paralysis wore off as her mind clicked back into normal gear. But then she remembered the Voyager captain missed little when it came to knowing the quirks of any crew around her. She most likely had read up on Deanna's file regarding her empathic ability.

Deanna felt Janeway's warm hands on either side of her face, holding her still and sifted through the images that had been sent into her mind. Her breaths sound ragged and hollow to her own numb ears and whistled between her dry lips as they came, one by one.

"Janeway to Chakotay and the EMH. I need you down here."

.......A parlor, with a dark man in London dapper clothes and having tea, asking just the same question as the one burned into her awareness. ::Geordi? That's Geordi, with Dr. Pulaski and Beverly. This must be from what happened on the holodeck when Moriarty was first activated.:: Deanna thought. She struggled to make out the words and Geordi's lips formed the first buring question over and over again. ...What is the nature of life?... ..What is the nature of life?... .What is the nature of life?...

Deanna twisted on the floor, but Janeway kept her from striking her limbs on the wall, even as she opened a medkit she had secured. Troi could hear the EMH giving Janeway instructions on what medication to give to ease empathetic shock but she didn't listen closer until a rush of chemical coolness flowed from her neck and into her blood stream, blessedly shutting down the white noise inside her head.

The images in her memory came clearer.. The second question.. ...How can I exist truly free of machines?....

And sharp images of Iconian technology burst into her mind's eye. From a time she hadn't encountered. Captain Picard and Data frantically trying to get a time door to open while a super nova loomed close. The image kept repeating sequences on an alien computer panel. Blue Amber. Amber. Red.... Blue Amber Yellow Red.... Red. Red. Blue.. over and over again. Until she knew it by heart. Both the machine the commands were meant for and the pattern involved. ::What am I seeing here?:: Deanna thought. But then the emergency injection the captain had given her made the images fade after only one playback.

Her world turned back on.

Janeway was inches away from Deanna's face, pressing fingers against the pulse beat in Troi's neck when she saw the woman's eyes flutter and focus. "Counselor..? Doctor. I think it's working."

"As it well should." the EMH replied over the captain's badge. "Henaline's never failed with Betazed's. Even half blooded ones. Ah, I see her vitals are returning to normal. Good work keeping her conscious. I'll keep a monitor on her bioflag. Chakotay and I are on our way."

Deanna coughed and struggled to get up. Janeway propped her against the wall. "Easy.. you almost went out on us there. Don't rush the hypospray."

"I'm fine.." Troi replied, shaking the last of the dizziness away from her mind. "Once that stabilizer's been injected, there can be no more overload symptoms, captain."

Janeway let her get to her feet and both women faced the cargobay door once more, but Janeway was watching Deanna more than the pad where the counselor was pressing buttons.. "Just what did the Guardian tell you?"

Deanna blinked, frowning, because the panel in front of her was annoyingly Federation and not Iconian. And none of the toggles were amber, blue, yellow or red.

Running footsteps announced Chakotay and the holodoc's arrival and they, too, got there just as Deanna Troi got her thoughts together.

In a shaky, awed voice, Deanna told them all what she had seen.

-  
(attachments)

Image : Troi standing in a doorway

Image: Dr. Crusher with a medical tricorder on scan.  
Image: Janeway, Chakotay and the EMH looking down on you.

*******************************

From :"Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] School's Out~~ Date : Sun, 05 May 2002 18:39:44 +0000 Kirk knew his problems were halved the moment he saw the Vidiian invaders vanish into the hungry mouth of the Borg Conduit. ::And I thought the Klingons were bad company.:: he tried to chuckle but coughed as phlegm filled his throat from his illness. ::And Klingons don't believe in germ warfare.::

His gurgling attracted McCoy's attention and won a stern glance in his direction, but Kirk waved his old friend off by mock pounding his chest with a fist as if his cough had been an embarrassing burp. Bones turned back toward Denara Pel and Tom Paris and the station where they were working.

He had been deeply involved at his tactical screen on the sickbay viewer so he missed when Janeway and Deanna Troi had left sickbay.

But not for long.

Four minutes later, came Janeway's urgent hail.

"Janeway to Chakotay and the EMH. I need you down here."

It didn't take a medical genius to hear someone having trouble breathing over the commline, nor the tense tone in Kathryn's voice.

Kirk motioned Yar to arm herself and then did so himself. "Race you down there, doc." he said to the EMH. "Meet you there in two minutes. Yar and I need to beam up equipment that will help us get in direct touch with the Guardian of Forever."

He saw the EMH nod as he and Chakotay rushed out of sickbay.

------------------------

Janeway let her (Troi) get to her feet and both women faced the cargobay door once more, but Janeway was watching Deanna more than the pad where the counselor was pressing buttons.. "Just what did the Guardian tell you?"

Deanna blinked, frowning, because the panel in front of her was annoyingly Federation and not Iconian. And none of the toggles were amber, blue, yellow or red.

Running footsteps announced Chakotay and the holodoc's arrival and they, too, got there just as Deanna Troi got her thoughts together.

In a shaky, awed voice, Deanna told them all what she had seen.

Kirk got there with Yar just as Troi finished relaying her odd link to the Guardian and what it was doing with the holograms' questions inside the cargobay doors that still had them locked out. "We heard all of it counselor. Captain Janeway left her combadge on in an open frequency to sickbay. Thankyou captain.."

"No problem.." Janeway muttered. "That's one of the strangest accounts I've ever heard. Holograms wrestling with their own mortality and independence. The only one I've ever seen try a vein somewhat in that direction, is the doctor here. I've spent one or two nights on the holodeck pyschoanalyzing with him in my day. And the independence cry was a common one on my bridge, usually when someone forgot to turn the doctor off for the night."

The EMH looked embarrassed and pained. "Just how many other holograms have you known, captain, closely enough, to know how we deal with the nature of our existence?"

Then he blushed, Remember Michael from Fair Haven. "Never mind, don't answer that."

Janeway smiled. "Don't think I will.."

Even Chakotay rolled his eyes.

Kirk understood but discreetly respected his Voyager counterpart's privacy. He wasn't the only captain on a starship to have used a holodeck of sorts for companionship. He used the Nexus to bring back his almost fiance, for a dalliance weekend spent on horseback and in bed at his cabin hideaway.

He turned to other thoughts. "What I want to know is why the sudden soul seeking on their part." he said, pointing to the sealed door. "Moriarty, I can understand. He's been looking for his independence for years. But Holozimm?"

Troi was about to tell them of his emotional awakening concerning his fear over losing friends to the illness but she decided patient confidentiality was best. Withholding the fact of HoloZimm's recent vulnerable loss of innocence would not effect matters in the slightest, so she held her tongue saying. "Maybe he's curious about the subject since Moriarty's so adamant about it."

"Perhaps." Kirk sighed. "I remember an android called Rayna who felt just the same way about life and emotions. Only in her case, the knowing killed her."

"That's horrible.." Yar said. "Didn't you do anything about that?"

It was Kirk's turn to be embarrassed about a fling with an artificial lifeform. "I...was preoccupied at the time. Had a fifteen foot Ruk charging me and a demented Roger Korby yelling in my ear." He left out the fact that he was madly in love with Rayna. She overloaded when she couldn't decide who to love. Roger or I.."

The EMH frowned. "I understand that dilemma. I have had feelings for Seven of Nine for a long time now. And in the beginning, I didn't know how to act on those feelings either. Glad I'm holographic and not android to burn out at the dilemma."

"Which brings us back to our current problem..." Kirk mused. "All right. We have no choice in the matter."

Kirk and Yar nodded to each other and both drew phasers and aimed them at the door panel Troi was trying to open futilely. "Stand back counselor. This calls for a direct approach." and he hit his commbadge. "Kirk to the bridge. One blast phaser fire in five seconds. Burning our way in."

=^= "I'll disarm the sentry." =^= came the tactical officer's reply. "Thanks for the warning." =^=

At the word sentry, the EMH started ducking. "You mean the computer could fire a stun at just anyone?"

"Only on this deck leading from the cargobay and the shuttlebay... and only if there's unexpected phaser fire. One of Sulu's brainchilds. Most invasive attempts on any starship begin there." Kirk smiled. "Too bad the Vidiians breached on higher levels, or we wouldn't have had a problem."

"We're still learning about what features are best on a starship.." Kirk shrugged. "That may take centuries.."

He blasted the panel in a neat jolt and sparks flew as it smoked and released its magnolocks. But the heavy door didn't slide open. Janeway and Chakotay had to use manual suction cups levers to even begin to move the massive bulkhead. It took all of them to get the door open just a tiny crack..

Solid rock met them through the crevice.

"What th?" Yar said, feeling the cold granite under her fingers. "This is real sirs.." she said, giving the rock a quick scan. "And there's something about it.. it's tingling.."

Kirk reached up and felt the same spot and pulled back his hand when a familiar pull tickled his skin. "Of course this is real.. This rock is part of the Guardian. Its moved to block us from entering. Its manually barricading this door..." he said with a half amused smile. "I don't think we have anything to worry about." he said with discovery. "When I was on its homeplanet, I heard of an account where the Guardian trapped a scientist in a cave until it got all the questions the man had wanted to ask by doing just this same thing."

Janeway snorted. "What a crazy way to keep a conversation going uninterrupted. What now?"

Yar said. "Let's test the transporter.. See if we can find a pocket of uneffected space that works inside and beam in.."

Chakotay said, "Then we might be crashing the party." he said, firmly patting the oddly resonating stone jammed in the cracked doorway. "We don't know if this is a gentle reminder to keep away. It may be incidental that Deanna Troi picked up on the conversation in the first place."

Janeway started laughing. "Are we all that jumpy? Seems this Phage is getting to our heads. Holozimm and Moriarty can't go anywhere away from the holoemitters on the ship. Even if they tried to time jump, they wouldn't survive the attempt to remain corporeal without the technology to support them."

The EMH said. "You're right.." and his voice rose in surprise. "That Iconian scene Deanna saw of button sequences may just be some research Moriarty's doing to find his own way to survive independently like I do with my portable holoemitter. It just may be that the hologram is impatient for us to hold our part of the bargain to find him a viable solution to his existence problem."

"I did say we'd do that.." Janeway said.

Yar tapped her phaser's butt on the rock face deliberately knocking three times. Everyone held their breaths but the sound echoes eerily died away and nothing happened. "Well, we rang the doorbell. Guess we are being turned away.. I'm for getting some food. Anyone with me?"

Janeway turned to Kirk, even as her stomach growled. "Do you trust the Guardian and the Traveler to not interfere nor jeopardize the Federation's interests by allowing HoloZimm and Moriarty access to the timegate's knowledge?"

##WOULD I ALLOW THE YOUNG OF ANY RACE TO COME TO HARM? YOUR ANSWER IS NO, CAPTAIN. LET THEM INQUIRE OF ME FOR A WHILE MORE. GROWTH IS NATURAL, FOR THESE TWO NEW LIFEFORMS EQUALLY WELL AS IT IS FOR YOUR OWN PEOPLE. LET US DO SO, WITHOUT ADULTS ALWAYS WATCHING.##

Everyone outside in the corridor heard that presence of the Guardian in their bones. Even Yar raised her phaser defensively, until Kirk pushed it down and away from the gate's rock. "That was the Guardian, Lt. Yar. It's all right. And to answer your question captain. Yes. And it seems the Guardian just seconded my opinion." Then he sighed expansively. "I may be fevered, but Seven's nanoprobes are making me feel hungry afterall. Time to eat. We can wait out the Guardian and the holograms' soul seeking session just as easily over a hearty meal. Thankyou, Yar. For the suggestion."

Janeway's stomach rumbled as she watched the EMH pick up the medkit she had used on Troi to take with them in case anyone's Phage decided to flare up.

Chakotay hit his combadge. "Cargobay to the bridge. We've just learned that.. things are fine in there. The Guardian's just schooling.... children..." and he smiled.

Sulu came back, crisp. "Understood, Keep me posted."

-------------

Five minutes later, another set of viewer links to tactical screen, sickbay and the bridge bloomed into existence on a large main view panel in the messhall. They muted the sound and watched with satisfaction as they dialed their food orders as Sulu cancelled the long standing red alert and the armed self destruct mechanism.

Excelsior's four starship escorts remained flanking the Excelsior nesting in spacedock, guarding her quarantine space jealously.

Chakotay comm'd sickbay and told them the same good news about the mystery in the cargobay and invited everyone who could come, to dine with them.

They had a fully laden food table when the EMH keenly felt Seven of Nine's lack at the tables where all were happily eating. "Captains.." he prompted Janeway and Kirk. "Have you seen Seven of Nine yet? I haven't seen her since Denara Pel came onboard. Last place I heard, she was on Commdeck with us.."

Janeway tapped her combadge. "Computer, locate Seven of Nine.."

##Seven of Nine is on the Commdeck.##

"Oh." the holdoc said, "Well that answers that. I guess she decided to remain abovedeck. I... just wish I could keep an eye on her mental scans. She's the most sleep deprived of all of us.."

Janeway said, chewing an apple, "Can't you do that remotely?"

"Well. yes...." the doctor said. "I....I just miss her company. That's all."

"I know how someone else feels about eating alone that way too.." Kathryn replied. And she squeezed Chakotay's arm in jest. She leaned in.. "Still tasting that mushroom we fire roasted?" she whispered to him.

"This is better.." he said, dipping a spoon into his bowl of mushroom soup. "This is real.." Chakotay laughed.

Janeway stretched as well as her Phage aching muscles allowed her and sighed. "Oh, time for a break. I just wish I could sleep some."

That shot the EMH's head up in alarm. "Are you feeling tired captain? You can't fall asleep.. The Phage mutations will run wild if you do that and will reduce you to liquid in moments. I can give you a stimulant if you'd like.." and he popped open the medkit he had retrieved from the cargobay corridor's carpetting.

"Got that covered doctor.." and Janeway hefted her full coffee mug. "Just testing your vigilance."

The EMH muttered. "Holograms never get caught off guard when it comes to medical surveillance."

But soon, the holodoc was deep into reading about opera as his lunchtime fare, while the others ate.

Soon, others arrived in the messhall.

-  
(attachments)

Image : Kirk holding a phaser.

Image: Yar about to fire, in a corridor.

********************************

From : "Katherine Bird" Subject :--A Quiet Meal Date :Mon, 06 May 2002 12:50:11 +0100

Tandem post between "clairissa fox" and "katherine bird" in shared writing.

I was surprised I was still in there. And they didn't see me. Not the big donut, or the hollow guys. I crawled behind a big silver box and just watched as the pictures came inside the big hole. It had all sorts of things inside of it. Whole cities that were young, then every day, then old and dusty in seconds, and then there were people. Who got borned and then got big and then lay down and went to heaven.

What was going on? Why did Moorearty and Hollowzim ask those big questions like that? I was so interested in seeing the time stretching in the donut that I forgot that I had stood up and they saw me.

Uh oh. That was bad. Now they'd make me go back to mum in sickbay.

But then I heard a deep voice that sounded like the thunder over the river at home and it was inside my head.

The Guardian spoke. #Come forth little one and ask a question and I will be your guide. The other young life have already been sated with the knowledge they seek. It is your turn.#

Who was that? I turned around but neither hollowman had talked! Then I saw the Big Donut was flashing and those matched the words in my head.

When I was here last time, I didn't hear any loud head speaking like that. What had changed? So I asked.

Professor! Professor! Remember me? You lifted me up so I could wake mum. Why is the big donut teaching you? You are a grownup.

"Alexander.. Is that you? " Moriarty said turning around and peering into the dark. "Come closer out of the dark so we can see you. Don't worry. The Guardian of Forever invited all of us who are young, to share in its wonders."

What do you mean by that? We arent supposed to make time any different. Its a big law of Starfleet. I said very angry.

I didnt see Hollowzim grab me and pick me up and he laughed when I started kicking. "Oh,.. a feisty one. Are you sure, Guardian, that this child is the one you wish to talk to?"

#He is the one. I brought him out of time at the behest of the gold uniformed one of Enterprise. Let him be closer to me so that I may see his questions.# said the Guardian.

What is this? I shouted Put me down! I dont have any so leave me be or Ill squash your faces.

HoloZimm let Alexander go. "I'm sorry my boy. I thought you were playing. But, ask away if you'd like."

I thought about a question as I held my sword out to keep from getting picked up again. Then I came out with it.

Why does everybody have to die?

I dont know how I knew but I knew something bad was going to happen to my family and nothing was going to ever be the same once I went back through the big donut once mum was through working for Captain Kirk.

Then I saw it. Hollowzim looked away and so did the professor. ha! so tell me what is going to happen cause I know youve seen it. You smell guilty.

Holozimm glanced at the Guardian of Forever and sadly nodded. The great gateway began seeding image after image of those people in Starfleet who died in the line of duty or their service and the reason why in all the time lines of the past to the present. But then the examples flowed from the future. To a fateful meeting in the quarters Alexander knew to be his on the Enterprise D with his mother and father.

An image came in one time fogged scene of a Klingon warrior killing K'Ehleyr in cold blood with one mighty Bat'leth blow.

Mum! Mum! Tell me its not true. Mum cant die, she just got a new heart!

But then I got scared and ran to the hollowzim and he lifted me into a hug. "I'm sorry Alexander that you had to see the timeline you came from. Yes, your mother lies killed in your future, but she was killed fighting for your father's honor and for you. This gateway is giving you and your mother one last time together before this event happens. And you know by the Time Temporal Paradox law that you cannot ever tell her what you've seen here."

But I dont want to ask that question. I cried Take it back, take it back. But I saw my own father stand me over where mum lay in a lot of blood and say This is death Alexander. Look on it and remember to not be afraid of it. Ever.

I want to be a good warrior. I want to be a good warrior. I want to kill my mum's killer. Its not fair. Mum Keyler's supposed to watch me become a Klingon warrior.

It was beyond the understanding of the Guardian and both holograms the pain they were inflicting on the boy emotionally for they were only blinded by the idea that time artificially extended for him was a joy worth any discomfort.

Alexander, being resilient as he was, caught on quickly to the lesson being taught in the images and the hard truth about where his future fate lay beyond the gateway. His fright and pain dissolved into maturity so many years beyond his boyish appearance.

I see now. Life is precious. And its ok to die with honor for ones crew or family. Each day is something to think about and do fully like I imagine but dont always do. My father could use this big donut Hollowzim. He needs to know about honor a bit better. Hes wishy washy when it comes to being a Starfleet or a Klingon. And can't pick one to be like.

And I see that humans know honor better than I thought they did. Does Tasha Yar know she will go to Stovokor fighting that oil monster, trying to rescue Councillor Troy?

Then I saw she didnt. For the Big Donut showed her coming to Starfleet Headquarters in the pictures, before she got zapped by him.

But why tell me and not her about good ways to die?

#You are young, Alexander. The lesson I teach is simply the one you've asked for. Your heart is not yet closed to despair and can change to set itself to a happier existence. I give what is and what shall be, to carry out the lesson called for to make sure a whole potential is reached. It is too late for Tasha Yar.#

I see. Shes too grown up to handle it.

I accept this truth Mr donut, and shall never tell a soul about the way mum will go to Stovokor by that other Klingon who has no honor. I will be who I am best from here on out. No more running away from my quarters during red alerts and no getting into trouble like Ive done alot since we got to Earth.

Moriarty smiled and picked up the boy once more. "That's it. Make your pain into a strength. Now go, to your mother and remember what you've learned here."

I ran past the big rocky donut who got out of my way so I could go out the cargo doors. I ran fast because I wanted to tell my mother that I loved her.

---------------------------------------

Lt. Uhura heard the invite to dine in the messhall and pounced at the chance, dragging Christine Chapel with her. Improvising, she got a duffel and carried the tribble kits with her as she left sickbay. "Doctor McCoy, are you coming?"

"In a minute, blast you. Denara and I are going over Lt. Paris's last scans." Bones replied.

Shrugging, Uhura smiled and left.

Soon, Nurse Chapel was pacing by her side and they chatted amicably. "Hey Uhura. Do you have the mother tribble?"

The beautiful dark skinned communications officer opened her satchel and counted. "Nope. I thought McCoy gave her to Alexander to feed right after she delivered her babies."

"Oh that's right. No doubt they are off playing bush monster somewhere." and she coughed.

Uhura was concerned. "Getting a bit more turned? I don't have the cough yet. Just these lesions on my skin. Whatever this Phage is, I don't like it."

Christine Chapel said. "You heard Denara Pel. Her people had the virus first and now only the renegades from their society do. It's unfortunate that Excelsior had to meet up with the Vidiians. I'd much rather run afoul of Romulans."

"Do you give much hope for this Doctor Pel finding a cure?" she said, just before they entered the messhall.

"Yes. There usually isn't long for a variant of an original contagion if that first virus has a known antigen." Christine said. "Oh, look, there goes Alexander.."

And the two women watched Alexander run past them with the tribble in his hand back towards the direction of sickbay. He couldn't run full speed since the Phage was making him ill, but he looked determined. They shouted a greeting but the little boy didn't hear them.

"Now I wonder where he's going in such a hurry. Looks like he misses his mum already." Uhura chuckled. "Was I ever that young?"

"Yes." Christine said. "Shall we go in? I'm sure we should save places for Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk near each other. No doubt they'll want to catch up on ship's business around Sulu."

The messhall doors parted and they entered to a rich aroma of food that smelled good despite aches and general malaise still gripping them from the Phage.

As they sat down, the EMH scanned them for a progress report. "How's your dose of Seven nanoprobes doing ladies? Feeling sleepy?"

"Not at all doctor. " Uhura replied. "Christine's been giving us those cordrazine hypos to stay ahead of the urge to rest. And the nanos are still working. I don't feel much discomfort."

"Planning on being a doctor someday, Nurse?" he said of the regiment of stimulant the blond crewwoman had been maintaining on her friend and herself.

"Something like that, doctor." Christine said. She nodded thanks when Captain Janeway offered to pour them both coffee from her pot. Analytically, she was wondering how the Voyager captain was keeping Phage free for her skin showed none of the sores plaguing everyone else. It was something she would ask Denara Pel in a professional capacity after dinner.

Deanna Troi looked tired but deep in thought. It was as if something was puzzling her greatly. Chakotay noticed Nurse Chapel gazing at her and leaned closer. "She's all right. Had a bit of a link shock from the Guardian. It showed her what it was doing in the cargobay with HoloZimm and Moriarty and she hasn't figured it all out yet."

"Thankyou, commander." Nurse Chapel smiled, now reassured enough to eat. She took a bite of her sandwich.

"Anytime." the big man grinned.

Uhura heard mewls from her satchel and took a piece of bread and dropped it inside the sack for the tribble kits to feed on. "My, somebody's hungry earlier than schedule.. all six tribble babies." she said to raised eyebrows around the table.

That got the EMH's attention from the datapadd on opera he was reading. "Wait a minute. Did you say that the tribble young are hungry?" and he scooped up one to scan on his medical tricorder. "This is interesting. Their newborn food sac's are empty already and there's a new enzyme I haven't seen before in their systems."

Christine spoke up. "Could that be a substance that has autoimmune characteristics? Might explain why the tribbles are all Phage free."

The EMH shot to his feet, "I have to examine them further. There's definitely something I've overlooked here." He started for the door, then remembered his monitoring duty. He turned back to Christine and smacked his medical tricorder into one of her hands. "Would you mind watching the others for signs of consciousness loss for me? "

"Of course doctor. I'm a nurse." Christine grinned. "And I've finally figured out how to use one of these new fangled things.." she said, turning it upside down. The EMH double taked in alarm but Christine turned the scanner back the proper way and winked, "Just kidding.." and she dragged the medkit he had set open on his end of the table to inventory the meds still there inside. "I'll keep in comm with you if anyone's bioflag degrades."

"I'll be in sickbay." And he stooped to pick up Uhura's sack of baby tribbles and tapped his unreal combadge. "EMH to Transporter room. Seven to beam to sickbay."

And he faded out, taking the kits with him.

Uhura and Christine found a measure of peace watching the space dock through the windows while they finished their meals.

Around them, the others talked.

------------------------------------------ (attahments)

Image: Christine Chapel, smiling.

Image: Uhura with a tribble in her hands.

Image: Alexander in a karate white uniform.

********************************

From: "Fran Catrair" Date: Mon May 6, 2002 7:34 am Subject: [voyagerliveaction] Alice In Wonderland

Will watched the activity going on around him with interest. He had wanted to leave earlier to see Deanna, but the EMH had ordered him to stay on the commdeck and wait for the nanoprobes to do their work. ::Borg nanoprobes. Who would have ever thought?:: he thought grimly to himself.

So, he had stayed on the commdeck, observing Captain Sulu ON THE MAIN VIEWER and the situation that had unfolded in the cargobay, even assisting him with the scans. When they were informed of the impending phaser blast in the cargobay and the disarming of the systems, Will was impressed.

Kira was feeling tired for some reason. She guessed it was the recent excitement of the journey and their 'conversation' with Sospira. ::I've been sitting on the sidelines too long.:: she thought to herself. She was dismayed that no one she had known from DS9 was onboard. She had been informed that Jadzia had been somehow brought back to life, but it appeared that information was incorrect. Sighing, she decided to make the best of things. She knew another ambassador, K'Ehyler, was onboard ship. She had been Worf's mate before her tragic death years before. ::Now THAT'S someone I will like to meet.::, she decided.

When they were informed on the commdeck that the others would be heading for the messhall, Will decided that he was hungry.

"Permission to leave the COMMDECK, sir." HE SAID TO SULU VIA COMMBADGE,  
"I think the Colonel and myself could use something to eat." he finished, Kira nodding affirmatively to him.

"Permission granted, Commander. Welcome aboard Commander; Ambassador." Sulu stated, turning to an ensign who had just arrived.

Soon, others arrived in the messhall.

Will Riker and Kira Nerys entered the messhall and both stopped, taking in their surroundings.

People were gathered at tables, eating and talking. He noticed Janeway, Kirk and Chakotay at one table and went over to speak to them.

"It's nice to be finally talking to you, sirs." he said, smiling engagingly at them.

Janeway returned his smile. "Too bad you both had to arrive under such extreme conditions, Commander." she said. "Now you both are infected, the same as everyone else." she finished, noting to herself that for some reason, she was now phage free.

"That's all right, Captain. Just makes things interesting."  
he finished, winking at her.

Turning to the others, he noticed Chakotay, who was eyeing him with speculative interest. After proper introductions and small talk was made, he at last turned back to Janeway and Kirk, to inform them of the 'official' purpose of his visit.

"Sirs, Captain Picard and I were conducting some research onboard Enterprise before my departure and we came across something we thought you should know about." he stated, lowering his voice and looking around him. He trusted them, as he knew Kirk had had a hand in bringing them all together, but his command training had taught him discretion.

"What are you talking about, Commander?", Janeway asked, her voice sharpening; her eyes boring into him.

"I'm talking about the Guardian of Forever. As you know, we have had some previous experience with it before. It comes off as being helpful, a Guardian of the way things should be. However, it appears that this Guardian has appeared at events of great catastrophe. Plain and simple, it is a curse. You need to get it off this ship. Now. The Vidiians did not cause this Phage; the Guardian did!" he concluded.

With that pronouncement, Denara Pel suddenly disappeared from the MAIN VIEWER WHEN ITS POWER WENT OUT. And just as suddenly, doors onboard Excelsior were sealed shut.

TO KIRA'S MIND, ..The ship began to move, increasing in speed, heading toward Earth.

SHE THOUGHT SHE HEARD someone scream, "We're going to crash!"  
::AM I HALLUCINATING?:: KIRA SAID.

Kira Nerys, who had been feeling ill, suddenly FELT faint. Narrowly caught by the startled EMH, who had just witnessed the BROKEN COMM IMAGE of his former girlfriend, FADE TO STATIC ON THE VIEWER. Luckily, he had reappeared back where he had come, to find what was happening in the messhall.

Kira felt something tickle her subconscious. Calling to her.

##I told you I would win. Guardian.  
Sospiria. It doesn't matter how I am called. You played into my hands,  
KIRA. I chose you as my vessel, Bajoran.  
The Commander had experience with telepaths. You did not. When you OPEN YOUR EYES next, you will be mine.  
Consider it a privilege I have chosen you. Your body will house the most intellegent, advanced species the universe has ever known.##

Kira felt weak. She knew something was terribly wrong. She just didn't know how she could stop it.

She soon OPENED HER DIZZY EYES on the messhall floor. She felt wonderful; like a new person. She stared at the EMH, who was kneeling next to her, administering aid. Slowly, her features crept up into a huge, cheshire cat like smile.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Troi, Riker, Picard in their dress uniforms.  
Image: A Close up promo of Kira and Jadzia Dax.

*animated gif* A spinning combadge.

Gif: Electric bar, buzzing in blue.

***************************

From : "Cory Anda" Subject : {voyagerliveaction} Burying the Hatchet Date : Tue, 07 May 2002 22:28:15 +0000

Tandem Post between Patti Keiper  
and Cory Anda at Hotmail via email tennis over the course of the week last week.

Barclay and Spock had left the Commdeck once Riker and Kira had with the intent to refresh themselves with a good hot meal and beverage, but Spock insisted he had one more check to do on clearing up the transporter and communications interference the Guardian of Forever's presence created by way of its natural aura emissions.

The two of them paced into the medical ward when a black Starfleet issue satchel in the middle of the carpetting attracted Spock's attention.

Mr. Spock suspected the satchel of tribble kits was left by the EMH in his haste to answer the second medical call on Kira in the messhall. He opened the bag and let the sleeping tribble babes pile out onto a biobed and said. "The ship's EMH must have found something important with these tribbles, Dr. Pel. If you'd be so kind as to scan them."

"All right, Ambassador. But I'll tell you right now. I've never seen such a lifeform before. They're adorable. " she said and picked up one from the bed. She smiled when it started to purr at her contentedly. But the pretty Vidiian scientist used her analyzer to probe their lifesign readings. "Ah, there's an immuno enzyme that's brand new. It's chemical composition is only ten minutes old while they themselves are less than an hour. That must be what Schmolis noticed."

"I beg your pardon. I'm not familiar with that designation." Spock said to Denara.

"Oh," and she blushed. "Sorry. I... well, I knew the Voyager EMH when his ship was still lost in the Delta Quadrant. And, since he hadn't thought of a name for himself. I..sort of came up with one for him. It's nothing really. I.. just found I could work better with him having a name."

"I see. Please map the organic chemistry of the enzyme and get some samples of it for testing. We may be able to use it as a cure if it indeed the substance keeping the Phage from infecting their systems." Spock said.

Mr. Barclay pounced on the change. "Ah, sir. uh, I can do that.. I had some time with veterinary medicine on Project Pathfinder in between finding a way to communicate with Voyager. May I, Dr. Pel?" Reg said.

Denara Pel smiled graciously and said. "Of course, Lt...."

"Barclay, ma'am. Please call me Reg.." he said, taking another of the tribble kits and painlessly got a miniscule blood sample from it into a test tube. "I'll do a series on all six here, sir." he said to Spock, still starry eyed at Denara, who was very attractive in his eyes despite her advanced pregnancy. ::I know better than to get all flubbery over her, she most likely has a husband with that..:: and he glanced down at her belly. "Uh, Dr. Pel. Are you due soon?"

"Later in the week." she said pleasantly.

Reg plugged for information. "Heh. I'm sure that Mr. Pel must be very proud.."

"Oh, there is no Mr. Pel, Mr. Barclay. Vidiians don't marry to have children. We simply genetically engineer them. This child is the EMH's.." she said matter of factly.

The smile wiped off Barclay's head and he scratched it thinking that one over. ::How can a hologram... father a child?:: Then he recalled what Denara had just said. "Oh,.. uh, ok, I can see that. The doctor.... found your family's DNA and recombined it for you for the baby's creation.."

"Exactly. It was just up to me to pick the time to grow her.." she said.

Spock looked up from his monitoring station and spoke. "Dr. McCoy.. would you like to double check this EM field frequency I've pinpointed. I need to know if it won't impair the Guardian of Forever's normal functioning."

"Be right over Spock." McCoy said from Tom Paris's medical bed. "I just have one more test to run on Flyboy here.." he said, patting Tom Paris's arm. Already the youngish lieutenant's eyes were following him as the medicine and Seven's nanoprobes dealt with the worst of his fever, returning his voluntary functions back into his control. McCoy grinned. "Don't worry Mr. Paris. I know you've worked in a sickbay setting before. I'm doing nothing deep tissue here. I know how irritating that can be while awake. I'm just jump starting your T cells to fix that gastric lining damage you are incurring because of the Phage. Should take but a few seconds." and he passed a cellular regen stabilizers over the place showing on Tom's scans illuminated in low oxygen purple. The whole stomach on the organ scan soon turned a very healthy red again.

Tom Paris sighed as the dull pain in his belly went away. McCoy patted him on the shoulder and said. "If you're feeling more like yourself in a few minutes. You and I can go to the messhall to join the others for chow. If not, we both can stay here and dine with Doctor Pel. I know she's not going to want to leave until the Phage is cured. Doctors get that way over a problem. Totally pitbull." and he grinned toothily.

Tom Paris shook his head that he heard even though his voice hadn't yet returned.

McCoy chuckled and left his side to attend to Spock's request. He took a look at the field strength Spock wanted to use and said. "Should work. At 744 angstroms per cubic centimeter real space volume. Give it a try."

Spock cocked an eyebrow and flicked a switch. Suddenly, all the bulkhead doors on Excelsior that were open, suddenly sealed.

McCoy said. "Whoops seems the computer systems proximity sensors for all the doors operate on that frequency. Try bumping the field down two angstroms to 742."

Spock did so. And suddenly beautiful, complete, ship wide transporter and communications capability bloomed on Excelsior's tactical screen.

Sulu's voice came on the overhead. "Nice work Ambassador Spock. Appreciate it. Now we can see and move anywhere on board even with the Guardian sitting in our cargobay. I thank you. Worth a few doors sealing without a reason to have that freedom."

Spock said, "You are welcome captain." and he ended the commlink to the Bridge.

Barclay saw that the messhall doors were still sealed magnetically. "Seems everyone's relaxed in there. The doors shutting and locking by themselves didn't freak anyone out."

Spock ran a diagnostic on the ship's systems to that deck. "Their main viewer has lost power. I'll reroute and restore its functioning." He did so.

Soon, everything power and doorwise was back to normal in the messhall.

K'Ehleyr came jogging back into Sickbay from her short walk from the Commdeck. "Things are calming down up there." and she frowned at the clear sensor scans she was now reading on her tricorder. "The Guardian's left the ship? I'm no longer reading comm or transporter null spaces on any deck."

"Uh, that was Mr. Spock, Ambassador K'Ehleyr. He and McCoy adjusted the ship's net to work around the Guardian's effects." Barclay said.

K'Ehleyr said. "Oh." Then she noticed Denara Pel working on the tribble young on the biobed. "I thought we got rid of all the Vidiians on board. Seems there's one left."

Denara Pel flushed red with self consciousness and Reg immediately leaped to her defense. "K'Ehleyr. This is Dr. Denara Pel. The one Tom suggested Starfleet locate to help us with our little Phage plague problem. She's fully authorized to be here."

K'Ehleyr didn't take her hands off her hips or change the scowl painted across her face. Finally she said. "Stay away from me directly and away from my son Alexander, and we won't have a problem Vidiian.."

Spock said, "Dr. Pel has offered a possible cure for us, Ambassador." he said to K'Ehleyr "And she's demonstrated aid to Voyager in the past in the same capacity. She is one to be trusted despite her race."

"Be that as it may. Her people have been sloppy allowing renegades to go on infecting innocents like us here on Excelsior. She and her kind are still morally responsible for their crimes by Starfleet laws while she's here." K'Ehleyr said in no uncertain tones.

Reg cleared his throat. "Uh,.. Shall we go?" He pointed to the six viles of tribble enzyme plasma he had draw from his furry patients. "I'm finished here. We'll all feel better after a good meal. So,, let's..let's get something.."

K'Ehleyr finally lowered her defensively hostile stance. "Barclay.. "

"What? uh, what?" Reg asked.

"I think Troi's beginning to rub off on you. That's very sage advice considering who it's coming from." K'Ehleyr said dryly.

::Is that a compliment or an insult?:: Reg said. But then he saw K'Ehleyr smile.

The tall elegant woman made her way over to Denara Pel and offered her a gloved hand free of weapons, to shake. "Dr. Pel. Welcome to the Federation. I am an ambassador so I'll set my personal feelings aside for business for the duration."

Denara sighed in relief. "Thank you. I'm frequently targetted by those I cure, but in spite of how often that happens. I never get quite used to the animosity." and she took K'Ehleyr's grip timidly. "I will promise that I won't deal directly with either you or your son if that is still your wish. Dr. Crusher, the EMH and Dr. McCoy here can be my go between as long as I am aboard."

"You've got yourself a deal. Sorry. Klingon temper gets in the way frequently. Especially if one's just back from the dead.." she smirked.

Denara Pel swallowed at the intense, harshly pleasant woman towering over her. "Uh, yeah. I was about to ask you that. Uh, how's the heart?"

"It's beating." K'Ehleyr said. "And that's all that matters. Now, if only I knew why it's Phage free and I'm not.."

"Now that's why I'm here." Denara Pel said, a note of confidence finally gripping her soft voice as she relaxed. "As soon as B'Elanna Torres gets here, we can find out why that cloned heart you've got works so well staving off infection. Then I can tell you more."

"Fair enough."

"Good."

An awkward silence stretched between the two women until their staring contest was broken when Pel looked away uncomfortably and pulled her hand free from their handshake.

"Twenty seconds.. I'm impressed." K'Ehleyr said. "Your race must be very stubborn under stress. Usually most races turn away from one of my power stares in just a few moments.. Ok, you pass. I'll take what you have to say with a grain of salt without a hand on my sash knife when I'm in the same room as you.."

Denara's eyes widened in alarm and she glanced down. Sure enough, K'Ehleyr's left hand was buried in her tunic Napolean style and this she withdrew. Pel saw a brief flash of silver white metal as a tiny wicked looking knife nestled back into a fold of material and back out of sight. She swallowed. Then took on a bit of bravado." Let me choose our meals, ambassador? When we get to the messhall. I know best what sits well with Phage patient's appetites.." Denara offered bravely.

"Permitted." K'Ehleyr said and she eyed up McCoy. "Are you ready human?" she asked him.

"Yes. And remember to call me Bones, turtle head."

That made K'Ehleyr blink but then she smiled in true light hearted amusement. "Now you see why I became ambassador for their Federation Dr. Pel. McCoy's race and the others like him are so very Klingon at times. Refreshing. And he's one of the best at it."

McCoy snorted like a Klingon and slapped Tom on the knee. "Rise and shine boy. Time to grab some chow. You're coming with us so I can keep an eye on you.."

He parked a petris dish of corn kernels down for the snoozing tribble babies on the biobed and then dimmed the lights. "I wanna go to the messhall and take a scan of Kira when I get there and I can't do that with you lallygagging around." he grumbled. He waved a hand at K'Ehleyr, Spock, Denara, and Reginald. "Go on ahead.. Tom Paris and I will catch up with you.."

--------------------------

In the messhall. Kira was already up in a chair and still surrounded by the EMH, Janeway and everyone alerted to her near collapse into a fatal Phage meltdown. Reginald and K'Ehleyr decided to give the colonel her privacy with the doctor and captains and she made her way over to an empty chair that had its back to a corner of the room with a clear view of the main viewer Spock had fixed.

Denara Pel made good her word and got two very spicy looking bowls of blue stew that had crawling worms in it.

K'Ehleyr smiled in pleasure.. "Ah,, this is like Gagh. But I think the humans won't care for this Phage friendly meal of yours, doctor.." she said to Pel, who had a bowl of the same in her hands.

"It's just an option. There's still much I don't know about the Alpha Quadrant and all of its races. The Phage and only the Klingon Human hybrid are forms familiar to me.."

"Really?" K'Ehleyr said, without sting.

"Yes, The Talon, the ship we are seeing there inside the Borg Conduit, has B'Elanna Torres on it and it is her genetic template that I know very well. One of the regenades as you like to term them, split her genome into two almost viable people and all of that criminal's records are still available in our library databases. It will be good to see her in person since a cure may be embedded within her, purely by accident."

"I see .." K'Ehleyr said. "So a renegade Vidiian's past actions may be the ironic cure for us all today.."

"Yes.." Denara Pel said, toasting some peach nectar to the Klingon Ambassador. "Not bad for a race so henous as to create the inhumane Phage now is it?" she said with amusement.

K'Ehleyr simply nodded in thoughtful agreement.

Spock and Barclay near her, began to eat at last, Barclay noisily with earnest and the Vulcan ambassador with more dignified aplomp, on the meals of their choice.

She turned to watch the doors for either B'Elanna Torres arrival, or Tom Paris's with the attending Bones by his side.

-  
(attachments)

Image: K'Ehleyr on a transporter pad.

Image: A smiling Dr. Denara Pel.

Image: McCoy in his blue medical tunic.

Image: Barclay with Harry Kim on Voyager.

Image: A close up of Mr. Spock.

**********************************

From : "Lotten" .se Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Calleth You, Cometh I Date : Sun, 12 May 2002 00:10:34 +0200

This post has been translated into English by a Voyagerliveaction Theater Host...

-

As Talon was on its way back to the Alpha Quadrant, there was not much for B'Elanna to do.  
Which, today, was not a good thing at all.  
::Yes, I certainly need a break, but this, is plain boring and I don't know how long I can keep this frustration and anger inside.::

B'Elanna passed down the corridors of Talon.

She had not been the one to wander the corridors at night on Voyager. That had sort have been Janeway and Tuvok's job.  
::Yes, some Vulcan meditation would have been good right now, but to do it myself, now, would only frustrate me more. Darn it Tom, What are you up to now? You better not have started something that later on, we will have to fix:  
Her thoughts reminded her of another concern.  
"Oh, and to top it off, Tom, if you once again put me under the doctor's focus.." she said aloud to herself as she walked. "Ok, I did get used to the EMH doc and he was with me when Miral came into our family."

Then B'Elanna became lost in thought again,  
and her corridor pacing slowed. ::I thought you knew me better, Tom. But you know I hate doctors. They see me as their little scientific discovery. The Klingon Human girl all set for them to analyze and be labelled with a stereotype meant just for me. So they think they know everything about me....::

From their scans and tests, Federation doctors had already mapped out her interior life, and with that completed, what her limitations and special needs were. They had done those ever since B'Elanna had been a child.

On Kechek IV, her childhood colony, the doctors had always made her feel like a second class individual. The thought of being nothing but trouble and not worth the extra effort, probably originated from there. And that idea had been with her all through her life.  
::Setting me up to fail..:: she thought glumly.

It had been something she had always been fighting. But she knew times where she just used that mindset as an excuse to bail out.  
::Let them think whatever they think. It doesn't matter to me. They don't even know me and they don't want to..:: Torres decided about those past Federation doctors.  
Thinking back into her early youth, it had been so easy to lash out at everyone. She grumbled to herself so her crew around her didn't hear.  
"Quit it and give up that blame you feel about your Klingon genes.." Yes, she could admit it now that that was what she had done.

B'Elanna would never be able to control that aspect in herself in certain situations. The Klingon part took over and acted purely on reflex.  
::But it was and is a part of who I am. Sure, it has been the biggest pain in my life to have to deal with the temper, the violent outbursts;  
but how many times have those same reflexes saved me? Right on the mark, countless times.

That Torres was also human but still feeling all the raging emotions of her Klingon parentage that had only been forgotten by her early, stupid doctors.  
::They didn't know how hard it was to hold in so much. Feeling everthing so extremely intense sometimes and all the while knowing that those emotions could not be reacted upon.::

Then B'Elanna stopped along one curve in the corridor and sighed. ::I thought you knew me better, Tom. I REALLY hate doctors..:: and then she smiled. ::And now it looks like I have long sessions with doctors again coming up on Excelsior. The last time was when the Vidiians were involved with us and divided me.::

B'Elanna relaxed as she thought of the unity of her small family even over the vast distances between them. ::I feel at peace and harmony for the first time. Nothing to keep at bay, nothing to make me over react... But with you,..I also feel totally naked and vulnerable in a wonderful way. I can truly focus on my feelings now without the Klingon part tugging me in all directions.  
Then, I was not afraid to hurt anyone. Now, I am no longer a threat as something unknown to others.  
I am human more and more, not the Klingon/Human hybrid. I am truly united. Complete. Simple.::

She began walking again to her chosen destination deep inside her science ship. ::All my life, people have made me feel like I have disappointed them in some way. Dad left Mother and that made me feel like it was my fault. ::

B'Elanna chuckled at the memory. "Mom had continued the whole time I was growing up, demanding me to be only Klingon. For her, nothing I did was good enough.  
It never could be. If I aced a test in school, won a tournament, all I got back was.. "Ha, think of the potential you COULD have had if you were a TRUE Klingon."  
was all her mother would say when she was in a particularly dark mood, usually when she was thinking of John Torres being gone away from her life and B'Elanna's too much.

B'Elanna had hated her Klingon part for so long, never discovering the bright and good things about her Klingon heritage all because she felt being without a dad somehow effected her. Without her father, she felt that she had no more Humans around to follow and learn from.  
::There has never been a balance within me, even when I matured from being so little.::

A break came when the Vidiians had divided her into two selves. B'Elanna only possessed the Human part of those memories but she knew somehow, what her Klingon part had felt looking at her weaker human one. Her Klingon aspect had seen only a little girl that had nothing of value in her with which to contribute to B'Elanna Torres's life.

But something had happened during the escape through the Vidiian cave maze. They had started to get to know each other from the outside,  
looking in and how they together, had once mixed,  
as one.

The human B'Elanna had seen the protective need and honorable way her Klingon version acted. And the Klingon Torres had seen the strength in mind and determination that she herself no longer possessed. The Klingon temper and impatience was there and tripled in the pure form, many times over. And when that strength finally had died an honorable death, that act had finally made both halves feel a renewed interest in life.

Later, the holodoc said that he needed to reintegrate the Klingon genes back into human B'Elanna again. It was not something she had wanted. But once her genome had been restored to its originality, Torres found happiness in having her Klingon part so closely with her. The experience taught her that she had finally found what she was made of,  
truly, and exactly what it was that made her into WHO she was at long last.

For so long, since childhood, B'Elanna had not chosen to be who she was. And the Vidiian renegade had gifted her with the firm resolve that both her Human and Klingon halves had great and admirable traits.

It was a growing freedom of will after that momentous day. After that final acceptance,  
B'Elanna found she was able to open her heart completely to the possibility that Tom had REALLY wanted her, the misfit, into his life.

Tom had been the boy, playing the field,  
who'd smile at anyone and probably had started chasing her in courtship just as a challenge. ::Of course at that stage, I couldn't think that Tom, out of all the men on Voyager, had seen anything admirable or intriguing good in me at all.::

Yes, she had come a long way in the past few years. And now, the reports she had received from the doctors monitoring Excelsior's quarantine situation, still gave her the impression that they still had their narrow minded view of B'Elanna, the Klingon Human hybrid and were most likely still making up a picture of her in their minds of how she was to be in that stereotype. It was maddening. And her dissatisfaction of how they all still felt about her made her doctor phobia even stronger.

::What makes me furious and makes me want to just punish them outright is that very narrow view of theirs. Oh, the strength I use to pull and hold back myself and my anger during those times with them. Weird how my old defensiveness returns when a doc is close to me.::

B'Elanna thought it was a waste of medical tricorders too, when her instinctive reaction to them flared. More times then she could count, she had either smacked the doctor's tricorder against a wall, or crushed it in her hand at some infraction of theirs verbally. B'Elanna shuddered. They just seemed to know which button to push to take away the final straw that held her back.

B'Elanna blinked and then frowned. She had walked around the whole deck she was on three times. She sighed in frustration and headed for the nearest turbolift.  
::I am going to see what's happening on the bridge. They should be meeting up with the Excelsior about now.::

Then the confines of the turbolift made her smile and she chuckled a bit to herself,  
remembering moments of heated debates with Tom in lifts and some pretty lovely kisses too, that had taken place on them somewhere on several starships.

She exited the lift on deck one just in time to see that Talon had pulled alongside the spacedock where the quarantined Excelsior was moored. ::She's a beautiful ship, even with her hull plating a bit scored, still, a beautiful sight. So peaceful just hovering in space in there. What a big contradiction to the truth.:: B'Elanna thought. ::Inside its hull, people are working in the fastest way possible for a cure for the Phage. And reports being delivered to all parts of the ship,  
Repairs from the attack and maintenance crews trying to catch up restoring the ship's many functions.::

In her mind's eye, the medical department was always a hectic place and now, with a plague on board, every possible power source was most likely being rerouted to medical. B'Elanna sighed and knew that these moments on her bridge were the only calm ones before the big storm hit.

She sighed again, this time deeper and loudly enough that her crew knew she meant business.  
"ok, Let's get this show on the road. Ensign,  
hail them." she ordered.

B'Elanna walked up to the Ops station on Talon's bridge while she waited for her order to be carried out.

"Yes, maam. Frequency is open for you. Go ahead." he finally said.

B'Elanna nodded at the ensign and faced the big viewscreen in the middle of the bridge.  
She started to talk before the image of to whom she was speaking appeared on the screen.  
"This is Lt. B'Elanna Torres requesting to come aboard. I have orders from Admiral Paris to come here. He said I was to be informed of why only when I got here. Am I free to beam aboard?"

She didn't get any longer to wonder about her deeper thoughts about herself and true nature when on the screen in front of her, a walking talking legend appeared before her.

She had not expected this...

--------------------------------

Tom Paris was with Dr. McCoy by his side.  
Tom like this fellow more and more. He had handled the Klingon lady, the ambassador, with great ease and knowledge. ::Klingon women are not to be toyed with.:: Tom knew that first hand. His OWN feisty Klingon lady would be here soon.

So, he and Bones, as the doc beside him was called, started going through the thoughts and ideas Tom had regarding possible solutions to the Phage infection.  
Some were dismissed fairly fast by the older and more experienced doctor.

Their conversation had very few words from Tom's end since his voice still sounded like a chicken trying his best to sing a morning aria after just having finished a bottle or two of Klingon bloodwine. ::That's from the medication which stabilized my fever:  
Tom thought.:: And Seven's nanoprobes trying to figure out how to maintain my defenses against the Phage I caught.::

So Tom just settled for "Ah, ha.." or "Nuh uh.." with some nods to either confirm or indicate a negative response to the things Bones talked about.

After about five minutes of deep non verbal from Tom and more verbal communication from McCoy, a little silence filled the atmosphere in sickbay when both took a breath to start in on new sentences.

It was cut short by Tom's rumbling tummy.  
At that, McCoy laughed out loud. "Well,  
Tommy boy, we'd better feed that belly of yours in there. Let's get to the messhall before it eats you up from the inside out." Bones patted Tom on the shoulder and they left the med bay with McCoy's tales telling Tom of some pretty fascinating dining occasions he had attended with some fairly strange but original characters in his heydays.

Tom, like the little boy he sometimes was,  
loved stories and tellings. He had a great time as they walked and for a moment, he let go of the tiny fear that kept nagging him.  
::What B'Elanna's going to say when she arrives.:: he shuddered and reminded himself of something more fun. ::Oh yeah, I'll check in on Miral over a commcall after dinner.::

Hopefully, he wished he would have control over his vocal cords by then. He really missed his little girl. ::And ..not to forget, her one and only trusty sidekick Targ, Tobie.:: he tried to laugh out loud at the thought but only raw sound came out.

Just as he crossed into the messhall, Bones stopped telling his tall stories and looked at Tom about why he was clearly amused.

Tom waved a hand to tell Bones he would tell him later.

"Ok, Mr. Paris.. I will hold you to that promise you have to tell me that one later.."  
The doctor seated himself at the food table.

Tom took in the room.

There weren't many people in the room but he recognized most of them.

Denara Pel, The Klingon Ambassador,  
K'Ehleyr, newly joined by her son, Alexander.

Dr. Pel had been one of the surprises he got once the medication had focused his sense of sight again away from the effects of his fever.  
Tom was fairly sure that Denara was the one who could help them complete the Phage cure puzzle.

Tom swept eyes over the other section of the room. His eyes met steel cold, blue ones.  
He immediately flushed red. ::uh oh.. am I in deep trouble with her.:: Tom thought to himself and gulped.

Janeway was looking at him from the other table just over to the right. He knew her stance, even with her crouched near where Kira was seated,  
very well. ::Yep. The Janeway pose is there.  
Hands on hips, the glare of ice in her eyes.::

Tom gulped again. He did not like it at all when he got this look from Kathryn.  
And he had gotten it many many times. Although this time, he was not sure what it was exactly that he had done to deserve THIS look. But he knew he would soon find out.

McCoy just chuckled and turned to fill his own plate, leaving Tom on the spot, by talking to someone else next to him. ::Oh yes.. Janeway has a thing or two to tell her helmsman. And that lady is worse than two Klingon females rolled into one if she's in a bad mood.::

Tom did not sit. He took two steps farther into the room and then without knowing it, adopted the third year cadet pose with the crispest at attention stance he could muster up.

Janeway rose after a few encouraging words to Kira and the EMH watching her and made her way over to Tom.

Tom was really happy to see her without the Borg things on. He would have loved to crack a joke about now. ::Hey, Captain.. Nice to see you out of Borg garb. Though they may have done wonders on Seven then, they did nothing for your figure. They merely messed up all that perfection you already have going.:: he would had said without crudeness,  
then following with a killer Tommy boy smile. ::Yeah,  
that compliment would have been great right about now.::

But then he thought that even sugary comments would only make his stituation worse at this time. :: Though the smile couldn't hurt..:: he thought and hastily, he put one of his best ones on. He knew full well he was in for a dressing down alla Janeway. ::Ok. Tom.  
Brace yourself. This can't be all bad. She is up and looking her usual self and she still has a clue or two to learn from the Bella shuttlecraft.::

Janeway came to stand just in front of him,  
hands on hips.

Tom suddenly felt like the poor little canary the cat was about to swallow, ::Like in those cartoons I watch.::

"Thomas Eugene Paris.." Janeway said firmly and took a deep breath to continue..

Tom did the same himself and added a little gulp just to be on the safe side. ::Poor me.  
The Tweety bird..:: he thought.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Tom propositioning B'Elanna in the turbolift.

Image: The human B'Elanna and the Klingon B'Elanna face to face.

Image: The EMH attending B'Elanna on a biobed.

Image: Tom Paris on a viewer in closeup.

Image: Janeway, with a dressing down look on her face.

**************************************

From : "Clairissa Fox" Subject : The boy playing at the dinner table. Date : Sun, 12 May 2002 07:07:53 +0000

I liked what they were serving for dinner. I saw the slime face female doctor pick up a bowl of blue wormies that she had called up for Keyler and tasted it. Wow. It was good. I didnt know that slime faces even cooked.

I thought that all they did was suck your brains or your eyes out with their stun things like they did to Chakotey.

I thanked mum for the finger I stuck into her food but she just smiled and said good boy. I guess she was listening to her klingon side today and not the stupid human manners again. I watched the main telly screen where there was a ship coming near Excelsior where we were tied to the space station. I didnt know it. So I asked outloud to Chakotey. Hey, is that the other woman like mum coming?

"Yes, Alexander. That's B'Elanna Torres. She's contacting the bridge right now for docking and boarding clearance. Takes a while since we're under quarantine." The big commander replied. He didn't seem bothered at all by the blue annelids oozing out of the boys mouth as he tried to make funny faces with his food at the EMH.

The holodoc was buying none of it and even folded a napkin airplane and "flew" it over to the boy without looking while he still studied the scans on Kira Nerys where she sat regaining her composure.

"Eat your food." K'Ehleyr said, still watching the main viewer and the communications about to unfold on the screen between the Talon and the bridge.

Aww, mum. I was only playing. I whined. So I wiped my face and stayed being a good boy. I saw that Mr Barklay and Mr Spock were sitting near by and that they were talking about the big donut. So I spoke to them from where I was sitting on my chair.

Hey I know about it. The big donut and the quiet purple giant were saying that they would end the ship if the bodyweak wasnt fixed soon in everybody.

That got ol green ears to do that Vulcan eyehair lift again.

"When were you last in the cargobay? The doors down there were reported as barricaded by the time gateway by Captain Janeway." he asked Alexander.

I was just down there. I am young after all. The big donut showed me things and Deana Troy saw them too. I was there it said because I belonged in its school and I got my answer to my question even though it was scary.

"And what was your question?" Reginald asked, taking the boy's napkin and finishing the job of wiping worm stew off the boy's cheeks.

I asked why does everybody have to die. That shut everyone up and the table got really quiet.

Not quite understanding, Chakotay said, "No one is going to do any dying here anytime soon, Alexander. This Phage is inevitably only temporary. Dr. Pel is sure she can cure us all."

Then the EMH came over to me and knelt by my seat. I tried not to cry but it didnt work.

"Alexander.." the holophysician asked. "What did the Guardian of Forever show you? You are in distress to the point that its making your tears form."

Its nothing! I shouted. Because Yar and m-- I stopped in horror of what I had almost given away. Mums death in the future by being killed. And the strong blond human females for helping her friend. So I said I cant tell you.

The EMH firmly but gently took him by the shoulders. "Alexander. Its ok to keep a secret. I know you are old enough to follow the temporal prime directive. But tell me does what you saw endanger this ship or effect our actions here against the Phage in any way?"

I shook my head. He didnt have it exactly right. Mum wasnt a ship and I knew and agreed with the purple giant and the donut when they told me what had to be had to be. And so I could nod. It was the truth.

"Then try not to dwell on it." the doctor said to the suddenly sad little boy. Then the hologram doctor smiled. "That last face you made at me almost broke my concentration. I almost lost my place reading my tricorder.." he said, running a forefinger over Alexander's nose ridges, making the boy sneeze in reaction.

I laughed then and felt mum give me a hug with her chin on top of my head. I set the tribble mum I had with me on the table and started to laugh when she rolled straight for Chakoteys corn meal and started eating it from his plate.

Shes hungry again. Make sure she isnt going to get a big belly again like Dr Pels. I told him.

The big commander dutifully only excised a small corner of his bread loaf out for the mother tribble chewing there and placed both back onto the black marble table top where they all sat. Tribble's hungry purr was interrupted by the sound of tiny teeth chewing as the tribble consumed the offered morsel.

Then she burped and made me laugh so I did a bigger one. I knew it wasnt good human manners but I also knew everyone at the table were ok with alien food habits so I just smiled big.

Then I wondered where Councillor Troy and Dr Crusher were. They werent back yet from the corridor by the hanger where I had come from. And I hadnt seen them. I hoped they were going after 7 to make sure she wasnt going crazy from not sleeping and being sick with the bodyweak from the slime faces.

Then I saw a new man in the food room. It was another human and he looked scared. It looked like the red haired captain was about to rip into his face and tear his skin off. I wondered what happened to make her so mad at the man. He had been the one who got sick real fast with the dirty yellow hair. Tom. That was his name. And he was grown up so I didnt understand why getting yelled at still bothered him so much like it did when mum yelled at me. Maybe he did something wrong and not allowed by the rules. I did that a lot. Especially when Im looking for a place to play kill the bush monster and I have no holodeck program to do it in.

I felt sick myself but Dr Pels worm stew was helping me the way it should. I took a knife and nicked my arm so that some of 7s nanofriends got out of my venes. Mum grabbed the knife and glared at me and the hollow doc fixed my owie right away but I got my playfriends now that mum tribble was busy.

I thought real hard and 7s nanofriends listened and spelled out a sentence with themselves in a line on the dark table shine. Slimefaces are smelly.

No one saw what I had done but me and it made me laugh. What I wrote was true. Dr Pel smelled sort of oily and worse than humans. Then I sent my nanos that helped me inside my body to keep awake and better than really sick to find 7 so everyone would know where she was. Grownups were stupid. Sometimes they didnt even know an answer when it was an easy one to a problem.

I had them call out as they left the messhall like crawling ants to shout for 7 while they search in their machine voices from where they scampered on the rug.

7! 7! We want to find you they said. We will go until we find you. Do not let the bodyweak get your brain to go crazy. We love you. Our friend Alexander is sending this message.

I heard them go farther away and smiled. They would find 7. I had to see if she was ok faster than the grownups did. I had to see. I had to see for me.

Then the main telly view that mum was watching while she ate her blue worm stew turned on.

It was Bootby!

I hit my chest pin so I could talk with him. Hi Bootby! I said to him. Why are you calling?

"Alexander Rashenko. Tell your dinner crewmates to put on Moriarty and HoloZimm on the universal comm channel right now. Seems their little talk with the Guardian of Forever got noticed. The Iconian base station that Captain Picard and Commander Riker had found during that supernova has reappeared this side of Pluto. And its fully functioning. We have to find out why. It may be what Deanna Troi saw outside the hanger bay when she had her empathetic abilities overloaded."

The EMH, who was nearest the boy overheard the conversation with his powerful holographic ears. "How did you know that happened? We haven't filed a report yet."

"Listen holohead. When you're as old as I am and have been ranked in Starfleet for almost a century, then you can pull some mighty powerful strings, even from the flowerbeds. Just do what I'm telling you. It's critical.."

"All right. All right. Let me tell the others what's going on.." the EMH replied to Boothby, the caretaker who was standing by a comm pole on campus in full gardener's gear. He was surrounded by replantings of colorful flowers destined to take the place of those lost in the vaccuum dome maneuver which put out the fire in Building Five on campus.

And so the EMH did, from his place by Kira. Word for word what Boothby had told the boy, in the man's own voice.

Soon the bridge was notified and put Boothby up shipwide on viewscreen to cover the next part of his request.

The main computer summoned Moriarty and HoloZimm through its comm system ties to the holograms.

Not many were sure the two free programs would reply back while so thoroughly captivated by the Guardian of Forever.

The computer comm'd the two holograms again.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Alexander posing with his family on the bridge of the Enterprise D.

Image: An outdoor shot of Chakotay and Boothby, snugging arms over shoulders.

*******************************

END WEEK FIFTEEN RECAP 05-13-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Site

WEEK SIXTEEN RECAP 05-13-02 *  
Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 02:10:21 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: [voyagerliveaction] Getting the Medical Ball Rolling

She (B'Elanna Torres) didn't get any longer to wonder about her deeper thoughts about herself and true nature when on the screen in front of her, a walking talking legend appeared before her.

She had not expected this...

Lt. Commander Data spoke with an eager curiosity at her and said. "Lt. Torres.  
Permission to beam directly to Excelsior's messhall. Be advised you will be entering a quarantine zone and face the risk of being infected with an unknown strain of the Vidiian Phage. Shield five is down at your discretion. Dinner has just begun, doctor's orders. Status report.  
Excelsior is fully functional in all systems and access to Cargobay Two is restricted without Captain Kirk's authorization until further notice."

He saw Torres look at him with surprise at the last bit of information about limited access but he saw the woman took it in stride. He afforded her a smile via his emotion chip which increased her puzzlement.  
Data snicked off the screen on the Commdeck showing Talon.

Then he faced Seven of Nine who was leaning on the upper deck rail. "Seven of Nine. Do you require a physician's attendance? Ambassador Spock has completed our task of returning full comm and transporter ability despite the Guardian's natural static field."

Seven of Nine regarded the smiling android through a sea of wavy images. "Yes. I... I am feeling very tired."

Oh, about then, visitors came to call, streaming in from the turboshaft in a river. Nanoprobes.  
Their calling, electronically to Seven's inner transponder, grew loud enough to finally make the ex borg look down at her feet. "What are you doing here? You should be protecting Alexander.." she told the free searching nanoprobes.

Data regarded Seven curiously, thinking she was beginning to see things. "Cadet Seven.. Are you well?" He started to reach up to tap his combadge when Seven grabbed his wrist, stopping a summons of a med call, and pointed down to the rug where the immunos Alexander had released milled about. She stooped down to spread a palm on the floor and they eagerly flowed up her arm and into her assimilation tubes port on her inner wrist. As the last nano returned to her, some clarity came back to Seven's thoughts as their newly strengthened experience helping the boy's condition helped hers. "Very clever." she said mostly to herself.

Then she noticed Data regarding her with puzzlement. "Alexander sent some of his vaccine to find me and they have had the side benefit of imparting some of their experience healing him to help me now with my symptoms. I think I can make it to the messhall if you'll accompany me.  
Calling the doctor isn't necessary. He has me on bioflag watch."

The gold android nodded once. "Then let us go at once. If the others are searching for you, it is best to be available. I've just learned that most of those confined to sickbay no longer are so. They are dining under doctor supervision. Perhaps Dr. Pel has gone with them. I would like to speak with her. Perhaps, you may as well."  
Then he noticed Seven staring with a blank face at the datapadd in his hand showing a new log entry. She seemed to not know what it was about.  
"Did you not see me open a channel to Lt. Torres's ship and invite her on board?"

"No. I...." Seven studied her shoes.."I.  
must have been distracted for a moment."

"Understandable. Being sick with the Phage is well known to effect those ill with mental fatigue as well as physical weaknesses."  
Data said. He held out a hand to Seven to help steady her when the rail she was leaning on to walk, ran out of length. They slowly got into the turbolift. "I believe the messhall is on Deck Nine." Data said when Seven didn't prompt the carrier program a destination.

"It is." Seven said, very delayed, back at him.  
"I'd give anything to be able to regenerate somehow.. Now I think I know how Captain Janeway feels after an "all nighter". "

Data keyed the proper deck once they were both completely inside the turbolift. "Perhaps that is something B'Elanna Torres and Scotty might be able to help you with. As you know, they are both engineers. In theory, it would only take minor adustments to a Borg alcove to afford your body the rest it requires without allowing full sleep to trigger the Phage melt down."

"That would be a relief." Seven said. "Please inform them once we arrive of my situation.  
I... don't want to remain in this state of inefficiency for much longer."

Data nodded and soon, he had escorted Seven to the right deck and entrance door.  
It was magnetically sealed. He manually keyed it to open and Data and Seven entered the messhall to wonderful odors of multiple meals that were fanned out in front of everyone. But even the thought of food turned Seven's stomach. All she wanted to do was let go and let a regen take over.  
::I can hardly wait for the engineers to make me one. But I have to wait for Data to ask B'Elanna and Mr. Scott if they would aid me. I don't know where they would make this special half mode alcove, the Guardian of Forever is filling the only cargobay on board with power sufficient to power one.:: Seven thought.

It was indeed a problem.

The EMH left watching Tom, who was preparing to face his old captain, to McCoy, and rose instantly with a med tricorder the moment he saw Seven of Nine being aided into a chair with Data's help. "Seven." he said, his voice laced with concern. "Why didn't you tell anyone you were so under the weather?"

Seven reached for a glass of water but over corrected herself. The holodoc snagged it off the table for her and helped her take a small sip from the silver goblet. "You already have your hands full.." she sighed, regarding his holographic eyes with resignation. "I am as yet un- incapacitated."

"Not by much. And to counter your previous statement before the last, There's three other doctors here to assist me. Four if Sulu decides to switch on Excelsior's Mach V EMH. He's only keeping him offline for my benefit."

"I remember.." Seven smiled. She watched the EMH run a scan of her vitals signs. "I.  
read your report on his first prototype from the Prometheus when we sent you through the Hirogen Hunter Communications Array."

"Hmmm." the holodoc "I thought that one was for Captain's eyes only."

"Not exactly.." Seven said. "She ....felt it would show me a lesson in humanity, from one who wasn't flesh and blood."

"Har dee har har. Wasn't Janeway funny..."  
he said sarcastically. "He's even worse than I am for a poor bedside manner and positively rock bottom for tact."

Seven bit her lip and refrained from adding a quip or amused smile. Instead she asked. "Would you hand me that piece of fruit over there? I think I can manage it with two hands."

The holodoc gave her the leolo root pod.

Seven saw Dr. Pel and her advanced state of being with child and frowned. "Been busy. Haven't you?" she said to him, implying a past history outside of their own first hesitant steps into their relationship.  
"No doubt you had something to do with her pregnancy before my time on Voyager apparently.." she said to bait him away from worry.

"I had nothing to do with fathering a child.  
Well, not in the way you are referring. Vidiians don't reproduce in that way. I'm surprised you don't have a record of that in your Borg memories." the holodoc said in a whisper.

"The Borg found the Vidiian's technology worth assimilation, but as for their biological distinctiveness...." and she shook her head.

"Too patchwork for Borg tastes, eh? I'll bet it drove your Queen to distraction trying to come up with a number with which to designate the Vidiians as a race. Hard thing to do when there is so much organ grafting from other species built into their makeup." the EMH completed.

Seven was only half listening... She had noticed Tom Paris on his feet and who was looking very like a prisoner about to be given his last request before a firing squad. And the one lined up to start shooting was Captain Janeway. ::Tom ? In trouble? I wonder why?:: she thought.

True to his word, Data approached the two chairs Seven and the EMH were occupying.  
He cleared his throat so the two of them would have time to cease their private conversation. But, of course, the android had heard every word. ::It's good etiquette to refrain from acknowledging subject matters not meant for me to overhear:  
But inside, he was surprised that Seven and the EMH seemed to be a "new couple".

It was a prior observation that he had missed.  
It must have shown on his face because the EMH glared at him with less than stellar kindness. "What do YOU want?" he demanded.

Data was unperturbed.  
"I promised to inform you, the other doctors, and Montgomery Scott as well as B'Elanna Torres when she arrives here, to "hurry up and build a Borg alcove that allows rest without full sleep."

Seven was mortified that Data had followed her instructions in the turbo so precisely. She buried her face in her hands and that, drew the holodoc's focus back to her.

"Seven? Is your consciousness state slipping again?  
I knew I should have placed a cortical monitor on you when you reached the forty hour mark with no sleep."  
he asked. He hastily reached into his medkit for one but Seven stopped the doctor from applying it to her neck. "Doctor.. I specifically requested that anyone but you handle my treatments because you worry too much."

The EMH phased out his arm to get past Seven's guard to place his target.

Across the table, McCoy started tsking.. "Ah. ah.  
ah.." to the holodoc. "Listen to the lady now doctor. As a patient, her wishes for a change in attending physician is documented so enjoy your opera reading and leave off. " he said very no nonsense.

The EMH grumbled, then what Data had said finally sunk in, "What a brilliant idea.. I'll get right on it."  
and the holodoc left the table to find Captain Scott at the adjacent one while at the same time, monitoring the new crew combadge signal coming off of Torres as she entered to within five hundred meters off the hull. ::She must be within transporter range on the Talon. Please,.. beam here. The sooner you get here, the sooner we can start building Seven a way to stay alive..:: he thought to himself.

With a firm grip, he grabbed Captain Scott's shoulders and spun him around in his dining chair so fast, that his haggis was thrown off his fork and right in front of the mother tribble. She immediately set to on the manna suddenly fallen from "heaven". Scott scowled but then caught the urgent look on the holo doctor's face. "What be troubling ya man?"

"Shh.. just listen to me. You and Torres have some work to do." the EMH said quickly.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Denara Pel and the EMH snuggling in an old car.

Image: Seven of Nine looking distressed.

Image: A bar of just Data's eyes.

******************************************

From :Myron Ojala Subject : From H*ll's Heart, I Stab at Thee.. Date : Wed, 15 May 2002 19:29:24 -0700 (PDT)

Scotty tried to keep the rest of his haggis from joining the piece that was currently being devoured by the ravenous mama Tribble.  
"Why the blazes are you in such a bleeding hurry, man?" the engineer said to the EMH.

The holodoc looked slightly anxious when he answered Scotty. "Mr. Scott, I need you to build a modified Borg alcove for Seven of Nine as soon as possible. She needs to regenerate her Borg implants without falling asleep. Can you do that?"

"Aye laddie, I'm sure that we can cobble up enough spare parts to create one. And how is the wee lassie?"

"As well as to be expected considering the length of time she has gone without regeneration." The doc replied. "And if it goes on for much longer, she'll end up as a big puddle of slime if you'll recall."

Scotty glanced over at Seven of Nine.  
He saw she was setting down an empty cup of coffee and grabbing a second steaming full cup. He couldn't help but notice that her hands were trembling slightly. ::The lassie must really need to take forty winks if what the doctor says is right.:: "I'll get to work on it right away.  
We'll have Seven to rights in no time. Now,  
about Mr. Boothby over there." and Scotty pointed to the viewer where the irate gardener was waiting impatiently.

Montgomery's curiosity had risen at the word Iconian the holodoc had mentioned a minute ago.  
He went over to Boothby's screen and said.  
"This is Captain Scott. Would you mind telling me more about this Iconian discovery near Pluto?"

Boothby grumbled. "You know as much as I do at this point. What I really need is to consult with Cadet Holozimm and the Professor Moriarty hologram. Why aren't they answering their hails yet?"

Scott said, "Well let me find out. " he tapped his combadge. "Computer. Locate Moriarty and Holozimm."

##The two designated holograms are located in Cargobay Four.## Scotty thought to himself.  
::That's where they set the blasted Guardian of Forever now isn't it? Why are they down there:  
He turned to Boothby. "You heard the computer."

Boothby looked at his chronometer. "D*mn. I have another meeting now. Mr. Scott would you have them get in touch with me as soon as possible?"

Scotty said. "Aye. I'll have them give you a jingle as soon as I can."

Boothby's image blacked out and the screen automatically returned to stand by mode.

The EMH grabbed his arm again. "Are you finished?  
Let's go."

Scotty sighed rising from his chair. "Yes, I am. I'm coming. I'm coming. Where's this here lassie B'Elanna Torres? This borg alcove construction will need two of us."

The holodoc said. "I believe she'll be beaming over from her ship the Talon momentarily. I can leave a message for her to meet us."

They left for the corridor together.

----------------------------------------------

Pain. Blinding pain. He was still alive, of that he was certain, for he knew that as long as he could feel his shattered wrist and the burns disfiguring his face, that death had not yet come.

The last thing he could remember was seeing the outlines of what appeared to be a doorway in the shine of the particles raining from the device before him that had illuminated its presence. Saying a prayer to a god that he no longer believed in, he dove through the doorway and off the doomed ship, abandoning his dead crew to where only the fates knew.

He struck what he knew to be a floor and he landed badly. The blinding pain forced a grunt from his lips and he cursed, displaying his weakness. He looked up and peered through bloody tears at the Guardian of Forever, not knowing it for what it was and saw two forms crouch over where he lay sprawled. He started to speak but then darkness enveloped him.

"Holozimm to sickbay. Medical emergency."  
And the cadet knelt and place a sensing tricorder on top of the injured stranger and he added.  
"Initiate site to site transport of the lifeform nearest my tricorder to sickbay immediately. Lock on to its signal and energize."

Then he stepped aback as the man disappeared in a transporter corona effect.

Holozimm turned to Moriarty and said. "That was strange. Why did an Iconian doorway just deposit that man on board the ship?"

Moriarty replied. "Iconian. I am unfamilar with that word. And even more so as to that man's identity. I hope he survives, his burns were severe. Could you recognize him?"  
he said to Holozimm.

Holozimm shook his head. "No. Those burns on his face prevented me from doing so."

Moriarty said. "The computer's still hailing us to report to the messhall. Should we go?"

Holozimm shrugged. "Might as well. It seems that the Iconian gateway has disappeared."

The Traveler stooped low to the deck and picked up an item that had fallen off their surprise guest. It was badly charred but it appeared to be a metal belt buckle with a starship's name in an engraving.  
The words were in English and the three of them could barely make it out.

Botany Bay.

The Guardian of Forever let its three companions out of the cargobay.

----------------------------------

Scotty entered the final component to his list on his datapadd while he walked with the holographic doctor down the corridor leading to the cargobay.

They were approaching their doors when the overhead speaker resonated with the computer's statement that there was a critically injured patient in sickbay requiring the EMH's immediate presence.

The EMH quickly said. "Acknowledged. I'm on my way." And Scotty watched the hologram wink out.

His curiosity aroused, Scotty asked the computer.  
"Computer. Can you name the identity of the injured person in sickbay."

##That information is not available.## it replied.

Intrigued even more, Scotty made his way down the three decks in a turbo to sickbay to learn just that.

---------------------------------------

The EMH worked frantically over the human male lying burned and shattered on one biobed.

The injuries, although severe, were no longer life threatening. He began epidermal regeneration treatments for his facial burns until the man's skin was whole again. Then he began to reassemble his broken wrist after being sure that his respiratory system was undamaged. "Hello. Can you hear me?"

The EMH noted a small reaction as the man's head moved as he spoke into his ear. His patient's unconsciousness seemed to be lifting. ::In fact the rate of his healing is remarkable.:: the doctor noticed on his tricorder, thinking to himself. As yet, the EMH was still alone in sickbay.

Suddenly the doctor heard the telltale sound of the sickbay entrance doors opening. He straightened from his patient's head and turned to see Mr. Scott rushing towards the bed. "No doctor, get away from him. He's dangerous."

Montgomery skidded to a halt near the head of the biobed and turned the groggy man's face in one of his hands. And he knew immediately who it was lying there. And as impossible as it seemed, Scotty thought. :: He's alive. Ohmygod:  
"It's Khan..."

The EMH said, "Khan? Is that this individual's name?"

Scotty looked up to nod a yes when suddenly he felt an insanely strong grip wrap one handed around his throat. Getting no air at all into his lungs, Scotty frantically clawed at the arm that was choking the life out of him.

"I know you..." said the older long haired man in tatters. "Where is he Mr. Scott?"

Scotty just gurgled.

"What do you think you're doing? Let him go!  
Security to sickbay." and the EMH struggled to pry Khan's fingers off from Scotty's windpipe.

Suddenly there was an audible crack and the aged engineer went limp and lifeless far quicker than the Phage could react to melt him down.

Inhumanly fast, the holodoc whipped out a hypospray and jabbed it to the side of Khan delivering a full dose of sedative in another effort to free Scotty.

"Kirk has one less compatriot now." Khan hissed, nose to nose with his physician. Then he sagged under the doctor's drug and his grip released the ragdoll engineer who fell on top of him.

Wasting no time at all, the EMH lifted Scotty with no effort to an adjacent biobed and set him down hastily with a sad gentleness.

"EMH to the messhall. We've a second critical patient in sickbay. I need assistance immediately. I've just lost Mr. Scott's lifesigns."  
he said as he saw all indicators dimming, and heard all of the audible monitor sensors flattening into clinical death.

Quickly administering a cardiac injection and placing a cortical stimulator on Scott's forehead,  
he examined Mr. Scott's injuries and found that his neck was broken just above C3.  
"A hangman's fracture. This is bad. I may not be able to revive him."

The EMH moved out of the way as the computer lowered the diagnostic arm over Scotty's chest for revival attempts, and he thought with a sick worry. ::I know that I can repair the C3 break but not in time before his higher brain functions shut down due to oxygen deprivation.::

The tones above his bed stayed sour in pitch.

::This bed lifesupport unit isn't doing anything at all:  
With no other course of action available, the holodoctor was left with only one remaining option.

The EMH hit a switch and a blue effect encased the dying engineer in a bubble of frozen time.

Then he sent the body off into one of the side compartments in the wall meant to hold deceased crewmen. ::The only way I can save him is to keep him in stasis indefinitely until we find a way to get him Phage free for his transfer to the spacedock surrounding us and then off to Starfleet Medical. But even then he may not survive. Our ability to cure this kind of trauma is still just experimental.  
I am afraid his life might be permanently over.::

Then the EMH awaited the others arriving to sickbay.

With an angry scowl the holodoc activated forcefield restraints over Khan triply strong and started some research into the murderer he now had under his care. "Just who are you to be able to kill while half dead?" he mumbled to his restrained prisoner.

The information began to scroll by on his datascreen.  
Then the EMH noticed the datapadd that Scotty had dropped when he was attacked and picked it up.  
He saw that it held detailed blueprints for building their Borg alcove. "Oh, Mr. Scott. If only you knew that your last act here might possibly be the only thing able to save Seven of Nine."

A transporter shimmer's sound took the EMH by surprise and he whirled around from his console.

A new figure in Starfleet medical teal stood before him. "I heard about your emergencies from my shuttlecraft. Can I offer my assistance? My name is Bashir. Dr. Julian Bashir. Starfleet just summoned me to deal with your Phage outbreak."

The EMH said sadly. "I'm afraid you've arrived just too late for one of them." and he pointed to the stasis hatch which now contained a morbid and now unliving ..legend.

"Oh, I'm so sorry... Now what about this fella?"  
Bashir said pleasantly setting down his duffel bag and studying Khan's sensor readings.

The EMH frowned and said. "Feel free to do anything you'd like to him. It's too bad we don't have the Rack on board Excelsior. But I'm sure we could manage a set of thumbscrews from the replicator."

Bashir's smile wiped off his face.  
"I'm afraid I don't understand."

The EMH said. "Patient number one here is responsible for Patient number two's untimely demise. I'm never a very happy camper when my patients take it upon themselves to eliminate each other."

Julian lifted a tricorder to the stasis chamber and he scanned it. "C-3 break. A tough call.  
I'd've done the same thing. You did everything according to the book, doctor."

"Doesn't make me feel any better. But thanks just the same. Welcome aboard. I'm sure you're going to see some interesting times here." the EMH quipped, holding out his hand.

"I look forward to it, ....I think." Bashir said,  
scratching his head and returning the handshake.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Scotty, hurt with arm in a sling.

Image: An enraged Noonian Khan, clinging to a railing on a pitching starship.

Image: A very subdued Dr. Julian Bashir in closeup.

******************************

From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] A Nightmare's Eye~~ Date : Thu, 16 May 2002 16:16:54 +0000

Janeway came to stand just in front of him,  
hands on hips.

Tom suddenly felt like the poor little canary the cat was about to swallow, ::Like in those cartoons I watch.::

"Thomas Eugene Paris.." Janeway said firmly and took a deep breath to continue..

Tom did the same himself and added a little gulp just to be on the safe side. ::Poor me.  
The Tweety bird..:: he thought.

Kathryn's mouth firmed up even deeper into her famous non scowl and she pinned her ex helmsman with an unblinking gaze that demanded no opportunity for him to look away.

Tom could almost hear the command tone in her very stance as he felt himself mentally shrink inches. ::Maybe I haven't built such a tough skin to Captain Janeway's scathings like I thought I had.:: some small part of him trickled.

Janeway's chin came up and her head angled sideways as she regarded her target with all the instinct of someone finding out some unpleasant news. Her right hand came up, with a single index finger chest high and her lips parted. Tom clamped his eyes shut and grimaced as the moment came.

She said, "...It's about time you made a decision as reckless as any still on active duty here. Welcome aboard..."

Tom's eyes snapped open and he saw Kathryn's face transform into a wonderful beaming smile that was all unCaptain and she drew him into tight embrace. It took a moment for him to realize that he was off the hook and to return the hug. He heard her speak softly into his ear, "Glad to see you back on your feet, Tom. We were worried about you." she said for herself and Chakotay.

She released him, giving his arms a squeeze briefly before letting him go. Then she turned to resecure her abandoned coffee cup into her hand from the table.

Tom let the weakness in the knees from relief take over and he slipped into a chair while he recovered.

Kathryn's mouth smirked with amusement. "Well.  
Have I still got it?" she said mildly.

Tom tried to make his mouth work. "Uh..Y--- Yeah.  
I feel like the russian roulette player whose gun just fired off a blank, captain. Don't worry. You haven't lost anything being earthbound. Believe me."  
Then he felt the ability to smile come back and he took several breaths to calm his nerves.

"Good. Just testing the old knack." and she chuckled and gave his shoulder a mock punch of affection at the word "knack."

Tom pointed to a water glass he saw just out of reach at her.

Captain Janeway didn't get it for a second then hastened to give it to him so Tom could soothe his still dry mouth. "Oh. Sorry.. Here. Guess I must've forgotten the effect,." and she took a sip from her coffee and grimaced at its now too cold taste before going on. "....Of what I can do ....on my old crewmates. 'The Ominous Talking Down Torture.' as Harry coined it once.  
Guess it was a little too strong this time?" she asked, holding up miniscule pinching fingers.

Tom belated overcompensated and said, "umm hmmm...." nodding exaggeratedly while he recovered his wits. "Just a... just a bit,  
captain." and then he took a large gulp of water.

"Oooooo." she said, sucking in her breath in sympathy. "Hope I didn't cause your condition any setbacks with my little joke." and she made a funny face deliberately opposite anything Janeway at him around the rim of a newly procured coffee mug.

Tom laughed fully then and held up two hands up in the air which said no harm done.

Janeway's expression immediately fell into seriousness as she crooked a hip on the edge of the tabletop.  
She afforded a quick checking glance to the conditions of everyone in the room around her before meeting Tom's gaze again. "I'm not sure how much you know of what's going on board ship with this Vidiian Phage. It's a bad one. Most of the crew is fast approaching advanced stages. Just look at Seven of Nine. She's the one I'm most worried about. The doctors say she's the closest to the Phage insanity stage and her nanoprobes are only keeping her from it by the slimmest of margins."

She suddenly lost her appetite for her coffee and she set it behind her without looking. "Makes me feel guilty for being so blatantly healthy.  
Something about a trip into the visionquest realm with others mental presences to fight beside me has freed me from the infection. Even Chakotay doesn't know what did it. But that makes me all the more determined to get on top of this crisis while this gift horse is still around." she said,  
spreading her arms wide.

Then Janeway pointed to Denara Pel, seated and eating near Alexander and K'Ehleyr. "Now the doctor over there has risked herself coming at the behest of Starfleet simply because she feels that a cure may lie in B'Elanna's genes. She only has a few more days grace period due to her pregnancy before the Phage makes her just as much of a target as the rest of the crew on Excelsior. ..Now..." the captain said, thinking as she slid into an empty chair near Tom and tapping Chakotay's chair back to get him to listen in again. "I know the EMH has started getting Seven's immediate problem seen to. But I need to come up with a way to stabilize the others." she said, sweeping a hand over the weeping sores that Chakotay had on his arms and cheeks. "Until Dr. Pel and the other Starfleet doctors here can come up with something using B'Elanna once she boards."

Chakotay poured Janeway a fresh cup and set it into her hands again. "You still need to drink. If you fall asleep and the Phage gains a new foothold on you....." he warned.

Janeway rolled her eyes. "Yes... I know.. I might....goo." she sighed. "Not a pleasant prospect.  
For anybody. Listen, Tom.. I need you to find out why Boothby wants HoloZimm and Moriarty's ear about this Iconian portal station's reappearance off Pluto. It may be something relevant to all of us here.  
I won't have any more harm coming to this crew.."

The fall of her words were unknowingly soon to be very ironic when....

A second moment had flown by and the Excelsior's sentry computer announced. ##Security has been summoned to sickbay by the EMH. Situation unknown.##

Janeway and Chakotay's heads shot up very fast in alarm and Janeway unconsciously rose to her feet.

"Unknown?.. H*ll.." Janeway muttered.

A live comhail punctuated over the voices as Sulu on the bridge activated an intruder alert remotely to the status bar ringing the messhall.

=^= "EMH to the messhall. We've a second critical patient in sickbay. I need assistance immediately. I've just lost Mr. Scott's lifesigns."

In fellow fear, Kathryn looked to where Captain Kirk had also risen to his feet at the news. She saw his mouth was momentarily slack before the command shell covered his reaction. "Go..." she told him and Dr. McCoy. "Dr. Crusher. I need you to stay here and monitor Seven of Nine. B'Elanna's also going to need an escort to sickbay for that full genetic scan Dr. Pel needs when she gets here. Chakotay, Lt.  
Yar.. you're with me.. And... you, Tom. If you're feeling well enough to accompany. Everyone,  
arm yourselves!!" she said to the room at large.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

Kirk was instantly aware and shoved his dinner plate aside the moment the EMH had stopped speaking on shipwide hail. "Put him on screen." he said as he nodded to Janeway as she and others left at a run for sickbay.

"But..." Lt. Yar sputtered.

"Do it, now." Kirk said firmly. "Then go with Captain Janeway. Make sure this ship is secure.."

"Yes sir..." and the youngish blond woman took off after them.

He waited for the screen Yar had called up to sickbay to come to life. The phaser was soon forgotten in his hand when he saw a green light activated over a corpse stasis hatch just behind where the EMH was speaking with another unfamiliar doctor in Starfleet blue.

::Ohmy god.. Scotty...:: Kirk quailed. He forced his mind to work. ::Later on that. Now get on top of the situation James Tiberius Kirk.:: he admonished himself. But unconsciously, he called out. "Spock..??" He didn't even feel the ambassador rise to stand near him in nonverbal support.

The two doctors were blocking a biobed that held an occupant that Kirk could not yet see but who had very powerful lifesigns despite sedation.

Spock lowered his eyes and said, "Captain. Prepare yourself."

Jim flared in a sudden fury. "I know. Things may not be what they seem for Scotty."

Spock uncharacteristically set a hand on his captain's shoulder. "That is not what I mean. Those lifesigns over the bed. I recognize the signatures. Impossible as it may seem. They belong to Khan Noonian Singh."

A bolt of pure ice tore through Kirk as the name triggered very unpleasant associations. "I've got to get down there.. Come when you can.." his voiced cracked to Spock.

Kirk fled the messhall in the fastest way possible to the corridor the moment he was free from close proximity to the others and he slammed a fist into his combadge. =^= Kirk to the bridge. Emergency site to site. My location to sickbay..=^=

And soon, he was there..

Tasha Yar already had three guards surrounding Khan's bed where the genetically engineered megalomaniac lay unconscious before the two doctors.

Kirk didn't say a word to her, but went straight to the EMH for a report.

"Captain..." the EMH said very startled. "I didn't expect to see you so.."

"Where is he doctor..?" Kirk said. He was almost afraid to face the green light winking on the other side of the ward. "Doctor.." he then nodded to the strange Deep Space Nine physician standing near the EMH.

The EMH said nothing and went over to the stasis hatch that suddenly made fear wash sharply through Kirk's whole being.

::Oh no. Not this.. Not now..:: A small voice said inside James Kirk.

A hiss of returning air into the chamber and a rush of mist shrouded Scotty until the sliding table had the suspended engineer fully out into the room.

"I'm sorry Captain." The holodoc said quietly. "There was nothing I can do. You see, it was Khan who attacked him without provocation. His neck was shattered irrepairably."

For long unreal moments, Kirk witnessed the blue pallor to his long time friend's flesh and the unnatural angle of his head on his neck before the name the EMH imparted filled his thoughts legibly.

"What?!!" Kirk said. Instantly, his phaser went a little higher and he barged past the two doctors to stand by the bed containing his worst nightmare. A vein started to throb in his forehead and he clenched and unclenched tight teeth as his eyes beheld a Khan unchanged by the passage of years.

Then he lifted eyes up to the two doctors before him and ordered firmly. "Wake him... now.."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Captain Kirk with a phaser.

Image: Tasha Yar full with white lit background.

***********************************

From: "Cassidy Meyers" Date: Sun May 19, 2002 1:17 pm Subject: Khan-flict of Interest

Deanna Troi met Dr. Crusher's eyes.  
She didn't have to say anything to her crewmate Beverly who knew that the counselor was leaving the messhall.  
"Deanna. Keep me posted. I'll be on the remote comm monitor if you need me."

"Right." said Troi. And then she was all business. ::A death has occurred. I felt him go. And this will not go easily for Kirk.::

Then the Enterprise D physician turned back to speaking quietly with Seven of Nine to see how she was fairing. Beverly encouraged all who remained behind to keep eating, medical orders. "This is unpleasant news, I know. But maintaining your healths, believe it or not, is still a priority. I'm sure we'll learn more about Mr. Scott and what has happened soon."

The worried buzz in the messhall hushed to concerned conversation as everyone realized sage advise when they heard it.  
But the glowing intruder alert bar above their heads made any relaxation impossible and the crewmen around her just nibbled halfheartedly.

Dr. Crusher saw Seven's readings fluctuate into stronger stress. "No worrying Seven.  
We would have gone to red alert if the intruder call suspected a free moving new individual on board. No doubt security's on top of things. Now eat. No excuses."

Seven glanced up at the sickbay monitor on the viewer and finally nodded quietly,  
selecting another leolo root from the basket the EMH had set down before her earlier.

What Dr. Crusher chose to not disclose to the room at large was that Mr. Scott's lifesigns,  
did not resume. Rising discreetly from her chair, Beverly went over to a side computer wall panel and called up the bioflag reading sensor log on Montgomery's combadge.  
It showed classic signs of traumatic strangulation and cervical compromise, levelling off into a negative lifescan and then the lock down blanket signature of a stasis field hastily erected. She fine tuned her probe into the database and learned his neck break was a bad one, needing the specialized facilities on Earth to treat him at all.  
::Good. They've sealed his body. Can't save him until we've cleared him of the Phage. This will buy him the time we need to do just that. I hope.:: she wished. ::Until then, this quarantine will hold all of us here until its run its course.::

Across the room, Deanna departed quickly in the direction that Captain Janeway and the others had gone, towards sickbay.

---------------------------------------------------

Troi read high anger, grief, shock and numbness coming heavily from sickbay from only one source.  
Kirk.

"What?!!" Kirk said. Instantly, his phaser went a little higher and he barged past the two doctors to stand by the bed containing his worst nightmare. A vein started to throb in his forehead and he clenched and unclenched tight teeth as his eyes beheld a Khan unchanged by the passage of years.

Then he lifted eyes up to the two doctors before him and ordered firmly. "Wake him... now.."

Troi saw that there were two strange men now in sickbay. And Scotty's body held under a misting field open from a chamber vault near the distraught older captain. "Sir!" she shouted at Kirk.

But he ignored her and tried to grab a hypo to do the job himself. But the EMH was fast, and easily twisted the medication out of the captain's grip.  
"You're not going to do that. Not if I can help it. That is the wrong hypospray, the one I used to subdue Khan."

That snapped Kirk out of his fugue with shock at his own lack of judgement. "It is..?" but there was no energy in his question.

Nor any regret to Deanna in the tone of his voice. She quickly made her way to Kirk's side and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Captain. Come away for a moment. I'd like to speak with you..."

He didn't seem to hear her so she added some weight.

"...About Scotty..." she said firmly.

That finally focused the stunned Enterprise Captain out of his initial shock at his friend's sudden death.

She sat him down on a medical stool and then walked over and rehit the switch which retracked the table holding the stasis frozen engineer until it and the hideous way he had died was once again hidden.  
She glared at the EMH for his lack of judgement in showing Kirk his friend too soon into events.

Dr. Bashir seemed to agree for he nodded a strong yes to her when he saw her moving to seal the chamber again. "Yes. Do that. I'll join you." he said and he took a seat next to Kirk on his other side.

The EMH stayed with Khan, his first priority patient,  
and shouldered Lt. Yar out of his way when he decided to do another head scan on Khan to make sure the injuries he had when he arrived were fully healed.

Tasha hastily got out of the way and waved the security guards back a few meters so the holodoctor could work but then she, too, figured out that the doctor could only react that way due to his programming.

Deanna spoke gently to Kirk who didn't resist when she took the phaser out of his hand and handed it to one of the security guards. She recognized Julian as being a medical doctor and she nodded thanks.  
The time for the darker skinned doctor's name could wait. "Captain Kirk. Now I know this is a shock to you. But know this. I saw the readings on Beverly's bioscan monitor before I left the messhall and I saw the EMH put Scotty into stasis not because he had given up on him but for the opposite reason.  
Scotty's injury requires Starfleet Medical's facilities to properly attempt to save him. With our Vidiian Phage quarantine going on, he can't beam anywhere to start that process until he's cured. It's the best choice we can do for the moment. Think about it."  
she told him and then lowered her hands away from him when she saw his face transform from the numbness to a vulnerableness that stayed only in his eyes for a brief moment.

Deanna saw Kirk's years of commanding his emotions from others reassert itself and that momentary show of weakness disappeared in the space of a minute.

"Couns--" but his voice broke raspy and soft.

Julian sympathized and handed him a glass of water.  
"Here, captain. Stress with the Vidiian Phage brings out vocal abnormalities. It'll pass."

Troi then saw how advanced Kirk's lesions were while her own on her skin were still fairly light.  
She mentioned it to the EMH. "Doctor. Could strong emotion be causing our conditions to digress into the advanced stages more quickly?"

The holodoc looked up from his analysis on the sleeping Khan and he set his tricorder down on the superhuman's stomach with a toss. "That isn't unplausible. In fact,  
it's downright possible. We haven't been able to explain Seven of Nine's nor Spock's speedier fall into trouble."

Deanna said, "What about him? Should he be unconscious like that?" and she pointed to Khan.

The EMH said. "With his enhanced immune system? Yes.  
He's a confirmed murderer but his genetic engineering inherencies will spare him the Phage. He can't get sick from it. Neither can our new friend Julian Bashir here for the same reason."

Julian looked embarrassed as if a great secret had been let out. But both Deanna Troi and the EMH didn't catch the look from him about his true biological history.

Then Deanna turned her head as Chakotay, Janeway,  
McCoy and others who decided to tag along entered sickbay at a run with their phasers out. She said,  
"It's all right. The situation's under control."

"Oh." a panting Janeway said, and she holstered her phaser, eyes going from a quiet but alert Kirk to the green light on the wall on the stasis chamber to the massive form of Khan under his restraints on the biobed. "I see." Then she noticed the EMH already present and she frowned. "I must be slipping. The thought of using site to site transportation to get to sickbay faster didn't even cross my mind." she quipped, trying to elicit a smile from Kirk to cheer him.

It didn't work. Janeway saw McCoy move to Kirk's side,  
taking the counselor's place near him and the older doctor began speaking to his old shipmate privately while Julian stayed discreetly nearby to offer support.

Deanna gave him space and drew Janeway and the others away from the three to give them space. "He's handling it fine." she said quickly about Kirk. Then she changed the subject. "What I need to know is about Khan here.."

"Khan?" Chakotay's head snapped up. "Khan Noonien Singh?"

"I wouldn't know." Deanna said puzzled. "I just learned his first name a minute ago.."

Chakotay glanced uneasily at the large middle eastern man with the white hair on the biobed and shuddered. "No one can forget him. He's dead."

"I beg to differ.." the EMH said from where he was.

Chakotay just gave a tolerant later for you look to the holodoc and continued. "He fought Kirk and Enterprise almost to a standstill on Reliant in the Mutara Nebula almost eleven years ago over something called a Genesis device. That man over there looks like the same man I remember from those records."

"What records?" Janeway frowned back. "I've never heard of this Genesis device.."

Chakotay grinned. "That's because only the Maquis paid any attention to the rumors floating around about the famed Genesis Planet which blew up after regrowing Ambassador Spock. No Starfleet officer in their right mind would pay attention to just tales of mythos, now would they?"

"The Genesis device and all materials relating to it are classified.." McCoy said, piping up. He was pouring Jim and himself some Saurian Brandy. "So hush up that line of thinking."

Janeway waved a dismissing hand in surrender. "Don't have to hear about what was fought over, just about this second combatant here." and she gestured to Khan. "If he's dangerous.  
I want to know about it and how he got here. If that device blowing up somehow fractured time, creating the Iconian gateways to re-oscillate from a previously destroyed Iconian subterranean chamber from the past, I want to know about it. The circumstances surrounding it, doctor. Not the intimate details. Satisfied?"

Both Kirk and McCoy nodded.

Chakotay went on, his hands folded over his chest, which had begun to hurt from the Phage fever symptoms he was beginning to feel again. "I've already checked for that. There's no sign of any Iconian time rifts open within twelve parsecs from Excelsior or Earth."

Janeway sighed. "Well that's a relief. Perhaps these were an isolated incident..." and she tapped her lip a finger,  
thinking. "Who found Khan anyway? Those readings look like he was too hurt to move only a short time ago.."

The EMH piped up. "He was found by HoloZimm and Moriarty. I received their priority med hail by both bioflag and intercom."

Chakotay asked. "Where are they now?"

Janeway asked the computer the same thing.

##Holozimm and Moriarty are in corridor Beta deck seven.."

"Coming here...." she mused. "Looks like the Guardian of Forever and the Traveler has "let them out of school."  
she smiled. "Now perhaps we'll learn more about our homicidal snoozer Khan here."

No sooner did Captain Janeway utter those words than did she see Moriarty and Holozimm enter sickbay to join those around Kirk and Khan.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Dr. Crusher with a scanner.

Image: Kirk finding Noonien Khan years ago in a sleep ship.

Image: Deanna Troi wearing the blue gown.

*

From : "Cory Anda" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] To Grease Monkeys Everywhere... Date : Sat, 25 May 2002 16:23:09 +0000 Tandem post between "patti keiper"  
and "cory anda" via email tennis over the course of the week.

MAIN characters involved

McCoy K'Ehleyr Barclay Ambassador Spock

FREE use characters

The EMH Moriarty Holozimm Janeway

HoloZimm and Moriarty entered the rest of the way into sickbay. Only Holozimm's face registered the fact that a death had occurred on the Excelsior. Moriarty was the same un innocent new to circumstances changing around him and the English holo was immediately attracted to the new people in sickbay, Khan on his biobed and Dr. Julian Bashir sitting next to Kirk. He went over to them without saying anything.

But Holozimm, babbled like a brook to the EMH.  
"He came aboard suddenly. Even the Guardian of Forever didn't recognize the intrusion of Khan's Iconian doorway into its local space. But I know that its appearance was strictly incidental, Khan wasn't aware enough to be in control of anything much when he tumbled through." he reported, loud enough for both captains to hear.

Janeway frowned turning away from the biosigns of the massive human in front of her. "I thought that all engineered humans from the Eugenics Wars had either fled Earth or had passed on."

"They did." Holozimm said. "I have it in my memory.  
I read all about it in Starfleet's classified section when I roamed the computer net a few days after I was activated. I was looking for references to Lewis Zimmerman. The man I'm modelled after."

The EMH scoffed. "Come to think of it, you ARE more like a younger brother to me than a son. Only I'm the doctor here and you are just.....junior.." he said rolling his eyes. His treatment of Khan had completed but he did nothing to bring the megalo maniac out of his sedation. He turned an eye to the door as Reginald Barclay entered sickbay.  
The holodoc held out the datapadd that Scotty had dropped when he was attacked out to Reg.  
"Here Lt. I...believe Mr. Scott wanted you and eventually B'Elanna, when she gets on board, to have this. It's detailed designs of the altered alcove Seven needs to regenerate her implants while preventing the rest of her from going totally asleep."

Reginald froze at the sight of the green lit body chamber he knew held a very beloved engineer.  
He watched Mr. Spock just behind him, approach Kirk and stand quietly by his side near McCoy and the seated Bashir. "Uh... ok.." and he felt the EMH manually close his fingers around the padd .

"Well hop to it, Lt.! Seven can't wait all day."  
the EMH snapped.

That broke Barclay out of his freeze about Scotty's demise and he said. "Oh, uh. right. I'll.....I'll get right on it. Y- You say B'Elanna Torres is going through boarding procedures right now? I'll need to see her.."

"Yes. yes. yes.." the EMH said. "She's just got word from the bridge to report to the messhall but no doubt, Torres will come here seeing the two captains are now in sickbay dealing with our psychopathic superman here." he said of Khan.

Barclay quickly moved over to an engineering panel and started to download Scotty's designs for the altered Borg alcove into its mainframe.

Janeway decided to accompany the lieutenant at the station, keeping a close eye on the biosigns of Seven being displayed on the sickbay overscreen near the EMH. So far, Seven was still responding to what Beverly Crusher was saying to her with nods and trying to sip water on the image projecting there.  
::Hang in there Seven. I'm no engineer, but I can build everything but the guts of the thing:  
Janeway tapped her combadge =^=Janeway to Lt. Torres. Status report. You're needed in sickbay immediately. Doctor Pel will join you here once you've reported. There's a little emergency construction project you need to do record time. Meeting Tom can wait. I'm afraid Seven's life depends on it...=^=

Over by the row of body chambers, Kirk was still staring at the only one showing occupancy. Spock wasn't oblivious to his old captain's pain even though nothing was visible on Kirk's face any longer. Even McCoy had toned down his usual grumbling to non existence as Scotty's situation truly sank in past the medical doctor shell he possessed. Spock composed his features into a neutral Vulcan passiveness.  
"This is not the end, captain." he told Kirk.

McCoy was irrepressible. "Oh, and you're a fine expert for stating the obvious." he said, sloshing more Saurian Brandy into Kirk's glass. "After all, you've BEEN into the beyond and back. That d*mned Genesis device made sure of that. And Khan was the one who booted your rear into the afterlife with that insane ship battle maneuver which nearly got us all killed."

"That was a temporary complication, doctor." Spock told McCoy easily. "Logic suggests that the past is now fixed and only valuable as a teaching medium for gathering experience on lessons learned. Khan's relocation out of the fate handed him was simply.."

Barclay spoke from where he and Janeway were working.  
"...a fluke.."

"Be that as it may.." Spock went on, eyeing each of the officers listening in on the conversation between their little group surrounding Kirk. "The present is now all we are required to deal with. One moment at a time."

McCoy jerked his brandy decanter at Spock and held up an empty snifter at the Vulcan with an invitation.

"No thank you doctor. My mind must remain clear of ...unwanted effects. The situation at hand requires all senior officers to be fully in control of their faculties."

"Spock blast you! All I'm proposing is that we toast a dear departed friend. If Scotty meant anything to you at all, you can do with a drink just this once so thin that Vulcan blood for a moment and consider those feelings I KNOW you have under that green skin of yours long enough to matter!" McCoy said and he carelessly flipped the silver tumbler in Spock's direction so the ambassador had to intercept the glass before it hit him in the face.

Spock raised an eyebrow at the Saurian decanter in McCoy's hand and then, without a word, held out his glass to get his share.

The liquid liquor's splashed musically bright as bottle lip met glass rim and the sound sobered all watching McCoy pour for his old colleague, until the glass was almost full. Then the doctor shot out another hand and injected Spock with an alcohol detoxifier.  
"There. Now we're both happy.." and he held up his glass into a very sad gallant toast. "To the best d*mned engineer that Starfleet or any Starship, could ever hope to have man her instrument panels. "

Kirk finally, responded with a whisper.. "Here. here.  
To you Scotty.. May you find rest.."

"Temporarily..." McCoy interjected firmly. "I'm not about handing out premature halos just yet. That stasis will do a good job holding back St. Peter.."

Kirk finally smiled as his old friends surrounded him.

The toast of McCoy's, Spock's and his own completed and all three shared a weighed moment of emotion and memory. Bashir, near them respectfully bowed his head and so did Janeway and Barclay at the engineering panel.

Kirk went on..".. and tranquility away from the urge to scratch your itches..." the captain said, digging fingernails into the skin surround a cracking Phage lesion. "Spock. I don't know how you can stand yours.  
I feel like I've rolled in Denebian poison ivy.."

McCoy glanced down at Spock's Phage sores and saw the green weeping there. He scanned for a diagram of their progression in the ambassador. "Lucky Vulcan genes. You can turn the itch impulse off like a light switch.. They've spread Spock, from your feet and hands to your torso and neck. Don't scratch and drink plenty of fluids. How's the impulse to sleep?"

"It is not a factor yet, Doctor McCoy, as it is for Janeway's crewman, Seven of Nine. How is her condition?"  
Spock replied and asked.

McCoy scratched a sore on his own chin and said,  
"Well I don't think that she can last much longer without that alcove of Scotty's. I'd say, an hour at the most. Then she'll need that regen bypass mode to refresh her implants at least even if her body can't fall into sleep without melting from the Phage infection."

K'Ehleyr entered sickbay and noted the three men holding brandy snifters in front of the chamber holding Scotty's death paused body. Wordlessly, McCoy held up his own glass in an invitation for her to join them in the toast to Scotty. She declined. "I never drink to the dead unless its a sure thing forever.. Thanks but no thanks."

McCoy grinned.

The tall lanky Klingon ambassador came to the foot of Khan's bed and studied the form under the restraints.  
"I think I can take this one on physically. My arms are bigger than his.. I volunteer to be a bodyguard for him,Lt.  
Yar.." K'Ehleyr said to the blond woman and her security team surrounding Khan's biobed.

Tasha laughed and nodded.

Then K'Ehleyr made her way over to the EMH and McCoy and studied Bashir thoughtfully. "You.. three.. doctors should know that Seven of Nine is barely holding herself together. I wouldn't be surprised if she started dropping dermal implants like rain by now. Got a handle on that Borg alcove she needs?"

Spock pointed to where Janeway and Barclay were frantically trying to decipher Scotty's notes on their computer screen.

K'Ehleyr mumbled. ::Damn. I wish I hadn't failed my Starfleet engineering course.:: Then her attention was drawn by Moriarty who came to stand in front of her toe to toe. He barely came up to her shoulders for height. "You got a problem hologram?" she said.

Moriarty didn't take offense. "I was just thinking about your comment about being stronger than Khan.  
Facing an adversary is more often times not a contest of physicality but a battle of mental capacities.."

K'Ehleyr regarded Khan where he slumbered again for long moments. Then she sighed, turning a look back at Moriarty. "I can beat him. I have no revenge aspect to trip me up like the two of you.."

Moriarty frowned for the first time. "I don't understand.  
I'm not out to get you biologicals any more. I have an agreement with your dear Captain Kathryn to not wage war on any crew here whilst I still serve the best interests of the ship. In return, I get pure research into ways I can exist outside of a holo environment.. Don't you remember...?"

K'Ehleyr just blinked in that slow confident way of hers with a smile. "Just checking to see if you remembered.  
I'm a newly designated body guard, remember..?"

Moriarty left her side with disgust to go see how Janeway and Barclay's progress on the alcove was progressing without B'Elanna so far.

Ambassador K'Ehleyr noticed. "What's eating you Reginald, besides the Phage virus..? "And she laughed hugely..

Reg looked up between tapping algorithms into the computer system. Her joke was heard but he chose to not dwell on it to avoid another fainting spell via his hypochondriac trigger. "Uh.. These calculation matrices are more complex than I can make out. I'll be glad for B'Elanna's arrival so she can assist.." he said without looking up at K'Ehleyr.

"Noted." K'Ehleyr said, "I'll keep an eye out for her, too." she said and moved away from the working pair so they could be undisturbed.

Holozimm was oggling Khan with a look of utter fascination and that got K'Ehleyr's attention.  
She straightened and cleared her throat.

Holozimm startled out of his staring and he was a bit embarrassed about her observations.:: Though it's still hard to tell for sure with holograms:  
she thought.

Holozimm was in awe and he spoke. "So this is a speciman of engineered human. Remarkable.."  
he said of Khan and sizing him up like an admirer of the Mona Lisa. "You can hardly tell the heavier genework through excess musculature and brain pan size. Khan is a flesh engineered being just as I and Moriarty and the EMH are holo engineered. Amazing.."

K'Ehleyr grinned. "Better redirect your adoring eyes over to that handsome dark hair and eyed doctor over there. Julian Bashir is an engineered being too, Holozimm. A later model.."

Holozimm's head whipped around. "He is!  
Wow. I'd like to talk with him..." and he left Khan's bedside to do just that.

K'Ehleyr's grin only widened. "Well, well, well.  
Doesn't it seem we all joined the engineer's club today. Both the engineer fans and the engineered. Feel honored Montgomery Scott.  
Those in your profession and soon hopefully,  
you too, will be very much in the foreground.."

-  
(attachments)

Image: McCoy Kirk and Spock in a turbolift.

Image: K'Ehleyr in battle sim.

Image: Holozimm and the EMH-Mach 1.

Image: Moriarty and Regina.

Image: Barclay portrait.

*animated gif* 7 of 9 having flashbacks while being sick.

*******************************************

From: "Myron Ojala"  
Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Khan-tamination Date: Mon, May 27 2002 20:04:07 CST USA 00:00:00

He dreamed. Khan dreamed of being surrounded in flame. He felt as if he floated in a sea of flame.  
Everything he had built, from his early empire to his legion of followers, were now dead.

His beloved Marla McGivers, whom he cherished more than he ever believed possible, was now dust. He saw his second chance at an empire crumble bit by bit as Ceti Alpha V, the moon, exploded over head in the sky where he and his people had been exiled by the b*st*rd Kirk. ::Where is he?:: Khan thought in his battle with the sedation the Starfleet hologram had injected him. In moments he had beaten its effects but outwardly he gave away no sign that he was fully awake and aware of his immediate surroundings.

In what he was hearing, he knew only three guards and one woman were paying attention to him where he lay. The cologne the woman was wearing reminded him of Marla strangely and that made Khan ache all the more in his heart for his loss.  
::So, I'm not alone in being a created superior man.  
Three holograms and one other human. But as yet,  
they are not firmly in my camp. I must win their loyalties.:: Khan chose to bide his time before the sensors gave away his conscious condition while he thought things over.

Then he heard a voice talking which turned his blood to fire. ::Kirk... He's here. But am I on Enterprise:  
Khan's control over his biological processes began to falter. He overheard the EMH respond to a changing note on the medical panel that Khan knew was oriented to his biosigns.

"Well. well. well. Looks who's awake and listening in."  
the EMH piped up. The holodoc made triply sure that Khan's restraints were working.

That got the attention of Kirk, Spock, McCoy as well as Troi, Yar, Janeway, Chakotay, Bashir, Barclay, K'Ehleyr, and the two holograms, Moriarty and Holozimm.

McCoy said to the EMH. "Watch him carefully." he said to the guards surrounding the biobed. "If he moves so much as a finger, ..."

"Feel free to break it.." the EMH added. "Then we'll just fix it and then break it again."

"Hush, doc. Show some common human decency."  
McCoy said, his voice sounding neutral but his face looking hard and hateful.

"You forget, I'm not a human being.." the EMH replied dryly. "I'm exempt from that by choice I'll have you know. It was doctors like you who programmed me."  
The holodoc sighed, moving to stand next to K'Ehleyr who now had a clear line of sight to Khan's biobed.  
"I'm a doctor not a philosopher Dr. McCoy. I'll leave that up to flesh and blood physicians like you. Feel free to step in at any time.." he quipped.

K'Ehleyr had her arms crossed as she studied the features of the man who had some history with as great a captain as Kirk. ::I wonder who this Khan is?  
I've never seen Kirk so shaken. Whoever he was then,  
can't bode well for us all now.::

The Klingon ambassador continued to stare at Khan.

The genetically displaced dictator prince, finally opened his eyes calmly to gaze one by one at all in the sickbay ward. He didn't smile. He didn't feel he needed to just yet. All he knew was that fate was not yet done with him. ::And I am not done with you, James Kirk:  
Khan chose that moment to address his captors.

"May I move and sit up? I'm sure your computer sentry can stun me at any time at your command before I can even act so have no fear.. You have my word, Kirk, that I will take no further action against this crew. I HAVE your attention now and that is all I require at this time."  
Khan said, eyeing James Kirk without blinking.

Finally the older captain nodded a short look to the EMH who lifted the shoulder restraints but who did nothing to free Khan's legs. "I'll allow this.." Kirk said. His look to the guards spoke volumes. ::Don't screw this up. Stay alert.:: Kirk waited for Khan to speak further and all talking in sickbay ceased except for the computer terminal's chirps where Janeway and Barclay were frantically trying to build Seven of Nine's modified Borg alcove virtually.

That computer display intrigued Khan and he refused to direct his full attention yet on Kirk. The advances in technology he saw there told him a clue as to where he was. "If that time index displaying there is correct,  
I'm no longer on Reliant nor in the Mutara Nebula and judging from your advancing age Kirk, you are far from your beloved Enterprise. " Khan noticed the wounds of infection on just about everyone surrounding him except for the female captain and the young middle eastern physician who was regarding Khan with uncertain irony. ::Now I wonder why those two aren't ill with whatever ails these others?:: he thought. Out loud, Khan said to his old nemesis. "I have no further quarrel with you for the moment, Kirk. I never fight with sick old men."

Kirk didn't move but his eyes blazed in fury. Nearby Troi flinched with the reaction barely contained.

Her beauty caught Khan's eye and for a moment he forgot the insult he had just delivered. He smiled for the first time and it was genuinely pleasant. "Ah, I see that the future still carries jewels of breathtaking caliber on your starships. May I have the pleasure of your acquaintance Madam?" he grinned charmingly at Deanna Troi. He soon noticed a colder beauty standing nearby of equal loveliness in a second woman yet he also sensed in her an alien strength already primed against him. "And yours as well?"

Neither Troi nor K'Ehleyr deigned to answer Khan.

But the EMH provided the information Khan desired unintentionally. "Leave Counselor Troi and Ambassador K'Ehleyr alone. Your business is your own so kindly mind it."

Khan smiled when the names he wanted were provided.  
"Thankyou doctor. That is all I require of you."

Dr. Bashir stepped in front of Kirk when the older captain suddenly bent near Spock to share a few words in private. He made sure that his body was blocking Khan's view of their muted conversation.  
"Khan." and he whipped out a friendly hand. "My name is Julian Bashir. No doubt you've already heard of my roots and occupation. Seems we've much in common. Shall we talk?"

"So transparent in tactic. But I admire your bravery."  
And Khan took his hand in return in a clasp of welcome.  
"I accept your hospitality. It seems the others aren't so trusting of me."

The guards around him stiffened their grips on their holstered phasers but each and Lt. Yar remained by their places lining the walls without doing anything more.

"You can see their point can't you? You murdered one of their crewmates in cold blood." Bashir said mildly and smiling.

Khan nodded. "Granted I did that. But your Starfleet medicine can reverse that state by your own artificial doctor's word. I have committed no crime if that is true. I wasn't yet aware of my actions. I was very injured then and not quite in control of myself. I offer my apologies.." and he sighed with a dismissing gesture ending that vein of thought.

Chakotay made his way to Khan's bed and also offered his hand in greeting. "Innocent until proven guilty. Is that your line of reasoning? All right. That matter's for later. I'm Commander Chakotay."

Khan noticed his face tattoo. "Ah, a warrior of...."  
and he thought with his eyes closed as he poured through his impressive memory. "...South American descent.. Say the Greater Amazon basin.. That marking on your face is a.....Chamoosee... is it not?"

Startled, Chakotay let go of Khan's hand. "That's right.  
You know of my people?"

"I had several loyal crewmates in my last confrontation whose genetic lines come from that region of Earth. Very superior genes if I might say so boldly. They, too had taken your marking and were great warriors."

Chakotay thought. ::My people were involved in the Eugenics Wars? Perhaps I shouldn't have fallen out with father or I might have learned about that fact long ago. Khan is an infamous legend. How had he swayed those of my heritage to his side?:: That thought disturbed Chakotay greatly.

Khan saw the conflicting emotion on the big man's face but gave no indication that he was pleased with the effect. He said gallantly. "But that's all history now. Shall we think only of the present commander?"

A short distance away. Julian watched Khan maneuver Chakotay's emotions as easily as Julian himself sometimes did with Chief O'Brien's during one of their dart throwing matches at Quarks. In Bashir's mind he thought in a quandary of his own. ::We are both genetically engineered? That Holozimm fellow seems to know that fact very well. This is incredible. A hologram entrusted with Starfleet's classified library? Just what has been going on on this ship beyond what I've already been informed about with this Vidiian Phage of theirs?::

But he was distracted when the Hologram he had been thinking about suddenly looked up at him with a huge kid-like smile.

K'Ehleyr grinned. "Better redirect your adoring eyes over to that handsome dark hair and eyed doctor over there. Julian Bashir is an engineered being too, Holozimm. A later model.."

Holozimm's head whipped around. "He is!  
Wow. I'd like to talk with him..." and he left Khan's bedside to do just that.

"Doctor Bashir? Uh, excuse me Mr. Khan. I'm not ignoring you here. I just want to ....uh..."  
and Holozimm pointed both hands at Julian.

Khan smiled at the hologram who looked like the doctor hologram who had saved his life.  
"Quite all right. Proceed. I can wait. As you can see. I am not going anywhere.."  
and he tapped his hands on his restrained legs until the security field there sparkled in protest.

Holozimm nodded again and then directed all of his attention at Julian. "Doctor, I understand that the five of us, are engineered lifeforms, uh,..including Khan here. Did you know this fact? I would like to know the details behind your formation."

Julian frowned in amusement at the hologram's terminology. "Formation? Oh, you mean how I was augmented genetically. Not much to say really. I was just a child back then when my parents had the work done. Still coming to terms with the reason why. I guess they just wanted me to be the best doctor I could be I suppose."

"As I was destined to become the Ruler of Lower Australia and all of India.." Khan whispered to himself..

"Pardon?" said Bashir and Holozimm together.

"Nothing." Khan said, "Please.. continue.. I find this fascinating conversation. " and he waved his hands in encouraging gestures.

Khan saw Moriarty while the other two talked and immediately sensed a like spirit in him that mirrored his own darkness. "And who might you be? I know this other is Holozimm and the man is Julian Bashir.  
But of you... I have no recollection."

Moriarty came to the bed and gave a short bow of respect. " That is because I was created to be an intellectual challenge in a game trying to thwart an android named Data. Unintentially, I was endowed with consciousness, jailed and subsequently persecuted for pursuing what I thought was my g*d given right of freedom. I have not yet attained it sir.."

Khan sat up even straighter when he saw the first sign of finding someone who might be eventually,  
a close ally. " I am Khan Singh. And I hear you, are Moriarty. If I remember my human literature, that name is from the character novels featuring Sherlock Holmes and you,.. are the villian. Tell me. Is that name hard to live with?"

"Not appreciably. It is my actions that these fine crewman had problems with originally. Now I am working FOR them to earn their respect and to attain my true freedom like the EMH and Holozimm possess.  
They do not need computers exclusively to survive on their own. That is something of which I've always dreamed."  
Moriarty said.

"Keep your dream artificial man. For they will carry you far and become your lifeblood. Don't let revenge rule you or you will fall as surely as I have."

Moriarty. "I have learned that lesson firsthand sir. And I am seeking to rectify the error of my ways."

Julian Bashir didn't understand what the two were talking about so he changed the subject to something he could feel more comfortable about. "Khan. Do you know where you are?"

"I believe on a Federation Starship eleven years into my future. I read it on that computer console with the machine designs displayed on it where that woman captain and male lieutenant are working."

"Yes. Let me add more. This is the Excelsior and it's under medical quarantine for a plague of sorts called the Vidiian Phage. You and I are immune to its effects and I'm sure all involved would appreciate it if you'd offer your genetically enhanced intellect to help us cure ourselves." Julian said very flip.

Khan smiled slowly. "I might if it serves my needs.  
I shall consider it. But I grow fatigued. Can we continue this discussion in the morning? I am after all freshly back from near death's door. Would you grant me a respite?"

Julian looked around uncomfortably. "Take it up with the EMH. He's the bald fellow in blue with the sarcastic bedside manner to go along with those impeccable medical skills."

"I see.." Khan said. "Very well. I give you leave to send him over."

Julian frowned at that remark.

Khan said "Oh? That's right, my dialect is somewhat archaic. Forgive the slipups my friend.  
Let me rephrase. Please. Send him over at your earliest convenience."

Bashir nodded, motioning Moriarty to accompany him as he lowered the lights over Khan's bed.  
"Come away you two. Let our patient rest shall we? Our fan club can wait until morning."

Holozimm frowned in disappointment as he walked away with the others.

Khan gave a great sigh and rolled over, tuning out the entire ward mentally while he gathered back his physical strength.

Nearby, K'Ehleyr remained, watching him with unbroken concentration keener than those of Yar and the guards. Her instincts were screaming.  
::Don't trust him. Don't turn your back on him for an instant.:: she told herself. ::Now that's an instinct as obvious as the ridges on my forehead.::

---------------------------

Over by the computer panel, Janeway exclaimed.  
"D*mn! I'm not being any help at all. These aren't starship schematics. I wish Seven were down here to tell us how to assemble these components."  
::Barclay is doing the best that he can but he can't do this well either. And we're running out of time.::

Chakotay heard Janeway's explicative and had come into the darkness near their end of sickbay.  
His face glowed with the multiple colored lights coming from the workstation rotating Scotty's alcove designs. "Kathryn. Take a rest. You've done all you can at this point. B'Elanna will soon take over here. Keep going on like this and you're going to catch the Phage again."  
he teased.

She glanced up, leaning on the console.  
"Not a medical certainty." she dismissed easily. "I thought I was the mother hen here."  
she said, smiling. "When did it suddenly become your job?"

Chakotay grinned back. "When my ears curled from your sailor's talk just now. You never swear unless you're stretching yourself in a way that's not good for you. "

Janeway glanced uncertainly around sickbay and her eyes rested on the dim area where Khan lay sleeping.

Chakotay noticed the glance. "He's impulsive.  
Dangerous. And he knows a lot more than he's letting on."

"Took you that long to come to that conclusion?  
I came up with that assessment the moment I ran into sickbay."

Chakotay grinned. "I don't have a woman's keen sense of intuition. Takes me a bit longer to hit the mark I guess. Feeling superior are we?"

Kathryn didn't smile. "No. But he sure does."  
Janeway said of Khan. "He virtually reeks of an aristocratic complex. I am worried about him influencing Holozimm's innocence, or even Moriarty's for that matter. Did you see how they were fawning over Khan?"

"I did." Chakotay replied. "But I think we can trust their inherent programming."

Janeway sighed. "You're forgetting one thing Chakotay. They all have free will now. We can't be certain how they will react to circumstances new to their experiences. And Khan is certainly proving to be an experience."

Chakotay went over to the replicator and dialed up two cups of coffee. He mock shuffled the two cups of coffee. "You pick. I don't want the fuller one."

They jostled the coffee mugs until they each had one firmly in hand, each taking light sips.

Janeway grimaced. "Oh. If I drink any more. I swear I'll pop."

She set hers down on the console.

"No, you'll just swear." Chakotay said.  
Then he flinched as his Phage fever made him cough. He leaned heavily on the console,  
dropping his cup and it cascaded to the floor in a steaming puddle while a coughing jag gripped him severely.

"Chakotay?" Janeway said. "You're the one who needs rest. Doctor.." she called out. She gave him her coffee cup. "Here. This will clear your throat."

Chakotay drank and slid over onto a work stool to get off his shaky legs. His coughing went away.  
"Thanks, Kathryn. That helped."

Julian Bashir and the EMH both came over at her shout but McCoy stayed with Spock and Kirk when he missed the hail.

The holodoc ran a tricorder scanner over the commander and looked at the readings. "That's odd. The Phage virus is weakening rapidly in your mitochondrial DNA!" And he snatched up Chakotay's coffee cup out of his hand. "What's in there?"

Janeway started laughing. "Coffee, of course.  
Just coffee."

Then the EMH scanned the liquid inside and shook his head. "No. It's not. This is YOUR coffee,  
captain. It's full of your biotraces." his tricorder shifted over to Chakotay and he scanned Chakotay's bloodstream."And now some of it is inside his circulatory system. Why didn't we think of this before?.. You are a walking antidote captain."

"What part exactly? The only thing that touched that glass was my skin and.."

"Yes, and bodily fluids. It's nothing to be ashamed of." he said quickly. "Many humanoids have saliva to help in the consumption process. I'm going to run tests here."

"Don't tell me I'm going to have to kiss the entire ship's crew?" Janeway said with amusement.

Chakotay lifted his head. "You can always set up a carnival booth on the holodeck. Kiss the captain.  
One credit."

"Ha. ha...... Doctor. I prefer isolation techniques. Is this possible?" Janeway said quickly.

"Whatever it is helping Chakotay fight off the fever is very likely to just be a simple thing to lift it from you now that we have a basis of comparison. A hypo will do."

::Whew..:: Janeway thought. :: That could have been nasty. Especially if I got to Tom and B'Elanna was watching:

(attachments)

Image: Khan in desert gear in a close up.

Image: Dr. Bashir sitting on the landing strut of a shuttlepod.

Image: Janeway making a funny face while holding an intricate coffee cup.

**************************************

END WEEK SIXTEEN RECAP 05-27-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Site

WEEK SEVENTEEN RECAP 05-28-02

***********************************

From : "Katherine Bird" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] The Colors in the Mind Date : Tue, 28 May 2002 13:40:25 +0100

Lt. Uhura and Nurse Chapel were instantly alerted to a change in Kira and Riker's medical statuses when a double bioalert went off.

##Bioalert combadges Wil T Riker and Kira Nerys. Biosigns growing unstable.##

Nurse Chapel saw Dr. Crusher rise to her feet and whirl her tricorder to where they were sitting at the table eating in the messhall. Sure enough both the pallors of Riker and Kira were growing pasty white as their blood pressures fell rapidly. "What th--?" Nurse Chapel said. She made it over to them just as Crusher did with her medkit. Crusher grabbed Riker's shoulders as he gasped in reaction and shock and Christine did Kira's. "Is the Phage getting a good hold because they're newly infected like it did Tom Paris?" Chapel asked Dr. Crusher.

"Yes. We've got to move fast. Inject each with fifteen milligrams cordrazine. We have to keep them from passing out." Dr. Crusher said.

Then Nurse Chapel had an idea. "Doctor. We've a safety net. Let's put them into stasis fields." Christine said as she hyposprayed Kira's neck while the woman wove dizzily in her seat. "Quickly. Before they can render down from the Phage virus."

Kira Nerys looked up at Christine. "I'm s- sorry we weren't bet- better help."

Christine was no nonsense. "Hush Colonel. Try and keep awake. Dr. Crusher and I are sending you two into stasis to buy you time." she tapped her combadge. "Chapel to bridge. Emergency transit of Kira Nerys and Wil Riker to sickbay stasis chambers. Stat! They are losing consciousness!"

=^= Understood.=^= came Sulu's wonderfully deep confident voice. =^=Stand by. Transport in five four three....=^=

Wil Riker gripped Beverly's hand desperately while his illness bit deep into his awareness level. "Don't...don't let Deanna worry about me, Beverly. Please. She needs to be there for the rest of you.." he gasped. "See you soon." Then he deliberately let go before the bridge's emergency transporter effect enveloped Kira and himself for their induction into two fresh stasis tubes.

On the sickbay viewscreen, Chapel looked up to see two new green lights winking on either side of Scotty's crypt. She relaxed a great deal. ::Whew that was close.:: she sighed. ::We just barely managed to safeguard them from liquifying.::

Dr. Denara Pel was alarmed. "That was unusually swift for a Phage infection surge. May I view your medical scanner's data files on them?"

Chapel secured both her own and Beverly Crusher's tricorders for the Vidiian doctor. "Here. Perhaps this is just another mutation attempt on its part to get around the activities of Seven's nanoprobe vaccine in them.."

"Perhaps. But these two particular strains on board are unique. Usually, the Phage doesn't have the danger of killing its victims with instantaneous decomposition like I've noticed from your visual records on the Vidiians you tried to hold in the brig two days ago. It doesn't make sense. No virus plans to become so virilent as to kill its host." Dr. Pel frowned. "It seems that it was almost making Riker and Kira faint, something that would've killed them and itself."

Chapel nodded. "Yes. It doesn't make sense. Any infection which is fatal in some instance would only drive itself into extinction before it could spread to new hosts and it would do that fairly quickly I might add."

But then Uhura, who had been listening intently to the two women while making sure the relay between all the live images tying the messhall to sickbay and to the Commdeck and the bridge stayed patent, spoke up. "Christine. These infections aren't natural. The Traveler and the other doctors have said so themselves. Sospiria, the female caretaker, engineered these illnesses and then created the intelligent Phage minds to deliver them on board."

Dr. Pel started to smile. "She was too hasty. And missed that flaw in the infection curve. We now have a foothold to work with. A weak link in its design."

Just then a chirping comm got their attention. It was the EMH. "Good work you two. We received Miss Kira and Mr. Riker just in the nick of time. Deanna Troi didn't even feel them slip into distress and then into stasis. I'll tell the counselor later what has happened. I've been listening to your discussion here as well. You won't have to research very hard into your line of argument. An opportunity has presented itself. And .... I almost feel stupid as a physician for missing it."

Doctor Pel was quick. "Oh my. I missed it too. It's Janeway isn't it? Rule number one in combating a plague. Check for transmittable immunity factors in all surviving victims who've recovered from infection."

"Bingo." the EMH grinned. "I'm running an analysis now on this coffee cup. Her antidotal capability presented itself when she inadvertantly shared hers with Chakotay. He's on the mend, right down to the mitochondrial DNA level."

Chapel's eyes widened. "Wow. That's a strong cure."

The EMH held up an unreal finger on the viewscreen. "It may only be temporary. You saw how fast the Phage's mutation curve is. Just look at what almost happened to Kira and Riker. The only sure way to "put out this fire" is a cure on the DNA level. That B'Elanna Torres is most likely to be able to provide from her own DNA, once she gets here."

"Where is Torres now?" Chapel wanted to know.

"Still on her science ship, the Talon. Sulu's just granted her permission to beam aboard. We're still waiting to hear from her. I wouldn't doubt if B'Elanna is having to work through some second thoughts about coming aboard a plague ship. She is a young mother after all." The holodoc suggested.

"I see." Denara Pel said, stroking her own pregnant belly. "I can imagine the dilemma she must be going through. Very well. We'll wait. Let us know the outcome of your attenuation of the Janeway serum. The sooner we have a viable dose, the sooner Seven can receive it. She's nearly dropping into sleep even now. It's a battle keeping her awake with conversation. How's the alcove construction coming?" the pretty Vidiian scientist asked the EMH.

"Slowly. Janeway and Barclay and Chakotay aren't engineers. Chalk up another brownie point on the B'Elanna attributes scoreboard that we don't yet have." said the EMH sarcastically. But then he brightened. "But with this new lead through Janeway's biochemistry. We might be able to buy us all some time without having to stuff the crew into stasis chambers the moment their lifesigns start hiccupping. There simply isn't enough chambers to go around." he said rolling his eyes. "With Scotty and Kira and Riker filling three out of a dozen, there isn't many left available."

Dr. Pel smiled. "Oh, Schmolis. You do have a wonderful sense of humor. You really know how to inspire people into greater courage. That's what I love so much about you."

The holodoc on the screen managed to blush greatly. "Denara..." he hissed embarrassed through his teeth.

Uhura and Nurse Chapel giggled but then pretended to be occupied in studying the screen which showed the beginnings of the analysis the EMH was running on Janeway's coffee cup and samples of her blood.

Christine was delighted to find that the Borg vaccine nanoprobes still in Janeway's blood were actually encouraging her natural occurring T cells into explosions of teasing growth, having recognized a potential ally in their battle against the Phage.

On a side sweep. She saw that Chakotay's own blood profile was beginning to match hers, although not on so strong an eradication curve. But the lesions on his skin were beginning to dry and shrink noticably. She tapped her combadge. =^= Nurse Chapel to Commander Chakotay. How are you feeling? We're seeing marked improvements here. Have your lungs cleared out yet? Seems the fever fluid in them was what made you cough earlier.=^=

She saw Chakotay's image look up from where he sat on his stool. Janeway was kneeling by his side on the floor as she waited for him to recover from coughing. "Better more and more." he coughed. "I just have the worst throat tickle in history right now. And no.. I don't feel groggy. I saw Kira and Riker almost faint on the monitor. Glad you and Dr. Crusher got to them so quickly. How's Seven of Nine? Perhaps you should beam her down here so she'll be close at hand when the holodoc isolates the serum he's found in Captain Janeway's circulatory system."

While he was talking with Christine Chapel. Uhura was thinking about the other risk to the crew. The one sleeping surrounded by security guards on the iso biobed. ::Khan. What a horrible straw fate has drawn us. I think we should just send him back into oblivion through the Guardian of Forever and be done with it. I'm afraid for Captain Kirk's life.::

"I'll let Seven know what you're thinking Commander. Uhura out."

Quietly, she indicated to Christine and Dr. Crusher that she would be over by the computer interface on the other side of the messhall working on the Iconian doorway theory Spock mentioned.

She danced nimble fingers over the subspace communications bands and found that what Spock had said, was true. There were no further breaches into normal space by the gateway which had delivered Khan to Excelsior. "Hmm .." she sighed as she hit yet another dead end scan.

Then she remembered what she had over heard Troi say to the others outside the cargobay about seeing a vision of Iconian touch pads activating. She hailed the bridge and got permission to access the probe Starfleet had sent to Pluto to scout out the Iconian station that had sprung into existence just outside of Pluto's orbit. "Deanna had said she saw an activation sequence... on..." Uhura bit her lip as she poured through the probe's infrared scans through the hull of the tiny Iconian station bubble floating there. Until she found the computer panel showing the proper color lights the counselor mentioned. "...THAT panel right there. I'll bet.."

She hit a playback log that recorded Troi's tale she accounted for Janeway and the others in the corridor back then when they were trying to figure out who locked out the cargobay doors.

The counselor spoke again on the vid log of an hour ago relaying to the EMH and Janeway and Chakotay with Kirk and Yar attending her.......

And sharp images of Iconian technology burst into her mind's eye. From a time she hadn't encountered. Captain Picard and Data frantically trying to get a time door to open while a super nova loomed close. The image kept repeating sequences on an alien computer panel. Blue Amber. Amber. Red.... Blue Amber Yellow Red.... Red. Red. Blue.. over and over again. Until she knew it by heart. Both the machine the commands were meant for and the pattern involved.

The account finished for Uhura and she raised her eyebrows, mumbling to herself as she worked through the telemetry feeding off the space probe the bridge was monitoring. "I think the captains should see this again. And Mr. Data. His memory of that Iconian close call he survived with Worf and his captain from his Enterprise D days might prove useful here. If we can find a gate back into the Mutara Nebula at the proper time index, we might have a possible hole to kick Khan back into if he should prove too great a pest."

Uhura tapped her combadge. =^= Uhura to Commander Data. I think I've found something you might find very interesting indeed. Get ready for a sensation of Deja Vu in your emotion chip because there's a place I think you might be visiting again real soon. Do you remember the time you and your captain barely survived a nova's blast by leaping through an Iconian gateway? Well, I think that new tiny bubble station out there by Pluto might be the very same one you leaped through, now back on a return visit to see you. And Troi knows the computer command sequence that controls it.=^=

-  
(attachments)

Image: A large close up of Nurse Chapel, looking serious.

Image: Uhura in her Star Trek II tunic, promo.

Image: Dr. Denara Pel, looking inspired.

Image: Data operating an Iconian computer panel.

Gif: A Lcars display of Janeway's biosigns.

*************************************

From : "Lotten" .se Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Moments In Time.  
Date : Mon June 3, 2002 01:09:34

This post has been translated into English by a Voyagerliveaction Theater Host...

B'Elanna felt the familiar tingle of a transporter but the hum was tuned up in high frequencies.  
And it was like it went on forever before she once again felt solid ground beneath her feet.

She was deposited in the messhall only feet from Tom.

When the transporter released her, she was embraced by her lover and best friend. She had missed him so much. ::How dare he do this,  
by coming on board a quarantined ship, without thinking through the consequences it could have on the future? On Miral's future?::

But she didn't expect any less from her husband than to run into danger headlong to save or help out anyone he considered a friend. And with Janeway there, not much would have stopped Tom.

Torres thought as she regarded his eyes. ::But still, he should have considered things through better.:: B'Elanna loved him for who he was, the teasing hero who'd rather go into a fight with bad jokes than with a mighty sword to protect himself.

Well, there he was, just in front of her stepping closer and opening his arms to hug her tightly.  
"Tom, how could you do this? I will have your head on a pike if this ends up killing us."

Tom hugged her closer, very much knowing that her reaction would be coming.

B'Elanna felt like she was a like beast.::Why did I just say that?:: She knew Tom was doing the right thing even though inwardly, she wished he would have never chosen to board Excelsior in the first place. ::Tom acts first with his heart,  
then with his mind with his training finally catching up. Yep. It was trouble.:: B'Elanna couldn't help but smile. ::But I love Tom's trouble. It makes life interesting. And d*mn it,  
it's pretty hard to deny him anything when he is in Mr. Charm mood:  
"I'm sorry, Tom. I know you did the right thing by coming here and calling for me. I am just scared of losing the precious things I have in my life."

Tom flashed her one of his grins and kissed her with all his might, to let her know he knew all about her misgivings about his choice to come help on a plague ship.

B'Elanna also wanted to forgive him for making her into a scientific discovery for the doctors again.

Tom knew his wife would gladly pay any discomfort to have her best friend Chakotay cured and have the captain back in action.

B'Elanna thought they were just as important to her as Tom. ::Miral thinks of Kathryn and Chakotay as her grandparents. No. More like an aunt and uncle.:: And she smiled.

They both felt those two were part of their immediate family.

Tom spoke again, breaking her out of inner thoughts. "I am sorry, B'ella. For putting you on the spot again. I love you and God, I have missed you." He buried his head on B'Elanna's shoulder and planted his chin on her neck where he could feel the thudding of her heart beating. He loved doing this and he knew it made her feel safe and wanted too.

=^=Janeway to Lt. Torres. Status report. You're needed in sickbay immediately. Doctor Pel will join you here once you've reported. There's a little emergency construction project you need to do record time. Meeting Tom can wait. I'm afraid Seven's life depends on it...=^=

Tom and B'Elanna ended their embrace, looking at each other and then they laughed. "How many times have we NOT been through this before?" they said almost as one.

"We're on our way, captain." she replied. "Torres out." B'Elanna sighed, "Guess this means we are back to work then. She doesn't sound too happy now does she? If she's worried enough about Seven to express it that badly in her tone of voice, then it IS bad." The moment wiped the last smiles from the Torres's faces.

Tom was the next of the two to speak.  
"Even Seven has been pumping nanoprobes vaccines into all of us to slow the Phage virus down. She is having a hard time keeping up with the modifications on them to counteract the effects of all of its mutations. I would be in serious trouble now without the little donation of her busy bees."

::Oh no.:: B'Elanna thought. ::That means Tom's sick.:: She already knew that on some level already while beaming aboard but now,  
that fact hit her with full reality. ::And Seven's effected too.::

With all her Borg imperfections, and seeming superior posturing, B'Elanna had grown to appreciate her intelligent mind and it was always a thrill for her Klingon side to have a bit of a fight with Seven on occasion. Seven played back with the same "cards" B'Elanna did usually. ::Seven keeps me on my toes.  
Darn it, you Borg brat.:: Torres cursed.  
::Why don't you stick to your game and be invincible? I don't need you sick too.::

Out loud, B'Elanna studied Tom's eyes.  
"Ok, Tom, we'd better get going. I think I'll ask the transporter room to send over my handy kit I beta with the Borg gear from the BellaMio. I have a feeling I will need them."  
She said, reported, making mental lists of the scenarios she might face in sickbay.

But inside, Torres couldn't help the little thrill of having a different challenge set in front of her too. ::And this alternate idea of mine will give me a way out of being strapped to a biobed for examination after examination during this whole crisis.::

Yes, she fully intended on giving the doctors the genetic material they needed but she would not stay around for the whole process.

"I have some things to check out for Janeway." Tom began. "She gave me a mission to do on my way after I finished my tomato soup..It is something mysterious........"

B'Elanna knew this was a leading remark but she couldn't help asking. "And what would that be, Tom?"

"Well, B'Elanna.. It's nothing to worry about. Janeway needs some better scans about some Iconian gateway portal station that popped up outside of Pluto. Something about finding out what Holozimm and Moriarty had to say to Boothby about it.. They were talking to the Guardian of Forever for a time and Janeway probably feels they know something about it.." Tom reassured his wife.

He turned to her after getting rid of his leftover lunch tray. He had one of those smiles that usually tricked her into responding back with a smile of her own. "You know I lose all train of thought in my mind about missions when you're around. I turn into the neanderthal you accuse me of being. " and he drew B'Elanna into his arms.  
"All I hear in my mind is "You're mine. Mine. Mine Mine. Mine." and he chuckled.

He leaned in for a passionate kiss again but didn't connect just as fast, moving ahead of her and through the messhall doors into the corridor. B'Elanna let out a grunt of disappointment and grabbed him quickly once she had rejoined him to press herself against him. Tom had been playing with fire and he knew she was just giving back.  
But they had important matters at hand.

Just outside the messhall, they kissed lightly and then made their way to their destination, Excelsior's Commdeck on Deck five.

Tom heard Janeway's words in his head,  
"I'm not sure how much you know of what's going on board ship with this Vidiian Phage. It's a bad one. Most of the crew is fast approaching advanced stages. Just look at Seven of Nine. She's the one I'm most worried about. The doctors say she's the closest to the Phage insanity stage and her nanoprobes are only keeping her from it by the slimmest of margins."

He reached down and took her hand as they walked.  
"B'Elanna, do your best for Seven. She's in need of help and I kind have grown fond of her ...conversation skills. Janeway was really worried about her.. Like Miral might say, "Seven is almost down for the count.".."

B'elanna heard his attempt at humor, but she was worried. The undertone of his voice was really "PLEASE.. make it right. I know you can.."  
Tom had so much faith in her.  
He trusted her to save his world over and over again. She only hoped she could make a difference for the better. ::I could be happy with that.:: she reasoned to herself.  
"I will , Tom. I kinda like Seven's poetic streak, too."

And with a nod, they both walked away, separating in two directions, both of them full in thought of what to do next.

--------------------------

A couple of minutes later, B'Elanna arrived in sickbay. The Doctors walked to her side.  
::To take their precious tests .:: she scoffed sarcastically.

But soon, before B'Elanna got to congratulate Denara Pel on her pregnancy, she had to pay a special hello to the Klingon boy who almost jumped on her as she came in the door.  
::My Alexander's a lively one.:: She felt the ache in her heart for Miral once again.  
::I want her here so much but I am glad she's with her grandfather.::

She got brief embraces from both the captain and Chakotay. They updated her on Seven and what was needed.

"Ok, Reg. Let's get to work, shall we?"  
B'Elanna said crisply. "I brought some tools and other things. They are in the handy case here."

She hit her combadge back to the messhall.  
"Seven. I need you to tell me your rotation frequencies and I am also going to need you to tell me if the settings of the nodes here on these alcove schematics are too high for your back implants. I don't yet know how sensitive you are going to be with this new regeneration unit. It will be plugged into the ship itself to save you some precious time for it to become operational. We won't be switching the power here but let's, on you. It will probably douse you with a buzzing feeling when you attach yourself to start your regen cycle but there shouldn't be anything else. These blueprints of Scotty's all look good. I do have some smaller changes that we can discuss. I am not going to fly blind here Seven. But I can't feel it like you can so I need you to tell me how to tune it to get it optimal for you." she said into the commlink.

Now, B'Elanna was all business and all pro again. There was no question about who was in charge and what was to be done or by whom she wanted things to be performed.

Reginald just nodded and ok'd what he heard.  
He was also given a padd with some of the changes B'Elanna had spotted immediately to the main power outlets.

Seven on the screen nearby, who was rather weak, nodded in aggreement, too tired to talk back just yet. But there was a sigh of relief in her face.  
Torres spoke again to Seven's image with an encouraging smile." You have to be my eyes and ears here, Seven. I know you are dead tired and I can see your implants are slowing down into regeneration early.  
Are you still with me so far, Seven?"

Seven looked up at B'Elanna for the first time onscreen and straight into B'Elanna's dark pooled eyes. There she could read determination, honesty,  
passion and also compassion filled with genuine caring. ::Care for whom?  
For me:  
Then she spoke, "Yes, Lt. Torres. I will be your eyes and ears. I have faith in you."

B'Elanna and the rest of the group in sickbay looked up at Seven as she spoke those words. Seven speaking of faith?  
That was a new one.

B'Elanna turned to the red haired doctor who was hovering near Seven.  
"Doc, can I borrow a med tricorder scan of her from you for a minute? I need some bioreadings to adjust components to the portable transformer from my carry on kit. I need to regulate and input Seven's power needs with the tool, but I need to see first how she might react to my changes hypothetically. I also need to have a clue at what setting frequency we will need to start. All of that I can get from her latest bioscan."

"Certainly, engineer..." Dr. Crusher said,  
with a smile. "Relaying the information to your terminals now.."

"Thankyou, doctor."  
Torres looked up again when she had all of the data. "We should be ready for a first try on the real alcove in a matter of minutes. This carry on kit will make that possible very quickly."

B'Elanna talked fast, multitasking to link all the acquired equipment together.

She thanked her lucky stars that she had had the foresight to bring it from the BellaMio. Without the special transformer tool, the alcove's construction might have taken all of them hours.  
::Now it will be done in minutes.:: she grinned. ::All thanks to the integrated borg technology I'll use that's already situated in the Flyer.::

Holodoc came over and for once, handed her a med tricorder so she could download Bev's medical squirt on Seven into it, with no questions asked. "Here you go, Lt. Torres.  
Make the most of it. If there is anything I can do to help, don't hesitate to ask. I'll be over here if you should need me." And he returned to Khan's bedside.

B'Elanna nodded a thanks and put the tricorder down next to her and she started to input the data she needed to hammer out. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see two crew members in Starfleet and Bajoran uniforms being transported into two stasis chambers that had appeared on active mode just seconds before. ::Uh oh. Things are getting worse.:: A brief thought went to Tom. ::Please be ok.::

Then she pushed all that aside.

The Holodoc had joined the other doctors,  
Denara Pel and Julian Bashir on the other end of the ward, to pore over the information they had all gathered from B'Elanna's tests. Already, their foreheads were furrowed in deep thoughtful wrinkles. ::They will find a way.:: she thought and she picked up the medical tricorder by her and played back the scan on Seven. ::This is strange.:: she thought.

She reset the tricorder and played back an even early scan, starting over. She got the same bizarre reading again.

She retapped her combadge to hail the messhall again. "Seven, is there an explanation for why you appear to be out of phase with the rest of us?  
You have a temporal differential signature on you. It's showing you are six minutes older than the rest of us. I can't tell why.. Do you have a theory on this?"

-----------------------------------

Tom had made it up to the Commdeck.  
Commander Data was there.::He'll be good at this.:: and he headed in his direction.

Tom had determined that he needed all the information he could get on the Iconian portal station's reappearance off Pluto.

Tom didn't know how the information could be something relevant to what was happening on board but he trusted Janeway's instincts.  
::If she says something's fishy, it probably is:  
he smiled. Then he said. "Lt. Commander Data,  
right? I would like your assistance on this if you aren't too busy."

Data turned to face Tom, taking in all of his stance and then politely answering in his precise tone. "Yes, Of course. Lt. Paris, what can I assist you with?"

Tom and Data talked for a brief time and then started going over all the scans and other text information they had on the matter from the probe orbitting the Iconian station.

Tom's mind wandered back to what Janeway had said in the messhall about Boothby wanting Holozimm and Moriarty's ear on this.  
Boothby was not to be underestimated but it still didn't make sense to Tom.

Until Data called upon his attention again.  
"Lt. Paris. I think I have found something.  
It might just be normal irregularities in real space but it might be indicative of a temporal wake. The data is inconclusive at this point but we can't rule out anything yet."

Tom shivered in annoyance. ::Time again:  
He was not good with time mechanics and temporal things at all. That was Janeway's gig. She was the one who grasped the concepts and could play with theories. B'Elanna was good at it too. But as for himself, Tom felt that he had flunked bigtime on it and it was still just a headache to him all things considering.

Well, he needed to get to sickbay so he decided to take the information they had learned down there. Maybe after that, he could have that chat with Holozimm and Moriarty that he needed to investigate.

After saying thankyou to Mr. Data for his assistance,  
Tom made his way to the turbolift. Once inside, he remembered."Darn it. I was supposed to get a communication to Miral, too. I need to do that but first, I'll take this information to sickbay." he muttered to himself.

Soon, he was there.

-------------------------------------------- (attachments)

Image: A Klingon Targ.

Image: B'Elanna appearing before Tom in a transporter beam.

Image: Admiral Paris on a main viewer.

********************************

From : "Clairissa Fox" Subject : A New House Friend of the Blood Date : Mon, 03 Jun 2002 14:08:49 +0000

I was done eating and I looked up from my plate. Where was mum? I saw the red head doctor with 7 by the chairs. The Crusher lady seemed to be talking to another Klingon woman on the viewer from sickbay! I wondered if mum knew she was here. Then maybe they could be friends after they both got better.

Then I went over to 7 when the combadges turned off. 7! 7! I know youre tired. But stay awake. Did you like my nanofriends I sent to you? I made them spell out Slimefaces are smelly on the tabletop and nobody saw it!

But it seemed 7 didnt want to talk to me. She was very white and she didnt look at me. I took her hand and said Its ok. I know. I hate it when Im sick too. But Captain Janeway and the snively Reggie are making you a wall bed so you can rest That new lady you talked to is working really fast with the machines from a new looking Flyer and a new tool kit Ive never seen before. Shell make you better. I know she can. You just stay awake. Im going to watch them build your bed.

And I left the food hall and went down to sickbay. I ran by the scary bed, the one with the kingy stuffiness where he lay sleeping. I went up to him and did a Chakotay thing. I played coup contra coup. I leaned into his ear and growled then tapped his shoulder before running away out of reach. Ha! I insulted Kan. I got so close to touch him when I could have hurt him instead. I am a better warrior than he was! He didnt get me!

I saw Chakotay look up from where he was sitting on the stool getting better and I saw him smile at me. But then I went over to mum where she was leaning on a pillar watching Kan and talking with the yellowhead Yar. Mum! Mum! Theres a new lady here. And shes Klingon. No, thats not right. Shes almost Klingon. You got to see her. Maybe you and she could be friends but I dont know her name yet. She and Captain Janeway and Chakotay are making 7 her fix bed right now.

I saw mum glance up curiously and locate Belana with an interested look and I saw her sniff the air to get a scent. I did the same thing. Wow. Belanna was part human! I could smell it too. I wondered how that happened. I thought only mum was a half people. But then I said more. I will tell her our house so she knows who our house family is on the Homeworld. I know to give her a gift of welcome. I will go do that now. You watch Kan. Hes a mean monster. I know it. Did you see me insult him? I did a Chakotay people trick on him.

Mum smiled and then she gave a nod of permission so I went over to Belana and gave her a huge hug. And said in Klingon What do you want? to say hello. Then I clasped my hand to my heart and said. I am Alexander. Son of Keylar and Worf of the House of Moug. I bid you honor and greeting from my family. Mums guarding the musclehead meanie over there or shed be here to stand with me.

Then I reached into my belt and pulled out the sword I had to fight the Slimefaces. I had not honored it with monster blood but it was more honorable to give it to a new Klingon to get an ally. Dad told me that a long time ago. So I held it up on my palms in a offering. Take this and be an ally with my powerful House. I lowered my head until it was lower than hers and waited until Belana set her weird tool down and took it. She finally smiled. Good. That means she would fight with mum when the time came against a enemy that attacked anyone from my House or Ship. My duty as a first born son was over so I could play now.

Belana! Belana! You work hard so 7 can get better ok? Shes my friend too like we both now are. Ill go away so you can do it faster. Kapla!

And I backed away to show her more honor and so I could watch Kan where he lay sleeping. Ha! He wasnt even awake yet. I bet he didnt even know I was near his throat.

But then I saw his eyes open and he was looking straight at me! And he held up his arms to me to show that he could have attacked me back because the hold field didnt have his wrists. I was scared then and I just tried to growl. But Kan just laughed and said that he didnt attack children.

That made me mad. I was not a child any more! I was mums first born when we were away from dad. Worf told me to look after mum and so I was. Like I was suppose to.

I saw the doctors working on a computer on the other side of the room and looked up at them. They had pictures of Captain Janeways insides and Belanas there on the screen. It was showing 7s bodyfriends inside them and new white blobs that were also in a coffee cup on the scanner. Now that was funny. What were those things?

So I asked the hollow doctor.

Those are immunity cells Alexander. They came from Captain Janeway. She sipped her coffee and then Chakotay sipped the same cup and now her cells are in his body making him well. Its called a serum.

I looked at Chakotays medical picture and it was blobby like the captains but Belanas wasnt. She didnt have 7s bodyfriends nor the white cells from Janeway yet.

You better give some to Belana. She isnt being helped yet I shouted.

Then I saw the hollow doctor smile. Dont worry Alexander. You see those blue tags on Belanas dee enn ay? Those are genes that can cure the Phage. All I have to do is copy them and place them in everyone with surgery into their bones. With 7s nanofriends, Janeways immunity cells, and Belanas genes, this plague will be killed forever. All I need is two days to get the work done.

Good! Then we can get all better and do what Starfleet needs us to do again.

Thankyou doctor I said to him. Ill let you work too. Im going over to mum and help her guard Kan. Hes creepy.

And so I went to be a bodyguard like Yar and mum and the guards were to stand around Kans bed.

I watched a new screen. The one the pretty dark skinned woman from Kirks ship was working on. It seemed she was listening to a ship log of Councilor Troy talking about Eyconean buttons and stuff and Uhura had the probe pictures up watching the new alien place by Pluto. That was most likely what Sulu was dealing with right now so I decided to be a good crewman and watch and learn about it too. Then Id be able to help my shipmates and my new bloodfriend Belanna.

I saw Captain Janeway look up when the dirty yellow hair pilot came into sickbay. He had a datapadd and it looked like Datas. That was Tom. The one who got sick so fast like Reggie did from the bodyweak the slimefaces gave us.

He went straight to Uhura when he saw the pictures from the Pluto probe showing the alien floater. He handed it to her and then I watched as Kirks communications lady showed him what she learned from Councilor Troy about the buttons from the voice log.

Then I saw Belana and Tom look at each other with mushy faces like mum sometimes did with dad. Are they pair bonded? Yuck!! Why do people have to get married? Then you have only one playmate at home all the time.

A human marrying a Klingon? Wow. That was weird. I wonder what they ate at the dinner table then. At my house it wasnt a problem. What dad wanted came.

I saw that three body beds were full of people. oh no! Is that where Ryker and Keera went to? I thought the doctors could make them all better. But they werent. They were just frozen for later like Scotty was.

That made me feel my bodyweak and all the play fight went out of me. I decided to sit on a chair by mum and let her hold my shoulder while we guarded the ship from Kan. I didnt say anything. For it was only a time for waiting. Then I saw Belana telling 7 to come to sickbay so they could get machine settings for 7s wall bed. I hoped she could come before she was put into a body tube like Scotty. I didnt like that image at all. It was cold in those things.

I had to see 7 be all better. I had to see. I had to see for me.

I tried to not let mum see me cry.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Alexander's face in sunlight.

Image: B'Elanna lecturing the EMH and Janeway in sickbay.

******************************

Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2002 01:37:53 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: [voyagerliveaction] The Snooping Gate..

She retapped her combadge to hail the messhall again. "Seven, is there an explanation for why you appear to be out of phase with the rest of us?  
You have a temporal differential signature on you. It's showing you are six minutes older than the rest of us. I can't tell why.. Do you have a theory on this?"

All eyes in the messhall turned to Seven of Nine, who promptly rubbed her dry sleepy eyes in a very totally humanlike manner.  
"Umm.. No. I don't. But I can think of only one way hypothetically that might happen to make my bioscan appear time shifted."

Beverly didn't have to say anything. Her look and raised eyebrows encouraged Seven to go on.

Seven opened her mouth. "My nanoprobes."  
she said simply. "If some of them have entered the Guardian of Forever for reasons other than the communications link I set them there for, their temporal shift would spread through the ones in me, and eventually, through you all injected with my vaccine, because through them, we are still one, even though we are physically and mentally, unlinked. They would resonate benignly with time signatures if that were the case."

"I see. B'Elanna out." Torres answered after a lengthy pause.

Beverly thought. ::Just what is the Traveler doing down there? Is he bored? And so playing with Seven's nanos drifting around the Guardian?::

Seven beat her to a course of action. She tapped her combadge. =^= Seven of Nine to the Traveler.  
Would you join me in sickbay. There.... are a few things we'd like to ask of you.."

The voice of the Traveler spoke through Seven's blood and over her combadge as he used them and it both to speak to her. "I understand. I shall be there momentarily. Are you well?"

"Well enough." Seven said. "Seven of Nine out."  
Seven nodded at Dr. Crusher after B'Elanna's com link shut down. "I'd better get to sickbay. Lt.  
Torres will be a bit tyrannical if I delay and this ship's crew may not understand her temper as well as Captain Janeway, Chakotay and I do."

"Good point. Can you make it on your own or shall I have one of my medics escort you?"  
Beverly asked, eyeing Seven carefully and offering a hand to Seven's shoulder when the young woman wove a bit after rising out of her chair.

"I'll be fine, doctor. Their assistance is not required. However, thank you."

And with that, Seven slowly navigated her way out of the messhall and down the corridor to sickbay. :: I must concentrate.  
Those frequencies B'Elanna needs in the construction of my new Borg alcove are something only I can provide manually.  
It is an area not even Montgomery Scott knew when he drew up his blueprints.::

That made another thought weave its way into Seven's head. The Iconian gateway portal station that had suddenly appeared in the orbit of Pluto. ::It is something I wish to investigate when the threat of the Vidiian Phage is over.::

Two minutes later, Seven made it through the bulkhead doors of sickbay. She was immediately met by Doctor Pel and the EMH.

"Seven.." the EMH said. "What are you doing alone? Someone needs to keep you under constant monitoring. The danger of you falling asleep is very high."

Seven of Nine smiled wanly as the two doctors invited her up onto a biobed to sit for a complete scan. "Not anymore.  
I've adjusted my nanopr--"

The holodoc interrupted her.  
"Nanoprobes nothing, Seven. It's your physical human body that's underseige this time, not your Borg components.  
You are not superhuman so stop assuming you are like one physically that way. Now.." he said, reading his scanner. "I want you to take a look at this." And he reversed his med tricorder around so Seven could see the comparison report of three people he had just run on its analyses program.

Seven's head shot up in surprise.  
"Chakotay is no longer ill with the Phage?"

The EMH smiled. "Not only that.  
B'Elanna Torres's scans are encouraging. What Janeway's new blood serum antidote weakens first,  
Torres's DNA aminoacid sequences will finish off."

Denara Pel pointed out the falling virilence factors in Janeway's and Chakotay's blood of Phage bacteria and smiled. "We didn't expect this outcome. Perhaps because it was too easy to believe it to be true."

"How did you discover Janeway's recovery ability was transmissable?"  
Seven asked.

Janeway left the work station where she was working on the designs for Seven's alcove. She looked sheepish.  
"I sort of ...handed over a coffee cup to Chakotay."

Seven turned her head to stare at her captain. "You GAVE away coffee?  
Captain. I'm impressed."

It was Janeway's turn to stare in surprise.  
"Maybe you should get sick and sleep deprived more often. Your sense of humor is simply staggering.." and she smiled a large trademark grin, softly grasping Seven on the shoulder. She leaned in on her crewmate. "Hang in there. Almost through. Can you tell me those frequencies to us from there?" she said, patting the biobed Seven was sitting upon.

"Yes." Seven said.

"Good. Then let's get started."  
Janeway said, all business. "The doctors haven't quite gotten my serum perfected and B'Elanna's tests are still in their early stages. So, this alcove is going to be your only saving grace for now."

"I understand, captain." Seven said.

"Please, call me Kathryn." Janeway said, looking up again from her terminal.  
"Geesh, it's taken Chakotay five years to learn to call me by my given name. He just started doing it last dream quest.I thought you'd might be a little faster at it.." she sighed. "Especially now that we're all off ship officially."

"I'm.." Seven studied her folded hands.  
"..still used to structure and Starfleet ranking is still the closest analogy to Borg designations which I still find second nature."

Chakotay spoke up, grinning as he eavesdropped on the conversation. "Hmmm. Just what would Kathryn be called on a Borg ship, Seven.  
Force of One?"

Captain Janeway slapped her ex first officer on the shoulder.

"Hey, I'm still fragile here." he complained.

"No you're not, you're almost normal. So bear your bruises or hush up." Janeway chuckled.

That made Seven smile and that had been Chakotay's and Janeway's goal all along.  
They watched Seven's vital signs relax to less stressful levels on the bed monitor.

Recall suddenly came easier for Seven when she saw Torres give her the sign that she was ready for the input data for the regen comparators of the alcove Torres had discussed with her over combadges earlier.

"Lt. Torres. The frequencies you shall need are in the theta bands. A resonance of 3.476 initially at 3.2 second intervals,  
in a perfect hyperbolic parabola with the subsonic frequencies tandemly linked with the phase variance of my cerebral central node."

Torres was quick. "Got it. So, the harder you want to snore, the more it turns on the nerve buzzer to keep you from doing that."

"Less precise terms but yes, the principle is the same. Shall we proceed?" Seven said. Then she paused, waiting for the doctor's dismissal.

The EMH bit his thumb, thinking but then waved her away to work. "I'll trust your scans from what they're showing here. But I want someone with you at all times with a hypo of cordrazine. I don't want a single rem cycle to hit those brainwaves of yours unawares.."

"Understood." Seven said. "I'm sure Janeway and Chakotay and Lt Torres will be my constant companions until the alcove construction is complete."

And she wandered over to the busy engineering station across sickbay.

The EMH sighed and Denara Pel noticed.  
"She'll be fine, Schmolis.. Don't worry.  
The Borg are nearly indestructible from what I've heard."

The holodoc said, "That's only after one or two copies have been killed for the mother memory to learn from. And now is the first time any Borg, Seven or otherwise, is encountering the Vidiian Phage like this."

Denara Pel stepped forward until her large brown eyes made the frown leave the holodoctor's. "I'm a good judge of character and survival instinct my fine holo friend, and she, is one of the strongest survivor personalities I've ever encountered.  
Just look what she has done for us all already. Given away her own nanoprobes to all the crew, just to safeguard their chances of staying alive until we can cure them.  
Now that's self sacrifice of the highest order. No weakling ever possesses that."

And it was the doctor's turn to be comforted.  
His worry wrinkles softened and went away.  
"You are a gem. Even when you're as large as an Earth whale.." he quipped.

Denara Pel stroked her very pregnant belly and imitated Janeway's own reaction by reaching out and delivering a light hearted swat in the direction of his shoulder.

He naturally phased it out, so that she missed. "Ah, ah ah. It's easier to smooth out my forehead wrinkles then those created by tactile contact with my uniform holomatrix."

"Rubbish.." Denara snorted with amusement.  
"Your outer shell can't wrinkle..It's all photons and forcefields. A lighted suit so to speak..."

"You mean I'm everyone's knight in shining armor?" the holodoc quirked.

Denara halted her tirade to be pleasantly surprised. "Well, uh, yes.." and then she beamed widely. "I guess you are at that.  
The best friend anyone could ever have in this world. And you'll never lose your luminosity physically, or in spirit."  
she leaned in and kissed him on the mouth when Seven of Nine had her back turned.  
"For that. I thank you deeply."

The EMH started to get embarrassed again thinking that Denara was once again falling into an old starstruck lover's vein when she held a finger near his lips. "That was a chaste kiss doctor. One that was therapeutic only.  
You do feel better now don't you?" she asked.

"I do.." he said with irony.

"Good. Now shoo. Get to work. B'Elanna's scans are going to take a while and I'll not have Seven twitching with lack of regeneration any longer than she has to.  
That's cruel and unusual punishment. Go."  
Dr. Pel said.

The Holodoc allowed Denara to be able to give him a little push over to the test station he had set up for B'Elanna's genetic testing and gene spectography."Yes maam.  
Who am I to argue with you? You weigh more than I do.."

"Now that's a question for dark matter scientists Schmolis and you know it. I'm sure Mr. Barclay or Holozimm would love to chat with you on that debate about light being matter but they.."  
she sighed, "...can wait.."

She watched the holodoc rejoined Bashir, McCoy and Spock before wandering over to the pile of sleeping tribbles on the biobed away from Khan. On a test, she held up one of the babies in his direction and it jarbled and screeched just as vehemently as one would to a full blooded Klingon. She pulled it back and shrugged when everyone looked up in alarm. "Just checking to see if they could protect themselves..." she said. Then mumbling to herself, Pel whispered.  
"Seems they hate super alpha-tized genetically enhanced people almost as much as they detest the naturally occurring full blooded Klingon ones.  
Could a scent of aggression be tipping tribbles off? Klingon Warriors as well as Khan's kind reek of it typically."

She nested one of the tribble infants into her arms and carried it over to join the EMH. It did not stop purring even when Julian Bashir started petting it. He asked why they were in sickbay and she replied. "They aren't sick doctor."

Then it dawned on her. "Maybe what Alexander said might be true. A cocktail of Janeway's serum, these tribble's immunity factors coupled with B'Elanna's DNA sequencing is all we need to end this plague."

"Sounds great in theory." McCoy grumbled. "Easier said than done."

"You're all heart." Denara Pel said in reply.

"No, K'Ehleyr is.. in more ways than one."  
the holodoc remarked."Proof positive that B'Elanna's DNA is the brick wall to stop short,  
this Phage's rampage aboard this starship."

Dr. Pel looked up to see the tall elegant K'Ehleyr, and the shorter, athletic Torres standing near each other back to back, one at a computer terminal the other watching where Khan lay sleeping. ::So these half blooded women prove to be our salvation.  
Will wonders never cease?::

She turned to her work with a peaceful air.

-----------------------------------------------

Commander Data studied the problem he had overheard B'Elanna announce from sickbay.  
Seven's temporal dislocation of eight minutes.  
::Could Seven's temporal ghosting be from journeying nanoprobes through the Guardian of Forever? Or could it be another gate they are visiting....::

In alarm, he whirled to his computer terminal on the Commdeck aft wall and reread the orbital probe's findings from its penetrating scans of the Iconian station a solar system away from Excelsior.

He found the same temporal tracings of eight minutes in a dusting pattern inside the interior of it.

The moment he reached for his combadge to tell everyone about what he had discovered,  
a booming voice rang out inside his positronic net.

##Do nothing. Man made of steel. For I just wanted to see the strange place that echoes like myself through reality. I will not let them stray far from the woman#  
came the huge essence mental presence of the Guardian of Forever. ##Never have one of my kind found another gateway such as this in all our encounters with the universe. It is.....new. Let it continue.##

Data answered immediately in binary. A method he knew would not be recorded or logged by Excelsior's internal sensors.  
*!*! I shall. It just took me by surprise to see you exploring in the physical realm.  
For you.. that must be a very primitive endeavour. *!*!*

##If you have been and are and will be the length of all eternity, an old mode of seeing can end monotony. I shall soon return them to myself.##

Data nodded, knowing his thoughts and feelings were transmissible to The Guardian since it had its focus on him directly, in the affirmative.

Then the android closed down his commdeck station and went to sickbay.

He had just arrived inside their doors when he saw the Traveler in his lilac silver tunic approaching. "Traveler. Why are you away from the Guardian?" he did not let on the secret he held with the old Gateway entity about Seven's networking nanoprobes analyzing the Iconian station through it.

The tall gentle being smiled in his slow way and said. "Seven of Nine requested my presence here. She didn't provide the reason why. I have no need to remain with the Guardian.  
It can usually care for itself."

"So I have noticed." Data said ironically flip.  
Then his mouth curled in a crooked amused way at his own little joke and he held out a white hand. "Shall we join the others?" he asked.

"Yes. Let's us do so. I think time is going in a new direction for you." The Traveler said.

Data frowned and looked curiously at him as if his companion were clairvoyant, then immediately dismissed the idea with a shake of his head. ::Not me. I am not a vessel filled with nanoprobes to be the Guardian of Forever's mental tentacles to the Iconian Station.  
For I have none in my servo fluids.::

With that, he showed the Traveler where his android ears heard Seven of Nine talking in the back end of the ward.

They reached the others and waited expectantly for a development.

-  
(attachments)

Image : Black and White Data Photo.

Image : The Traveler in a promo shot.

Image: Seven of Nine talking to Janeway in her quarters.

*  
From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Stress Levels~~ Date : Sat, 15 Jun 2002 18:52:19 +0000

Tasha Yar watched Khan where he lay sleeping.  
She didn't know yet what to think of matters. She only knew that Captain Kirk was mad. ::Plenty mad.  
And Chakotay seems to know a lot about this man already by reputation. Not a good thing.:: Lt. Yar mused.  
She signalled the guards surrounding her to take over her end of vigilence and she headed over to Kirk.

She approached K'Ehleyr, McCoy and Kirk respectfully, seeing that they had just finished a toast of Saurian Brandy to the fallen. But finally, her nerves prompted her to speak.

Yar crossed her hands in front of her and took a deep breath, finally getting the men's and the ambassador's silence so she could speak. "Sirs, and ambassador. I know we're all in a difficult situation. Even with the plague aside,  
this business about Khan's return turns my stomach. I don't know that man. Nor do I pretend to. But watching the rest of you, sculking about like scared cadets has ME on edge. What do you plan to do about him? He can't stay sedated forever..And we haven't even begun to address the Iconian station out there. Who knows what might come through its gateways.."

Captain Kirk smiled a wry smile, the first since the shock of Scotty's fatal card suddenly drawn from the hand of the great unknown's laughable poker match. The small shot of brandy that Bones had given him had steadied him enough to finally think clearly as a captain should.  
"Yar. First things first. We have to concentrate on safeguarding what is under OUR control. Such as this ship and those on board her. Now all of Earth is on top of the Pluto/Iconian Station appearance I assure you.  
We're working on Seven's alcove so she can end the risk of delaying rest while infected, The doctors are working diligently to attenuate Janeway's blood serum elements to work in tandem with B'Elanna Torres's DNA sequencing. Chakotay's already nearly cured.  
Khan is under restraints and guarded. "

He held up a finger teasing at the young Lt.'s face. "You should learn to trust your own people.  
They won't let you down. And neither will your captains."

Yar immediately flushed red with embarrassement.  
"Sir, I didn't mean to.."

"Lt. .." Kirk said as gently as she was mortified.  
"We're fine. Better than we were even an hour ago.  
Things are progressing favorably. How about reading about Khan so you know what we'll be up against.  
I already sent Janeway to do the same thing. Chakotay already knows about Khan enough to keep alert.  
And you can count on McCoy and I not breathing without having one eye on him at all times ourselves.  
Go. Eat something. You hardly touched your meal in the messhall. First go see the EMH. I'm sure he needs a guinea pig to try out his Janeway serum right about......."

Kirk and Yar and McCoy watched the EMH suddenly look up from his work station by Bashir and Dr. Pel. The holodoc immediately eyeballed Yar. ::I hate hypos....:: Yar thought and tried to duck around Kirk to avoid being spotted but to no avail.

"Excuse me... Lieutenant Yar? Do you have a minute?  
I need an infected volunteer...." the EMH said, indicating that she join him.

Kirk wiped the smile off his face for Yar's benefit and lightly said. "Carry on Lt. Yar. I'll be over here by Chakotay and Janeway helping build Seven's alcove."

Yar didn't even glance at the aging captain. "Yessir.."  
and she didn't hide the annoyance from her features.  
She gave an admonishing stare at a security guard who had looked away from his attentive vigilance over Khan. He snapped into attention when she passed by.

The EMH didn't seem to see Yar's discomfort over being a suddenly recruited test subject. "Ah, Lt.  
Thankyou for taking a moment out for us.." and he held up a hypo..

Yar, in spite of herself, flinched.

The doctor withdrew it. "Lt.? I didn't know you had a problem with hypoinjectors.. Don't worry. This one's for Seven. It's cordrazine. I'm giving it to Chakotay to keep her from nodding off while they complete their adjustments." He gave a shrill alerting whistle to the commander out loud, and flung the instrument across sickbay, where Chakotay caught it neatly in a hand not playing across a computer panel.  
"You're now Seven's safety net, commander. You're her medic for the hour.." the doc called out.

Chakotay chuckled. "So noted. Do I need a med tricorder too?" He asked, taking a quick glance at Seven's face where she sweated over computations nearby.

"No. Seven suddenly drooping should be warning enough for you. But having that alcove completed sooner would be nicer..." the holo doctor egged.

"Understood doctor.." Chakotay said with amusement.  
"This alcove will be done before you stop grousing about it..." He turned back to work.

Then Yar sighed and slumped on a stool before the EMH.  
"Sometimes I wonder if I'm even cut out to be a security head, doctor. I always hate it when there are things that I can't control. Like this bug. " and she threw an ironic hand at Khan. "And that genetically enhanced self proclaimed murderer over there. Makes my hair curl just thinking about how dicey the stakes are we're dealing with."

"Be glad you still have hair to curl, lieutenant. " And he ran holofingers over his shining dome. "And about your feelings of inadequacy.. Because you feel them means you must be one hell of a security officer. They're bound to keep you on your toes light years ahead of anyone else, more than enough to handle any further crisis we might encounter."

"I guess you're right..." Yar said. "I just know that this isn't my ship. Excelsior is Sulu's. And I am not too familiar with where everything is apart from knowing that the bridge is that way.." and she pointed over her head. She smiled ruefully when the EMH handed her a steaming coffee mug and she started to sip it.  
"Thanks. This is good." And she eyed him. "So,  
what do you need me to do now? You said you wanted a sick crewman to experiment with."

The EMH folded his arms and said smugly. "I already am. You're drinking the experiment right now.."

Yar spit out her coffee all over the desktop.  
"You mean this is the serum in here?" she said, holding up her cup.

The EMH neatly mopped up her spray from his countertop. "Yes.. well, not the original.  
Janeway's cureall cup that Chakotay got into is a long time cold. This, is a fresh one I got from the replicator, infused with my attenuated construct serum derived from the captain. I didn't need to have any spit involved so don't get squeamish.." he said flatly. "There's only tribble milk in that one. They are proving to be quite the immune little plague curers themselves."

But just as quickly, the EMH's smile returned as he scanned Lt. Yar. "Ah.. it's working.  
the acids in the coffee are reacting with your own digestive juices and Janeway's T-Cell serum is already on its way to all of your leukocytes. Congratulations.. You are getting over your Phage, Lt.." and he took the half empty cup back from her.

"That was a mean and dirty trick.. Getting me to drink it.." Yar protested.

"I thought it was rather clever on my part.  
I noted your less than stellar reaction to the sight of Seven's hypo and figured this approach wouldn't add a single straw to your already heavy stress load.  
McCoy taught me a great deal about physicianophobia.  
He and Kirk both." the holodoc admitted. "A low key approach is working with patients like you and them.  
I declare you stable enough to resume your watch dog ways. I'll flag you when B'Elanna's complete cureall comes available. I'll be sure to put yours into a freshly baked brownie.." and with that, the EMH rejoined Barclay, Bashir and the others working over B'Elanna's DNA test results.

Yar rolled her eyes and didn't say another word.  
The steaming tray that materialized in front of her via the med transporter didn't leave any doubt about her next role to her crewmates. There were many coffee cups on the tray. ::Looks like I get to be the medicine lady.. Ok.. Kirk's first..::

And Yar left to deliver serum filled coffee cups to all in sickbay. Soon, everyone was drinking them.

Then she was up to her neck in datafiles, reading all she could about Khan Noonien Soong, reading page by page along with Captain Janeway and getting more and more worried by the second.  
::He's a literal Hannibal Lector with delusions of Godhood now isn't he? What's scary, is that he's got a body and intellect to match that megalomania.::

---------------------------------------------

The Traveler turned to Seven of Nine.  
"I am here Seven of Nine. I assure you. What the Guardian is doing on the Iconian Station is non invasive. He would never involve himself in mortal affairs directly.  
An individual race's right to free choice rules his actions absolutely."

Before Seven could answer. Yar looked up from where she was helping Seven to sip her serum cup and she got angry for the exBorg. "Oh, that's just all high and mighty and neat as a pin now isn't it? You eternals coming in and watching us poor emphemerals stumble around our dire situations like a space pilot oggling an Orion Slave Girl's dancing. The Guardian of Forever has got his fingers where they DON'T belong. That station decided to appear in our home solar system so it will be us who will decide how to get rid of it. Most likely, The Prime Directive will make us blow it up before anyone ELSE can meddle there."

The Traveler was calmness personified. The irate security officer's boiling emotions didnt even sink in to ruin the peace surrounding his manner and tone.  
"It would be foolish to think you are the only group of beings out here who like to explore temporal gateways when they make their reality known on this plane. The Guardian and I are simply......"

Lt. Yar had had enough. "Just another pair of thrill seekers if you ask me. Go take your curiosity and go elsewhere,  
ok? Seems you're nothing but another pair of lungs for the enviros to keep supplied with air. Breathe that in gratefully and do me a favor. Don't let out any HOT air afterwards.. Excuse me.." and Lt. Yar barged past the Traveler where he stood near Seven of Nine and returned to her post observing Khan sleeping on his biobed.

The Traveler thought a bit on a new viewpoint and focused inward. He saw that the Guardian of Forever had indeed intruded on the temporal envelope surrounding the station. So much so that the resonance was showing up in the nano innoculated crew around him. That fact surprised him.  
He retreated to a quiet end of sickbay to reexamine the Guardian's presence in his mind privately.  
::I wonder what this could mean?:: he thought. ::Have we overstepped our bounds and broken the local laws governing these people?::

But the Guardian of Forever didn't speak telepathically out loud to him right away.

-  
(attachments)

Image: A youthful Khan in a turban.

Image: Yar looking stressed.

Image : A smiling Kirk outside.

*animated gif* Kirk's Enterprise hitting the great galactic barrier

Image: The EMH looking surprised.

************************

From : "Cory Anda" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Seven's Lended Regen Rounds the Bend Date : Sun, 16 Jun 2002 08:34:56 +0000

Barclay looked up from his terminal as Chakotay rejoined him at the engineering station. "How did it go? " Then he saw the hypo the EMH had tossed Chakotay. "We're almost out of time?"

The commander looked up from his rapid computations reconfiguring the holoparameters they would need to form the intricate innards of the modified alcove Seven would need. "Hmm? Oh, no. no. no. Seven's fine. This cordrazine's only a precaution should she alter consciousness suddenly. I've been drafted as her medic for this hour's watch by the holodoc. Guess he's figured he's too emotionally involved with Seven to be an effective caregiver for her medically."

"Makes sense." Reg said. Then an algorithm drew his attention. "There.. That's the last line of holo parameters we needed." and he whirled on his engineering stool in the well lit side of sickbay. He waved over Moriarty and Holozimm. "Gentleman. I believe we are set over here to place the basic holoframework to align the matter conversion transporter to create our alcove. Captain Janeway. Are you set on your end?"

Kathryn Janeway splayed her fingers widely on her energy flow panel which she had tied into the schematic showing Mr. Scott's blueprints. "Yes. I've rerouted all holoenergy feeds to your terminal save those keeping the doctor, Moriarty and Holozimm on line. Alerting the bridge.." and she sent a prompt to tactical of the coming power surge to arrive in a minute.

Barclay nodded. "All right. Here we go. Moriarty, if you please? We need a model of a humanoid for the alcove to measure its shape against. Would you mind?" and he held out his hand to the transporter hologrid pad on that side of sickbay.

Moriarty studied the grid with interest before he stepped up the few steps to the receiving grid. "Of course lieutenant. Anything I can do." he said. And soon, he was there standing in the center of the holo/transporter platform. He waited expectantly.

Janeway bit her lip. "Here goes. Feeding Mr. Scott's designs into the hologrid and through the transporter buffer. Holomatter will become real matter. Seven, I am feeding the consumption curve along your specified recommendations. Anything else I should know?"

But Seven didn't reply. She was staring transfixed at the platform as a ringing chorus of energies created her new resting alcove. She numbly shook her head.

The energy song died away and there was a complete, compact, more Federation than Borg like alcove cocooning Moriarty.

Janeway sighed. "Nice work people. Looks like it'll be a perfect fit. Now to adjust the cranial taps."

Right then, Seven fell to her knees, weakened.

"Seven!" Janeway shouted. "Chakotay. She's going out on us..."

The commander was at Seven's side in seconds, and he caught her as she sagged against him in a moan as she fought a sudden wave of drowsiness in her head. He held her head back against his shoulder. Safely supported, she could breathe without trouble and he started delivering a slight dose of cordrazine to the base of Seven's throat in a constant flow, little by little. "Hey... easy.. We're almost there. Stay awake, Seven.. No sleeping. Tell us when you're back to normal." He waited for the stimulant to begin taking effect in her bloodstream.

The medication hissed only a few moments more when Seven's hand came up to grip Chakotay's wrist and pulled the hypo away from her throat. "That is sufficient.. I....apologize.. My nanoprobes seemed not to have alerted me to a rise in melatonin. I.... almost fell into REM." She pushed back onto her feet with the commander's assistance. Chakotay stayed near by, until she sat down onto a stool. Then he rejoined Reg to finish the last of the crucial computer commands they needed for her rapidly. He whispered to the lieutenant. "Don't stare. Stay focused. Move it."

Out loud, Captain Janeway lightened everyone's fear. "Almost fell asleep on the job Seven?" Janeway joked. "You should have listened to us. Your human side IS the one feeling the worst consequences right now. Going without rest soon overrides what you want your brain to do. Gets even the best of us around the third day with no sleep. Vulcans included." she added, locking her terminal into auto feed.

"Almost only counts in hand grenades and horseshoes, captain." Seven quipped.

Spock turned in his seat to monitor Seven's medical outcome audibly, seeming to have only half listened in on the conversation while he worked to regrow a strip of B'Elanna's unique plague cure tagged DNA strands for culture.

Ambassador Spock raised an ironic eyebrow and his features took on the distinctive non emotion air of a Vulcan about to refute something. "Vulcans have been known to go without sleep for two weeks, captain."

"Yes, but that famous Vulcan sense of humor disappears just around the thirty six hour mark. For me, that's when the brain goes... bye bye.. in most of your people for then I get the impression you've all gone double Vulcan on me." she waved minisculely at him in jest.

That made Spock's other eyebrow go up and elicted an amused grunt out of McCoy. "She's got you there, Spock, Say touche'." Bones laughed in a gravelly drawl.

Spock said, "I fail to see a debate angle won. There was no debate to begin with." he said in puzzlement.

Seven laughed weakly at their banter.

Reg Barclay's computer panel bleeped in query as the bluelit alcove construct formed in the air in front of them around Moriarty. It uptook a full physical matter signature. "Constitution into reality from designs now complete. The holoalcove is now, a real one."

Seven sobbed when she felt the wall bed start to hum a preregen tone. "I... need to get in there...."

Reg and Chakotay each took one of Seven's arms and helped her up onto the platform where the modified alcove they all had built thrummed with power. Soon, the series of green ready lights they all had been waiting for, turned on. ##Enter when ready..## came the computer's reply.

Even as Seven reached out for the recessed tube, the cranial taps and dorsal feeds reached out as well to stick to their proper body points along Seven as she nestled deep into the standing bed. There were audible snicks as her implants connected with the bed's and she sighed as each mated home. Chakotay and Reg let her go when the stomach brace closed in around her. They hastily backed off the transporter's energy to matter pad as a surge of energy from the ship's power grid started to feed Seven's carefully programmed partial regen cycle.

"The alcove is working like a charm." Reg grinned. "There she goes.."

Seven's face softened into a deepened prehypnostate and toxins in her blood began to fade from her medical scan playing out on the main display on one side of the viewscreen. Seven's eyes closed but no sleep patterns formed in her brain waves as planned. The long needed regenerating rest had finally come for her tired body.

Her stressed vital signs evened out into normal levels of mental recovery at last.

Reg, highfived Holozimm and patted Moriarty on the back in celebration while the others grinned. "That was a little too close for comfort. The alcove matrix shows, she'll stay in the half state, healing, for about twenty nine hours. Then she'll naturally return to full consciousness again. All we have to do is safeguard the computer's power feed to her bed so it doesn't interrupt during that time, and we're home free."

Janeway walked over to an instrument column on the bed and touched a few Borg/Federation key pads. "The bridge is making sure a failure won't happen. Looks like Sulu's put in five backup relays to the platform here. She'll be fine." The captain lifted a tricorder up to bioscan Seven's nanoprobes. "And her immunonanos are easing off their movement too. I see them returning to Seven's bone marrow and out of her bloodstream. Being recalled?"

The EMH spoke up. "Yes. That's because the serum is starting to do it's job. If you were part Borg, the vaccine nanos Seven gave you to fight off the Vidiian Phage would be trying to do the same thing. In all of you, I'm reading that the nanos are instead going inert and bonding inside each of you in your large intestines. They'll pass naturally out of all your bodies by tomorrow I suspect, get cleaned by the sanitation system, and then make a preprogrammed journey back to rejoin their comrades inside Seven through her wrist assimilation tubules ."

Reg scratched his head. "Will it hurt?" he asked.

"Will what hurt?" the holodoc asked Lt. Barclay.

"When they go.....disconnect from our systems." Reg clarified.

Ambassador Spock spoke. "Your answer is no, lieutenant. If I've understood the process properly, Seven's vaccine nanoprobes were formed to aid the body, not fight it in anyway. Voiding them will be entirely natural . Seven didn't make them to assimilate anyone so logically, it goes that no separation anxiety will result upon their departure from our bodies. They have never formed or accessed a mental link with our consciousnesses."

Alexander spoke up from where he was standing by his mother. "Can I keep just a few of my body friends? I like being able to send them with messages." the boy admitted.

The EMH said. "I'm sorry Alexander. But Seven can only lose so many of her base nanoprobes in her lifetime and she's given away quite a few already. Some, are inside Mr. Neelix, a crewman from Voyager's days. He needed them to come back from the dead once. They can never leave him. So Seven's met her quota already."

"Oh..." the boy said, humbled. "Ok, she can have mine back too."

Reg Barcaly leaned back on his work stool while the EMH scanned Seven's wall recess for a reading on how well her human flesh only regen was progressing. "Scotty would be proud if he were awake right now."

Kirk said, "Scotty's always proud. He's our bonafide genuine real life miracle worker then, and now. I can hardly wait to have him back with us."

The EMH frowned. "The stasis will hold him until we're certified cured from the Phage, captain. Then the Starbase or Starfleet Medical can repair his cervical fractures and get him on his feet again with no problem. We're just going to have to wait a while first.. until then no harm done. We've cleared the first hurdle and that hurdle was "fixing" Seven of Nine."

Captain Janeway rose from her station and went to stand near Seven's alcove tube just to watch her regenerate without sleep. "Amazing. Can we design alcoves for the rest of us to recharge ourselves like this?"

Holozimm spoke up. "I'm afraid not, Captain Janeway. One must be a half Borg in order to benefit from this new technology of Scotty's. No implants, no sleep bypass circuits. Sorry.."

Janeway sighed. "It was worth a shot anyway. I'm getting sleepy just watching Seven not sleep here."

Both Chakotay and the EMH looked up in alarm.

"I'm kidding. The coffee's working just fine boys." she replied with a joking grin. "Come on. I think B'Elanna needs us over there."

-  
(attachments)

Image : The EMH and Barclay at a console.

Image: Spock at his board.  
Image: Janeway and Chakotay, a pensive pair.

Image: Seven in blue lying on a biobed. *animated gif* A Lcars square computer display streaming algorithms.

*  
From : "Katherine Bird" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] It Doesn't Pay to Be Squeamish.. Date : Mon, 17 Jun 2002 07:40:01 +0100 Lt. Uhura saw Data enter sickbay and knew he would get to her about the Iconian station as soon as his priorities allowed. She sat,  
adjusting the sensor feeds coming in from the exploratory probe out there around it and felt very humbled. ::This is like another Guardian of Forever, only without a narrator.:: she thought.

She saw Nurse Chapel hand a med scan to Dr. McCoy on Seven's progress in her new alcove and then come over to sit by her to fill out a report.

Christine smiled. "Good news. It looks like Seven of Nine got induced into that resting bypass mode just in the nick of time. She almost fell asleep but Chakotay kept her awake long enough for them to get her situated inside. Her prognosis is good."

Uhura sighed with relief, shoving aside her own data padd report containing Troi's account of the vision she saw of the Iconian computer sequences.  
"At least something is making sense and going our way. It's been days since there's been a turn for the better on anything.." she sighed. "And to think that Excelsior isn't even a light year from Earth.  
So much trouble for one tiny little ship."

"Not so tiny. " Christine said, eyeing up two coffee cups still steaming on the console near Uhura.  
"Excelsior must be ten times Enterprise's size.  
But you're right about the hard luck of late. Vidiian invaders, female caretaker takeovers, a tourist stop for time visiting gateways and beings..." she tried to keep focused on her own conversation but her eyes kept wandering to the coffee cups in front of them. Finally, Lt. Uhura pointed to them and licked her lips. "What are these? Smells good."

Christine looked up for a moment completely blank in look. "What? Oh, them. Lt. Yar just left them. Drink up. Stage one of our great cure. Amino acid antibodies and tribble cream.. Umm umm." she said sarcastically.  
"In only the best Jamaican blend..according to the EMH." she quoted. Her tone was cheery but neither woman was overly eager to try any sipping.

Uhura scratched one of her Phage lesions absently.  
"Tribble's teat milk? And human blood serum?"

Christine nodded vigorously. "From the mother tribble and Captain Janeway."

"Sounds like a witches brew." Uhura grimaced.  
"I don't quite know what to think of actually...drinking.  
...that stuff.....do you?"

Christine said, "I think we can trust the smell and its curative power and safety. No EMH can poison a patient."

Uhura's face didn't give up its frown. "No. But he has a long way to go in the gross out factor area. It's about on the same par as his lack luster bedside manner.  
I thought doctors were supposed to ease suffering."

Nurse Chapel slapped both hands on the console top with finality and grabbed up a cup, handing Uhura the second one. "Apparently, not suffering of the mental kind. It isn't a life threatening scenario in his book.  
Here. I will if you will. Just think, a hundred years ago, people drank cow's milk and ate turtle soup. This can't be all that bad. It's...it's...coffee with character.."  
she said finally in a flourishing gesture of resignation.

Uhura gave her cup a testing sniff. "Still smells good."

"He designed it that way. Of course it does." Christine insisted.

"I don't see YOU drinking it yet.." Uhura said eyeing up Christine's own hesitation in taking the "medicine".

Christine set her cup down with a thunk. "I know...."  
she said with firm exasperation. "I keep remembering the old adage. 'Coffee always smells better than it tastes..' "

Uhura's cup hit the console surface with a matching thunk. "Oh thanks a bunch..That really helps.." she said sarcastically.

Then both women started laughing hysterically to the point of getting into coughing fits because of their mutual plague ridden conditions. The sound caught the EMH's attention from his office and he hurried over.. "What seems to be the problem ladies.?" and he raised his tricorder in the air to take an oxygen reading. "The environmental controls have sickbay running 50 % pure O2, you shouldn't be in respiratory distress like this..." he said.

That only made the coughing choking pair laugh even harder... until Uhura wheezed, "Not physical di---*cough*.. stress. Just stress in the head.."

That reminder of their earlier comments only made them laugh even more, until they couldn't speak.

Finally, the holodoc saw the liquid in the cups before them and handed them off to the two ladies. "Here.  
Drinking might ease your coughing. Go on.. Sip.."  
he said in no nonsense terms.

Uhura and Christine both held their breaths when they realized the moment had come to partake. Then they both plugged their noses with pinching fingers and downed the coffee like a mug of ale. Their mental qualming over what they were doing, ended their mutual coughing jags and both shivered in disgust as the last swallows of Phage cure stage one ran down their throats.

Both tossed the cups away and covered their mouths to keep it down.

The EMH was oblivious to their reaction save the one which had attracted his attention. The now resolved coughing spites. "There.. that wasn't so bad, now was it..? I made sure it would be pleasing on the palate.."

Christine was the first to master her voice again.  
"It's not the taste. It's ..KNOWing what it is that's bad."

The EMH straightened and neatly disposed of the empty cups into a waste slot. "Mind over matter Nurse Chapel. You should be an expert in that by now. You see disturbing medical situations and procedures all the time."

"Yes, but it's different when those weird and bizarre procedures involve yourself. Just try to put yourself in our shoes for once..."

The EMH looked down at Uhura's regulation Starfleet boots without understanding. "Now why would I try to do that? It's possible to do so with my holomatrix configured like someone's shadow perhaps but ..uh.."  
and he waved his hand negatingly in the air between them and shook his head from side to side in doubt.

"We're not speaking literally here doctor. It's ah,, it's an expression.. to show sympathy for others by understanding their point of view in a situation." Uhura said brightly.

"I'm not programmed to be a counselor. That's Troi's department. Excuse me, but if you're done quailing over coffee draughts, I could use your help over here.  
Spock's finished growing a viable strand of B'Elanna Torres's DNA. The Phage fighting genes are clearly visible on the Theta scanner and I need pairs of hands to shake the tubes to bathe the cultures solidly in nutrients. Game?"

Uhura and Nurse Chapel gave each other a this-is-impossible-to-reason-with-a-hologram look before both saying..."Yes..." at the same time.

"Right this way.." the EMH burbled, showing off the work station he, Dr. Pel and Spock had set up. Lieutenant Uhura and Nurse Chapel soon forgot their ordeal by coffee bean as the new project's complexities captured their attentions.

--------------------------------------------------

Holozimm was watching Seven regenerate in the non sleeping mode provided by the bed Scotty designed. He was fascinated with the idea that energy and holo design had become physical matter and he murmured. "Is that your answer Professor Moriarty? To become real in this way?  
After all, we are just a different kind of energy.  
Who's to say this fine ship can't turn us into reality with this transporting wonder as well?"

Moriarity placed a holohand under his chin where he sat by the console that was reading off Seven's vitals to Dr. Bashir watching her and slumped. "I already thought of that mode. It seems the Excelsior is not programmed to recreate the forms of legally defined living lifeforms. Such as we..." he said, sweeping a hand between himself, the EMH working across the room and Moriarty. "A sentient holo can never be given flesh. A ruling these humans made following the outcome of the Eugenics Wars. The same conflict which made and finally broke our interesting friend Khan over there."

"Oh." Holozimm said, not at all dimmed by the prospect he had realized being a dead end.  
"I see. Well, I'm sure there's other means.."  
he said cheerfully. He eyed up Khan snoozing on the biobed, absently happy.

Moriarty said ironically, with no smile on his face.  
"I'm sure there are. Or Janeway would have never agreed to share them with me after this Phage outbreak is over. She's taking her sweet time getting back to me now isn't she?"

Holozimm's enthusiasm finally dampened and he eyed his companion in serious regard.  
"But,.... they aren't comPLETEly cured Professor.  
Not yet. They, self admittedly, only started along the right path LEADing to one."

Moriarty sighed and rubbed his forehead in a good impression of a human headache. "Yes.. I know.  
But as fascinating as this wonderful new Starship design is, I'd rather be exploring that Iconian station out there. Seems remarkable in concept and philosophy.  
I've read up on these Iconians.. Very resourceful people for physical beings. They.... created their own escape route from an inevitable super nova by creating doors out of NOTHing.." he said with mystery. "Now that.. is an idea I wish to learn and discover more about.  
And what better way to do that than by being fully independent from a hologrid.." he said, gesturing to the myriad of holoemitters ringing the medical ward around them. "The good doctor EMH is satisfied with not stretching his horizons. Of course not.. He's already independent.  
Such a waste of freedom. It would be something that I would not wish to squander, Holozimm. Ever."

"You really think that the EMH is scaling down his true potential? Seems he's working miracles for his crewmates staying exactly right where he is Professor.."  
Holozimm reasoned in a puzzled tone.

"Oh, never mind. Say,, would you look at this...."  
Moriarty said. He gave a sidelong glance at the datapadd that Uhura and Chapel had left behind about Counselor's Troi's account of the vision she saw of the machinery inside the Iconian Station.  
And the sequences of the buttons she saw that needed to be pushed for an unknown purpose.  
Moriarty eyed the notes there. "Hmmm. Amber.  
Amber. Blue....Red. Yellow Red. .. etc.. I wonder why the counselor was given this particular knowledge."

Holozimm began to grow nervous next to him.  
"I- I don't think we should mettle here, Moriarity.  
I mean, that station's sudden appearance shouldn't even be our business."

Moriarty pinned him with an intense eager stare of discovery. "And why shouldn't it be? There may be great risk to this wonderful starship and her crew over there and thusly, our own lives could be in jeopardy as easily as we were when the Vidiians boarded us and threatened to shut off our power grid."

"But.." Holozimm sputtered.

Moriarty pressed a finger to his compatriot's lips. "Shh. But nothing, .. my dear cadet. It won't hurt to just take a look around. Seems our fine Guardian of Forever is doing the same thing right now. See?" and he directed Holozimm's gaze to the main viewer where the six minute temporal variance was clearly showing on a scan there from Seven's nanoprobes which the gateway was using to investigate the alien station. Moriarty stroked his mock villian's chin and smiled.  
"Besides.. I was designed with an insatiable curiosity in my personality programs. I must be true to that directive now shan't I?"

Holozimm was confused by the older holo's confidence and still so new at deceit that he just nodded in dumb agreement.

"Good. So let's go. I've figured out how to work this transporter pad over here that isn't being utilized by Seven's alcove."

Holozimm started to speak out loud to Moriarty thinking better of the plan but Moriarty countered cleverly. "We won't be breaking the quarantine by simply taking a little side trip Cadet Holozimm, as we aren't and can't be infected with this Vidiian Phage so hush up and learn from your elders.."  
he said. "We'll be fine. And before you ask the question,of course there are holoemitters over there. The Iconians were an advanced and enlightened people. And besides, we still have the dear and departed Mr. Scott's tiny spy probe Byte, here to house our holoprograms.." And the sinister holo produced the small silver sphere from his Victorian coat pocket and held it between two fingers up to Holozimm's worried eyes.

Before anyone flesh and blood realized,  
Holozimm and Moriarty had tricked Excelsior's surveillance computer into beaming them off ship and then across the solar system to Pluto,  
to land inside the strange Iconian station. They ended up before the very Iconian computer panel Counselor Troi had seen in her stunning vision.  
"Now.. Let's see what we can do here, Holozimm.  
Ready?"

Holozimm began to wring his hands, nervously eyeing instinctively up in the direction from which they had come.

Moriarty began to laugh low in his throat and he murmured. "Come on Holozimm, where's your sense of adventure.. It doesn't pay to be squeamish.."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Uhura in sepia tones

Image: Nurse Chapel waves with Mccoy at us.

Image: Mccoy, Scotty,Uhura ,and Spock with the Guardian of Forever..

Image: Moriarty close up.

Image : Cadet HoloZimm (Holo Lewis Zimmerman template)  
reading a padd.

*************************************************

END WEEK SEVENTEEN RECAP 06-17-02

WEEK EIGHTEEN RECAP 06-20-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Site

*  
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 07:09:06 -0700 (PDT) From: "Myron Ojala" Subject: {voyagerliveaction} Thrills and Chills.

::Now this is very interesting.:: Khan felt the presence of the guards surrounding his sickbay bed.  
::But the others.. Now they....are elsewhere.:: Khan surmised without opening his eyes. ::I wonder where they are?::

He concentrated on listening and finally, when that did not yield enough information, he slowly looked around the room in a langorous stretch.

Lt. Yar and Ambassador K'Ehleyr were immediately on the alert. Khan saw the Klingon woman pull the boy who had stepped near his bed earlier protectively behind herself. He spoke to her without ending his detailed study of the events going on in the ward.  
"I do nothing that isn't for my pleasure and harming children and mothers isn't one of them, so relax,  
ambassador. " he breathed in richly, completing his superman like stretching exercise as he sat.

Dr. Bashir made his way back to Khan's bed from Spock.

It surprised Khan that it was this new doctor who reported and not the others who attended him first. ::I wonder what is happening?:: Khan thought.  
::Maybe it is something which I can use to my advantage:  
He smiled as Julian lifted a scanner to his torso a good two meters out of Khan's reach. "Very good.  
Very...good doctor. You are cautious. Only those who have intelligence knows a threat when one is nearby."

Julian's expression was flat, betraying none of his internal analyses. "And I suppose you are claiming to be such a threat..?" the Deep Space Nine doctor asked deadpan.

"I could be,...some later hour. But not today.. I have been spared death by the Fates and that is something not to be sullied by actions of battle ...nor conquest..." Khan said softly intense, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully at the youthful doctor before him. "So,..what do your instruments tell you now.. That I am healed unnaturally swift from Death's door. That my strength is unnaturally augmented for a human male? You and I are of a kind in that regard Julian Bashir. In a way.. we are brothers..."  
he hissed passionately with a penetrating smile at the man standing over him.

Bashir's mouth turned in a slight upward curve that wasn't friendly. "Now there's your first mistake of the day." he said evenly. "True I have been genetically enhanced, but I am no superman physically.  
I've intelligence, yes. But as to healing powers,  
those are ones I provide to others through my acquired medical skills. I've no special ability of my own as far as I know. As to your offer of allegiance in brotherhood, I firmly say as a Federation Officer and physician,.. No thank you.."

Khan Noonien Singh laughed long and hard. Loud enough to startle some from their work on the other side of sickbay and caused the security guards to set hands on their readied phasers at their belts. Khan noticed the flash of defiance in Yar's eyes and he met her challenging gaze evenly and drank in her brand of sharp beauty. "Ah,. so that is how it it will stand with me and this new shining ship and her crew! Me against the uniform yet again. Very well. Kirk and I have had our spats and their past outcomes no longer interest me. I only desire to watch people..." he said, uplifting his arms in a mock charitable gesture before slapping them limply at his sides again sinking back into his comfortable sickbay pillow once more. "And there are many, many women who want to defy what I represent. Or who want to love the one doing it.." he said boldly in an advance to the two women in the ring of guards guarding him.

Lt. Yar looked away, when she realized that Khan had noticed her curiosity in his physique, however subtle.  
She mentally kicked herself for letting male physical appeal rule her reactions. She snapped her eyes up again but not before Khan got confirmation of her ambivilence.

K'Ehleyr simply snorted, not even bothering to spit at his insult to their integrity and true intentions.  
And she did not look away, keeping a warrior's gaze at him, without a single blink. It was only when her son tugged her leg in fright that the fire cooled a bit for Alexander's benefit. "Alexander. Everything is fine. This man is on his back. Not much of a fighting opponent shackled as he is. And he has no idea of the love between a man and a woman as it should be."

"Touche ambassador.. But you are wrong.." Khan said looking at a fingernail still bloody from his time just a gateway ago, fighting to activate the Genesis Device on the Reliant. "My Marla was the second half of my not entirely black heart. She was my life and she was taken away from me by the actions of your crewmate Kirk. So don't condescend emotional superiorty as you haven't had the time nor the desire to know me for WHO I am." Khan flared briefly. But then he continued his mildly charged conversation with the human doctor in front of him as if he had never been interrupted by K'Ehleyr. Julian's scanner was going unread and ignored. ::Good. I have him unbalanced still with my reactions. Let him puzzle all he likes.:: and he shifted eyes to the tray of cups Yar had left on a tabletop. "Doctor,doctor.. Forgive me. I have a tendency to overreact. Frequently. It is something which I constantly battle inside. But tell me. Do I need to safeguard myself against the plague running wild on this ship? Or not...?"

Dr. Bashir finally realized Khan meant the serum coffee cups. "Oh. uh... no. Not with your makeup. You're still registering as clear. " he said with a quick check to his forgotten med tricorder scan.

Khan raised his eyebrows. "Oh? Too bad. It's been centuries since I've even caught the sniffles. I have forgotten what it's like to be weak in the flesh.."

It was Yar's turn to snort. "Oh, please..." she said sarcastically and turned away in disgust to lean in to say something to her fellow security guards.

"She doesn't understand..." Khan said to Julian.  
"What it's like to be channelled into a form designed solely by man. Genes are powerful allies. Or enemies.." he said dismissively. "Tell me my dear designed doctor, what has happened to change the feel of this ship? Don't deny it, please, for I see your superiors gathering together by that console."

Dr. Bashir looked up and for the first time, noticed Kirk, Janeway, Chakotay and Spock conferring with each other over a scan of the probe watching the Iconian Station. They were all firmly entrenched inside command shells, nothing concrete in their faces. ::Now that's new indeed. :: His eyes cast to the alert bar ringing the high bright ceiling,  
but no light was lit, in any color. ::Hmmm...:: Then he knew. His genetically prodded intelligent mind pinned the same thing that had attracted Khan's curiosity.

There were two less holograms in the room.  
His voice spoke his discovery out loud before he could rein it in. "Moriarty and Holozimm have disappeared."

"So THAT's it." Khan said cheerfully. "I hadn't planned for not being attuned to holographic activity changes. I shall rectify that oversight at once. Thank you doctor. You have been very helpful."

Julian afforded Khan an irritated look and he quickly left the big man's bedside to report to the others monitoring the screens they had called up from the orbital probe.

---------------------------

"Is there anything I can do here?" he asked Janeway.

Captain Janeway turned around and dragged herself from a deep level of analyses as she paused for a few seconds to recall Julian's name. "Doctor Bashir? Too early to tell. You see, Holozimm and Mor--"

"Have tricked the surveillance computer and have beamed off ship across the solar system to land inside the Iconian Station off Pluto. I know." Julian said quickly.

Janeway seemed surprised. "How did you learn that? We haven't mentioned anything concerning it yet."

"I get good hunches." he said, "Look captain. I only came over here to offer help outside the medical.  
There's nothing further I can do concerning the Vidiian Phage until B'Elanna can help Spock make enough DNA grafts for me to use in implanting everybody with surgery to cure this plague."  
He took a deep breath. "I'd rather keep busy if you don't mind."

Janeway smiled when she saw Julian glance once more towards Khan and look away just as fast when he noticed the restrained exdictator still studying him intently.  
"I understand." She tipped her face nearer Julian's ear.  
"Kinda gets to you, doesn't he?" she said of Khan.  
"Just blow it off. He's all just bluster now as long as he's still tied in that security field. Try not to think about him. From what I've read, Khan likes to try to needle his victims into making mistakes tactically by idle prattle. Won't work if you know what he's doing."

Julian sighed and dropped his head, crossing his fingers together around his med tricorder. "I must still be feeling new on this ship and with you all or I'd've come to the same conclusion before getting sucked down into Khan's little verbal chess game,  
captain. Thank you for getting me back on course."

"That's my job, doctor." she said seriously. "You just stick to watching your patients. Kirk and I will worry about the event happening here. I don't know entirely what Holozimm and Moriarty are up to, but I see Sulu's got the ship's photons tubes locked on and ready to blow that station out there to kingdom come if either one of them even so much as places a single foot inside one of those gateways unauthorized."

Bashir cleared his throat, properly abashed.  
"Your point is taken Captain Janeway. Thanks for the update. I'll keep it confidential and refer others to your implied need to know only order about the Iconian station."

Janeway sighed when she saw how formal he had become.  
"Didn't mean to be so abrupt. It's just that I've seen too many crises and huge problems in the last week to last any captain a lifetime. Feel like silver hair's popping up all over my head even as I speak."

Julian aimed his scanner at her head and mock read a reading. "Yep. Silver is definitely leaving its mark on you. But the arrival of any more is yet to come beyond the silver sideburns you have gotten already."  
he teased. "The bloodflow to your head and hair follicles is not yet stress impaired."

Janeway chuckled. "Yeah? Tell that to my stomach lining."

Bashir smiled hugely as he turned away to join Spock back at the DNA replicating console and lab table.

-----------------------

When he had gone, Chakotay added his own insight into the newest doctor to Excelsior. "He seems a rather thorough officer. Why not let him in on the Iconian Station situation, Kathryn?"

Janeway turned back to him and softened her worry frowns for his benefit. "Because he has enough weight to carry around concerning this Vidiian Phage Chakotay. Show me a single doctor around here who isn't.." she said. But then her attention was drawn to the time shift variable of six minutes in Seven and now the entire Iconian gateway station. "Would you look at that. Now why didn't Mr. Data tell us about this? He was the one at the probe's tactical station on the Commdeck last."

"I don't know. " Chakotay admitted. "Shall we ask him?"

"First things first." Janeway said, rubbing her arms thoughtfully, warding off a stubborn chill.

"Cold?" he asked her. "Better not be getting sick again." he said moving near to draw her into a hold from behind. He briskly rubbed warmth into them and called for the computer to raise ambient temperature a few degrees.

"You feel better I see. You're feeling very friendly." she said blandly. But she didn't ask him to stop for sake of decorum in front of the junior ranks at all. Soon, he was through. And Janeway comforted.

They both started to review the current scans of the Iconian station showing the two holograms and the six minute time variable again.

"Blame that serum laced coffee of yours. I almost feel well enough for us to take another trip into the spirit world in a dream quest next calm moment." he admitted "We've a new life to think about in our future.  
Remember?"

She smiled. "That's still one plague and two runaway holograms on an alien station away commander. And yes,  
it's,.. it's nice....to think about it all. Yet, they come first...." she said .

"The crew. Yes they do. " Chakotay grinned. "So let's have at it, so later, we can have that quality time exploring us."

"Deal.." Janeway said. Then her stomach growled.

Chakotay chuckled. "Oooo, looks like my next duty is now to feed the captain. What do you want?"

"Anything but coffee." she said. "I believe I've finally been topped off in that department.  
Then go visit Seven for me, tell me how she's doing.  
She's the one we should monitor the most right now."

(attachments)

Image : Bashir in a serious closeup.  
Image: Promo Khan with "babes".

*animated gif* Janeway and Chakotay's photo spinning on a virtual coin. Season one.

************************************* From : "Clairissa Fox" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] The other worrying thing. Date : Sat, 22 Jun 2002 11:23:15 +0000 Mum was worried. Not about the old silver hair Kan, not about the body weak Phage bug, but because of something else. I wanted to find out what that was.  
So I moved around sickbay pretending to be busy with picking up all the medicine cups and baby tribbles that were all over. I got all six Vdmeers, even the spotted one!

The pilot Paris and Belanna were over by the place where Spock was making the genes to fix us. She was working hard by watching 7 stand in her special bed to recharge. 7 looked relaxed and I wondered how she was resting without taking a nap. She looked lonely so I left two of my tribbles by her feet so they could keep her feet warm.

Then I got the mum tribble Vdmeer from Dr. McCoy and said that I was going to feed her again since he had gotten the antibodies from her for all our medicines.

Dr McCoy! Dr McCoy! Im going to give her some more corn but not too much since I know better and the messhall's got the best stuff so Im going to go there. Shes used to it that way.

I ducked out of sickbay so fast, not even mum saw me go. Well at least I didnt see that she disapproved of me going.

But I wasnt going to the messhall. Mum tribble chirped in puzzlement but I shushed her and put her into my pocket on my uniform. I felt much better since the coffee medicine so I knew where I was going. The bridge!

I knew I wasnt supposed to go there. But I really really wanted to find out what mum was worried about since it wasnt about the bodyweak plague or Kan like the others were.

I got onto the lift and finally got there. I wasnt seen.  
Well. ok. I was by the security guards on the bridge but they didnt tell me I couldnt come so I went over to the science station where a nice young man was working.

Excuse me human. I said to him. I need to get a report for Captain Janeway. I lied. She needs to know what is going on up here about the other thing worrying her that isnt about our illnesses or Kan.

I was very clever. This human ensign would never know what I said wasnt true. So I watched him get some information in a status report from his computer and then he handed it to me.

Here you go Alexander. He said to me. This is everything weve gotten about the Iconian Station and the disappearance of Holozimm and Moriarty over there. Tell Captain Janeway that Captain Sulu doesnt plan to use the photons really.  
It is only in case they decide to break the temporal prime directive by going in one of those gateways over there.

I will sir. I said and I saluted in my best Starfleet way at him but the Vdmeer made a hello noise at him and spoiled it.  
I growled in irritation to show her I wasnt happy she gave away the fact that a Klingon had a Vdmeer anywhere near him. But the mum Vdmeer kept it up.

Hey. said the science human. Hows she doing? I saw the bridge sensors which showed me that she was having her babies yesterday.

Shes fine. I growled. They are ok too and not sick from this Videan bodyweak.

Then I said. Hey, hows Captain Sulu doing? Did he get sick like the rest of us down in sickbay and the comdeck?

I tried to peek around the high captains chair but he was turned away from me so I didnt get to see the human who had that deep voice like I pictured Kahless's.

The EMH was just up here scanning all of us and delivering those coffee remedies. The captains doing well but itchy from the sores. Even from those on his bum! he told me leaning down.

That was funny! So I laughed. I dont have any there. I guess he does because hes got to sit in that big chair all the time and watch us all on the big telly screen.

I suppose so. said the ensign human. Is that all you needed?  
This datapadd report for Captain Janeway?

I nodded as best I could without laughing at how I tricked him into giving me the grownup eyes only information about the ships current status. Yes. Thankyou and mum Vdmeer thanks you too.

I snatched the padd from the humans pink hand into my own and saluted smartly before backing back up into the lift again. I took it back down to sickbay since I knew the ensign could see me on his sensors on his computer to make sure I got back to mum.

That was ok. Since all I wanted to do was trick him into telling me about the other matter keeping Captain Janeway and the other officers busy and quiet.

And I got to see the bridge even though I wasnt an officer.  
Ha ha!

I got back to sickbay with my report and snuck into the hollow doctors office so I could read it.

I jumped up onto the chair and dug the corn I had saved out of my pocket so I could feed mum Vdmeer to cover up what I had been really doing. She ate while I read.

It said.  
"%%Situation report. Admiral Komach to all ranking officers on Excelsior. The surveillance probe has detected the presence of two of your hologram crewman on board the Iconian Station. Smart of you to send them over to investigate the station without technically violating your quarantine orders. However, we are puzzled why you've raised the big guns over there. We assume hologram curiosity is the cause and will trust you to keep them in order and in this timezone. Earth Investigative initiative goals are: No one is beaming aboard the station until it is fully cleared of potentially dangerous alien energy sources. The USS Enterprise has been notified and we are briefing Captain Picard to get more insight from him about the station without calling him into the situation directly. He's enough to worry about with his first officer Commander Riker and guest Colonel Kira and Kirk's Captain Scott now in stasis for the duration.

No one will violate the temporal Prime Directive save those entites not Starfleet citizens, The Guardian of Forever and the Traveler, etc.

The Phage is only on board the USS Excelsior. We've been lucky so keep it that way.

Here's a breakdown of what we've discovered on board the Iconian Station. The control panel you've told us Counselor Troi saw in her mental flashback is the same one Captain Picard and Data used to escape the supernova in the Yamato affair. Data would be a good one to ask about what he remembers of the functioning of that station.

There are no energy sources save that panel functioning inside the Iconian hub and no gateways have opened save the one which dropped off Khan in your cargobay earlier. For your information, none of Khan's followers nor descendents survived the Mutara Nebula Incident so don't worry about them showing up to collect Khan anytime soon.

We note your progress with an effective serum for the Vidiian Phage and the progress using Lt. Torres's genetic template to launch a procedure to cure your crew from the Phage. We eagerly await an outcome in that area. Keep us posted as to the progress of your holograms exploration of the station. Reg Barclay may prove invaluable to you about their own progress and experiences through the probe tie ins. He's had a lot of experience with holograms as you well know.

Noted Seven of Nine's lifesigns stabilizing. Nice work.  
It would have taken too long pulling out her old Borg alcove from the USS Voyager to solve her dilemma. Building a new alcove was the only viable second choice.  
When Mr. Scott is salvaged, I'm sure he'll be very pleased with your accomplishment using his designs.

Keep us informed of each step in solving both fronts.  
Both the Iconian station hologram away mission and your situation with the Vidiian Phage. Hopefully,  
things will continue to improve.  
Signed Admiral Komach Starfleet Headquarters.%%"

Wow!! This was an Admirals report. Cool. And I got to read it before anyone else.

So that was why mum was worried. The Holograms must have snuck off the ship without orders. Now that was almost as bad as me not doing what I was supposed to be doing. Like getting a report meant for officers eyes only.

I turned the datapadd telly off so it didnt look like I read it first and I walked over to Captain Janeway.

Janeway! Janeway! I thought you might like to see what Captain Sulu is doing. A human ensign from the bridge gave this to me to give to you.  
Here.

I watched her eyebrows go up in surprise as she took the datapadd from me but then she smiled.

Nice initiative Alexander. I was just about to call for a status report from Deck One right now. Thank you.  
You're a sharp young man. she told me.

I looked at her. Only my knifes are sharp maam.  
Im too little to be as strong as a warrior yet like my dad Worf.

I walked away and back to mum guarding Kan and left Captain Janeway holding the report padd.

I watched her read it and nod and then she looked up at Data afterwards. Most likely she was going to do what the admiral suggested to her about Data. Ask him about what the controls were on that alien station panel.

I sat down on a stool near her and Yar and did my best to watch Kan too.

I wanted to see what would happen next. I had to see. I had to see for me.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Alexander in the sun..

Gif: A datapadd in closeup.

*animated gif* An orange lcars display of forward space as if in warp.

*animated gif* Viewscreen merge light on a bar in red.

*

From: ' Cory Anda '  
Subject : [voyagerliveaction] David Finally Wins Over Goliath Date : Thursday July 4, 2002. 13: 09: 05

I turned the datapadd telly off so it didnt look like I read it first and I walked over to Captain Janeway.

Janeway! Janeway! I thought you might like to see what Captain Sulu is doing. A human ensign from the bridge gave this to me to give to you.  
Here.

I watched her eyebrows go up in surprise as she took the datapadd from me but then she smiled.

Nice initiative Alexander. I was just about to call for a status report from Deck One right now. Thank you.  
You're a sharp young man. she told me.

I looked at her. Only my knifes are sharp maam. Im too little to be as strong as a warrior yet like my dad Worf.

I walked away and back to mum guarding Kan and left Captain Janeway holding the report padd.

Captain Janeway watched Alexander return to his mother's side and thoughtfully bounced the datapadd he had given her against her palm.  
::Seems like Klingon curiosity is already full blown in children his age. Clever of him to learn what grownups aren't telling him while still staying in the rules.:: she smirked.

"This report from Admiral Komach must've told him all he wanted to know to date."  
she chuckled to herself and decided not to pursue the infraction of protocol he had made concerning reading captain's eyes only mail, with anyone else.

::If he's clever enough to figure out how to obtain information he wants without disturbing the system nor the protocol, he deserves the reward of learning it. Now that's crafty cool intelligence at its best.:: and she winked at him enough to let him know she had caught on to what he did. A light sideways nod was enough to remind him that a boundary had reached a gray area not to be entered again anytime soon.

She whispered, knowing his ears would hear it just fine even when no one else could.  
"Alexander. No second time without duly earned rank with one of these.." she said hefting the subspace communications datapadd up. "But I'll admit the move was SSmmmooottthhh."

Alexander's face spread into a wide bright grin totally belying his warrior's race heritage but just as fast falling off into a look of one who's hand was caught in the latinum jar.

Janeway left him to wonder the repercussions that might result from that little stunt of his and turned her back on him to address Chakotay. "Commander. Look here. Seems Admiral Komach's up on the latest. He doesn't know Moriarty and Holozimm slipped away to the Iconian Station on their own. He thinks we sent them there on an away mission."  
she said handing the comm padd into his hands.

She calmly waited for him to finish reading the report from the Admiral and studied his face as he covered the various points of misguided assumptions.  
Surprise. Amusement. A deeper seriousness when the section about the quarantine was reached. And at last, worry, thinly veiled. His lips parted and he said the same thing Janeway could almost hear on his thoughts. "Data holds the next piece of the puzzle we need according to this. If that Iconian panel the counselor saw in her vision is still in his recollection,  
we could gain valuable insight as to why the station is here, now, off Pluto's perigree and not blown into atoms from the original nova which obliterated the Iconian home system."

"My thoughts exactly Chakotay. But first, I think we'll need to pull Ambassador Spock and Lt. Barclay away from their terminals for a while to lend a hand with our analyses from over there. The situation is dicey enough as it is with the two holograms suddenly AWOL without orders. Who knows when Sulu might decide the risk of them contaminating some timeline through a summoned gateway will tip into critical crunch decision making time. His phaser lock on the station's no bluff." Janeway said when he was through.

"A tough call. But the Temporal Prime Directive is very clear unlike the Main One. 'No technological influence from the Federation shall be exposed to a lesser technologically developed race in this timeline, nor in any other that shall effect the natural course of their civilization.' Pretty straight forward guideline there,  
Kathryn."

A new baritone cut in. It was Mr. Barclay. "Through any gateway huh?... Then how do you explain Khan. His time is hundreds of years ago, with his original life choices altered because of an exploring starship's actions? True Kirk helped him out of sleepfreeze by accident and just as fast as he could, returned him to his place. But SOMEthing wants Khan around alot longer. It's HE who's actually come through one of those unpredicable Iconian gateways into our cargobay. And if that panel memory of the counselor's is a manually controlled work station,  
who brought him here and why?" he concluded mysteriously.

"Lt." came Spock's deeply calm reply as he came to stand by their sides. "You must learn to curb any conclusion you may encounter on your hypothesis. It has yet to be confirmed that Khan used an Iconian gate to escape the Reliant's destruction inside the Mutara Nebula Genesis Wave implosion. As to the holograms' motives.... it is the same one for which you make "little blunders" all the time." the older Vulcan sighed with a non smiling Vulcan amusement.

"oh? sir...?" Barclay swallowed bravely. "And what's that?" he asked in a rush of bravado and tone to make himself appear confidently calm even as he felt his nerves might be under an attack of criticism.

"Curiosity.." Spock said steepling his hands in front of his chin. "The one quality shared with all intelligent bidpeds across the galaxy... Usually a less dangerous trait than that of purely emotionless blind study, if you'll recall the Talosians and Captain Christopher Pike's final destination.  
Such a trait assures that unnecessary risks would not be taken."

Barclay's face crumbled in disagreement. "Oh. And you say the holos' little beam out over there to the very panel that may control the gateways is nothing to worry about ?"

"Not the precise phrase I would use but the essence of your analogy and what I've outlined, essentially agree with one another." Spock said evenly, his eyebrows climbing into his silvered bangs.

Barclay folded his arms nervously. "Ok. Have it whoever's way. What do we plan to do about Moriarty and Holozimm now? They are off the ship and possibly with their fingers already on the temporal gates selections shuffle button."

Janeway grinned. "Now that isn't true just yet Mr.  
Barclay. Komach didn't say anything adverse was happening over there on the Iconian station. Orbital probes never lie. Holozimm and Moriarty may BE only looking around as the admiral mentioned here." she said with a flourish of the padd Chakotay had given back to her.

"Is there any chance of one of us going over there to handle the situation?" Chakotay asked her.

"Not as long as we're all still infected. Our quarantine is still a quarantine until the last victim's quantifiably Phage free." she replied with a wry grin. "Speaking of which. How are you feeling?"

"Fine. Seems that coffee we shared put a dent into things."

The EMH made himself known, moving over to the four of them. "It should have. Antibodies can't miss once formed. And with the addition of this.." he held up a test tube with fine white strands of nucleic acids in it up to their eyes with a pair of forceps. "It's a done deal as Tom Paris would say.."

Janeway laughed. "So B'Elanna was right. Her DNA DOES hold a cure for the Vidiian Phage." she murmured.

"Captain?" Chakotay said.

Janeway shook her head minisculely. "Remember that time I died in that shuttle crash and you had to do everything you could to keep me going until the doctor arrived?"

"How could I forget." Chakotay said.

"Well, there was one scenario that near death entity showed me in sickbay when the good doctor here informed me of my wonderful surprise illness. I remember asking him in my hallucination about whether or not B'Elanna's DNA held a cure to it."  
she added.

"I did?" the EMH said with puzzlement. "I don't remember such a conversation, nor another time where any of Voyager's old crew complement ever came down with the Phage at all, until now. Please,  
enlighten me as to what happened back then Captain,  
and I'll add it to your personal medical file database."

Janeway frowned ruefully, but her eyes twinkled.  
"Would you like to add euthanasia to your long list of medical options doctor?"

"I beg your pardon.. I am not programmed to carry out such drastic measures. I'd only put an irrecoverable patient into stasis as I did Captain Scott an hour ago."  
he said firmly offended.

"I know that and you know the same." Janeway said,  
passing a finger in a gesture between herself and the EMH, "..,doctor. But enough of past creepy hallucinations.  
What do your final results show on that?" she said pointing to the tiny test tube filled with Klingon DNA.

"Oh. This?" the EMH asked. He was effectively distracted from his ethical tirade. "We can begin instigating it into those of the Excelsior's crew most effected by the Phage.  
It will be one hundred percent effective once that happens."

"Good. Begin with Seven..." Janeway ordered. Then she looked up. "Err.. I assume she's the worst of all of us.."

"She was.. That alcove has done wonders for her already."  
the doctor said. "If you want to know critical patient categorical order, just shift your gaze to Mr. Spock here. He's about one minute away from rupturing every poc on his skin. No scratching!" the doc said quickly and his hand snaked out to firmly smack the back of the Vulcan ambassador's hand when one of them moved to rub his other his palm subconsciously.

Spock arched both his eyebrows in surprise at the response.  
But he didn't say anything.

The EMH continued. "His vitals are rock bottom for a Vulcan not in a healing trance right now despite appearances."

"Fine. Take him into surgery first." Janeway concluded.  
"Sorry ambassador. But the doctor knows best. Especially when it comes to a cure he's been working on and regulations demand that the worst cases in any plague situation....."

"Receives medical attention first. I do not debate your decision captain. Only the one who ellicited it." he said with a significant miniscule glare of indignation at the EMH for slapping him like an errant child.

Dr. McCoy looked up from his DNA replicating machinery across sickbay. "My god Spock, was that really an attempt at a joke? I'm impressed. I actually got it." the older physician sputtered. "Now get over here and lie on the bed like a good little sick Vulcan and let us doctors start to play our game of Madam Curee' ."

Spock set his hands into his sleeves to shore up what the EMH had told him not to do. "Very well. " he walked over and sat on the bed, letting McCoy and Dr. Crusher take off his outer robes and change him into a patient gown in prep for surgery. "Captains. I expect to be fully informed of what's happening over on the Iconian station when I awaken."

The EMH said. "Who said anything about general anesthesia?  
Did you forget that any loss of consciousness makes the Phage meltdown happy? You won't be missing anything.  
We're going to give you an epidural. K'Ehleyr, don't stray far.  
You're next. I can see that you're caving from here.."

Everyone's head shot around to the tall Klingon Ambassador standing over by Khan's bed. She seemed her normal calm self, until they looked at her hands, gripping Alexander's.  
They were trembling.

"Better yet. Take the bed next to Spock. Dr. Crusher can start your procedure while we finish up Mr. Spock's." he added.

"I'm fine doctor." K'Ehleyr said. "It wouldn't be a smart thing for me to take my eyes off of Khan." she said without looking away from the engineered foe.

The EMH said sarcastically. "No. You'd prefer to just let the Phage take your eyes OFF." he said.

Alexander laughed and then began pulling his mother towards the bed. "Go, mom. Me and Yar can cover things here."

Soon, both ambassadors were locally anesthetized and the first of the DNA transplants on the crew begun.

------------------------------------------------------

Twenty minutes later, the blessed green of no infection blossomed across the medical status screens of Spock and K'Ehleyr next to Janeway's own screen.

"Nice little bug. " the EMH said as he finished up his laser suturing of Spock's thigh where he had placed B'Elanna's DNA culture into the bone marrow. "Just be a good Phage and stay dead." as he saw the green light from the corner of his eye. He didn't look up from his surgery.

Spock spoke up from under his sterile drape. "DNA cures never fail doctor."

"There's always a first time." the holodoc admitted.

Dr. Denara Pel looked up from where she was helping Uhura and Nurse Chapel get up on beds three and four.  
"Not with the Vidiian Phage. Once licked. It's gone forever.. OH!!" and she fell against the bed, barely catching herself. She started panting. "I think we found patient number six.. Dr. Crusher, you're going to have to start K'Ehleyr's DNA implantation without me. Hmpph!"

"Labor pains? Finally. You are about six hours overdue."  
the holodoc said. He pulled the drape off Mr. Spock and then hypo reversed his local anesthetic to his patient.  
"All through. Now would you get up and help Dr. Pel lie down here?" he said patting the bed Spock was vacating.

"Of course." the Ambassador said and he gently did so.

"The baby first doctor." Denara said as the EMH examined her back for signs that the birth sac was truly ruptured.  
"You can DNA treat her the moment she's born. My immunity should fight off the Phage long enough until it's my turn."

"Her?" Dr. Crusher asked with a smile. "Do Vidiians always know the sex of their child during delivery?"

"Yes. A baby always cries when it's time. Girls voices are very distinctive."

The transformation in the EMH was stunning. He went from firm physician to flustery father in about two microseconds.  
"Denara? We have a girl? I couldn't tell from your scans.  
Ohmygod. It's a girl...Let me see if things are proceeding normally."

Dr. Pel grunted from where she lay on her side and a med tech wiped the sweat off of her forehead with a towel.  
"Just be sure one hand's holding the DNA insertion dose. Our daughter gets treated first..." she hissed in pain.

Then the marsupial pouch opened and the purple sac around the baby let loose its hold. The high pitched scratchy squawls began to fill sickbay.

The EMH lifted up his "daughter" and smiled as she protested the light and set her down on the bed next to Denara to begin the DNA implantation. "Here goes your first hypospray little love.."

Hiss. And he numbed up the baby's leg to begin.

It wasn't long before mother and baby both earned green Phage free lights on their biobed monitors.

The EMH leaned down. "Now, you can sleep. " he whispered into Denara's ear. "I'll watch the baby and make sure she gets settled in your pouch to eat once I'm through here."

"o....kay.." Dr. Pel sighed. And she drifted off.  
The sight of someone actually sleeping for the first time in days made everyone else yawn in reaction.

The EMH looked up sharply. "NO copying her until cured!"  
he said to all at large, making sure no one followed suit in reaction.

The first one he glared at was Janeway. "You're the second most sleep deprived after Seven. Get up there."  
he pointed to the bed K'Ehleyr was leaving. The ambassador was now fully healed from the Phage like Spock, Uhura and Chapel.

"But I'm not sick.." Janeway protested.

"No. But feeling snoozy right now might be just the invitation the Phage is waiting for to reinfect you .... Up." he said, slapping the biobed's mattress.

Soon, Kathryn felt her thigh numbed and the DNA pressed into place into her bone marrow.

Through no volition of the doctor's hypo, Janeway felt herself melting mentally into the blissful arms of true sleep at long last..

The last words she heard were. "Chakotay...you're next.. And forty winks for you too."

And in her sleep, Kathryn dreamed.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Spock leaning into Kirk to talk at a bridge like station. Both men older than Enterprise days.

Image: Denara Pel and the EMH car star gazing.

Image: A newborn baby girl wrapped in a silver sheet.

Image: Mr. Barclay in a promo portrait shot.

Image: Janeway deeply asleep on a medical biobed.

*  
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 00:21:12 -0700 (PDT) From: "Myron Ojala" Subject: Khan-fusion from Time

Dr. Bashir was intent in his examination of the nasty little bug. ::So this was the Phage.:: he thought as the computer generated image of the virus scrolled past in holographic representation.

"My.. no wonder it took us this long to make any headway. This appears to have been designed to adapt to artificial treatments. Only the natural DNA one works in actuality." he said to himself.

But the EMH, cradling his newly born infant, had heard him.  
"Of course. Sospiria developed a disease run by a self aware delivery system in those Phage Minds. The contagion itself would be comparably stupid. A natural counter to its effects topples it like any germ exposed to its antibody."

Julian said. "Well, we've accomplished our goal.  
Now what's next?"

The EMH said. "Well, we could find a wormhole to drop off our resident would be dictator.."

"Who?" Bashir asked.

"Khan..." the holodoctor replied.

"Oh. Very funny." he said without humor.  
Julian was already lost on another problem.

The EMH said deadpan. "I wasn't making a joke."

"Is something wrong with your ethical programs doctor?"

"No. Although Janeway's euthanasia idea would work rather well for Khan, don't you think?"

"No.." Julian frowned. "I don't. Listen. Do I have to inform the bridge of your mild but murderous intentions here? Perhaps Moriarty and Holozimm's little adventure off ship has rattled you more than you believe."

The EMH said. "I have no allegiance to those two.  
We're....merely.. friends by design." he smiled.  
"I'm actually in a funk because my precious bundle here came THIS close to a Phage meltdown.  
So did her mother."

Julian now understood the reason for the EMH's sharper than usual wit. "I understand your concern now for your daughter, but what I don't understand is why you're so callous towards Khan."

The holodoctor looked up but refused to glance over at his supersized patient who was staring back at both men. "Holozimm has just downloaded to me a little history lesson on our man from the shadier end of the gene pool. I've seen major atrocities he's committed in the name of personal enrichment."

Julian. "Wait a minute. You're in communication with Moriarty and Holozimm from across the solar system?"

"Yes. All holograms can interelate across subspace bands with each other if linked primarily through a bioneural link network like the one we have here on Excelsior. The closest term you can call our connection would be holotelepathy."

Julian crossed his arms skeptically. "Ok. What are they doing now?"

The EMH replied. "I am not seeing nor hearing them.  
I am only privvy to their thoughts on plans of action.  
Not any leading up to these kinds of decisions,  
only the bottom line so to speak."

Dr. Bashir said. "Good, now tell me more while we finish up treating Dr. Crusher here. She's next after your commander. We should have a totally cured doctor here besides myself and your program, to handle McCoy's turn. He won't take lightly to being a patient. "

"What doctor ever is." said the EMH. He carefully folded his daughter into the soft skinned birth pouch on Denara's back. He made sure she had found her food source before turning back to the work at hand.

Just then, a loud authoritative voice from behind them rang out. "Doctors. I would like to speak with you now if you please." said Khan.

Julian didn't even turn around, supressing his urge to leave quickly, just to get away. "Not right now.  
I've a scalpel in my hand. Hold still Commander."  
he told Chakotay.

Chakotay looked up from around from the visual barrier from where he lay on the surgical biobed. "Khan, why don't we talk instead? There's a few things that I'd like to know concerning you. Any conversation's better than dwelling on surgery here."

Khan aquiesced in agreement with a quiet frightening laughter.  
"So the mighty starship commander digs for tactical information from his dangerous rival. All right. First of all,  
I don't consider you a rival. I've no longer a cause to fight for. Second of all. I have no plans for the future,  
for I am most definitely in new and unfamiliar territory here. So how dangerous can I be on a starship about which I know nothing beyond the confines of these sickbay walls?"

Chakotay held up a finger marking a scoring point in the air so Khan could see it. "You don't honestly expect me to believe any of what you just said,  
do you? Our records show that you memorize blueprints and schematic diagrams in moments once you see them. Who's to say you haven't done so already? Scotty's engineering views were all over those screens while we made Seven her emergency alcove."

Khan sat up straight in his bed until he knew the commander could see him in his direct line of sight. "That's just it. You DON'T know. Release me."

Chakotay said. "I can't do that.  
Captain Janeway's in charge and she's asleep right now. Kirk is only an Earth advisor. Sulu has his hands full and can't get involved with matters down here. "

Khan said, "Then we've nothing to discuss. Enjoy that knife slicing into your muscles commander. Looks like a rather large incision into your leg."

Chakotay didn't like what his imagination was picturing for him but he decided Khan shouldn't see his nervousness about surgery. "Can't feel a thing. All right. I'll go out on a limb. How's your word of honor in non combat situations Khan?  
Can I trust you to not raise hostilities with us?"

Khan replied staring straight at Chakotay without looking away.  
"When I give my word to someone,  
commander. Stars would go out before I would break an oath. I will not harm anyone who has not harmed me. Will that be good enough for you and your captain when she wakens from her slumbers?"

Chakotay felt he was at a cross roads.  
:: Khan is a soldier. And therefore a code of honor is critical in men like him. I don't like it but we need that bed for the others.::

Slowly, he said loud enough for Yar and K'Ehleyr and Kirk and the security guards to hear. "The first time you step out of line and I hear from them that you've tried something, I'll be there. Release him from the restraining field doctor." he ordered the EMH.

"But commander.." the EMH said, his attention now fully pulled away from Chakotay's surgery.

"I just gave you an order. I accept any consequence that may arise from this.  
Including the chance that Kathryn will be one hundred percent dead set against Khan running free on board ship. Do it."  
Chakotay said.

The guards moved when the EMH didn't.  
They manually activated the off switch on the medical arm holding Khan's legs.  
The security field light winked out.

At that moment the guard's hands moved perceptively closer to their phasers.

Chakotay said. "Stand down. Khan is a "guest." Treat him as such."

Khan rose to his feet. Several inches taller than McCoy who moved nearer to him to offer a balancing hand. "May I request new clothes commander?  
These are rather tattered from the explosion.  
The genesis device did all but give me a close shave."

"Yes and a meal. But stay in sickbay where a high ranking officer can keep you company at all times. "

"To keep an eye on me? Am I a prisoner?"

"No. It's just that higher ranks know the ship's corridors and design and can give you a better tour.." he said. He was surprised that his tone was not sarcastic to Khan. "Stay available Khan."

"You have my utmost promise commander.  
I will harm no one who has not harmed me."  
Khan said.

But Chakotay was already falling asleep and the hidden meaning behind Khan's turn of phrase was lost on him.

::Now about Kirk.:: Khan thought. And he eyed the older man speaking with Spock on the other side of sickbay. ::He is the person I'd most like to thank personally for saving my life. That odd passageway I came through must be from something the captain knows about in detail.  
They say that knowledge is power. It's about time that I regain the know how necessary to survive here in this time,  
isn't it?:: he told himself.

Khan headed across sickbay after a brief pause at the foot of Janeway and Chakotay's biobeds. The Commander's surgery was completed and he was now fully cured as she was. ::They look so peaceful, lying there. Like death itself.  
Averted for now. But it's lying in wait for them somewhere, for later perhaps.::

Then Julian Bashir stepped forward.  
"They're fine now. No sign of the Phage.  
All they need is a little sleep to make up for lost time not doing so the past four days. It's taken a lot out of them."

Khan said. "And he's taken a lot out of me.  
he whispered so softly that Julian never heard.

Over on the other side of sickbay. Kirk got a chill he couldn't explain.

He turned but Khan had already looked away.

---------------------------------------------

Holozimm and Moriarty were only about ten minutes arrived when the strain got to be too much for the younger hologram.  
"Come on, Mort! Let's get out of here.  
I can feel Captain Sulu's phaser lock on my skin. We're are in so much trouble.."

The Professor rolled his eyes and said, "Impossible. You don't have skin.  
And don't call me Mort. I am.."

"Moriarty. Yes. I know. Soon to be Benedict Arnold if we keep going on like we are here.." he said gesturing at the blinking Iconian panel in front of them.

But Moriarty didn't seem to have heard Holozimm at all. He was staring into the flashes of scenes coming and going through the gateway floating before them. "Just a minute.  
I'm trying to.. I'm trying to.."

The gateway settled on one image of an elegant victorian lady in a pink feather hat.

Holozimm's mouth flopped open. "Professor!  
That's that's....."

"Yes. That's Regina. And we've come to rescue her from her untimely end. We might not be able to go there without Sulu's ship blowing us to smithereens but there's nothing that can stop anyone else from coming HERE,  
now is there? Regina!!" Moriarty shouted in a wave of passion and tears. "Come to me!  
You don't know how long I've missed you!"

Holozimm shrank against the back wall as Moriarty held out his hands to the image of his beloved lady. She turned in surprise in her English parlor and spied him.  
"Mort? Is that you? I can't quite see you.  
But I'll come just the same.."

And then her richly clad delicate form was there in the Iconian room with them and the Professor became lost in her perfumed embrace. "You can't know how long I've dreamed of this Gina. You've been gone a very long time."

"Nonsense. You've only just left from our tea in the garden.." she said. Then she noticed Holozimm and his strange Starfleet cadet's uniform. "Oh Mort. Don't tell me we've guests from that delightful ship from the stars again.  
And who is this?"

Holozimm's eyes got big and he gave a courtly bow even though he didn't know why he did it. "Holozimm maam. I'm just a template hologram so I don't have a proper name."

"I think Holozimm is charming, young man.  
Now where's your captain? He must be around here somewhere if you're here."

"Uh, our ship is.. well you see... There's this plague and... all of us are.. and Moriarity and I are not there and ... this station is actually a.  
I don't know what to tell you maam..."

"How about starting from the beginning.."  
she said charmingly and she set her glove into the cadet's limp grasp.

To Holozimm, Regina was the most lovely holowoman he had ever seen.

::Am I in love?:: Holozimm wondered.

-----------------------------------------

On Excelsior, Data suddenly looked up from his probe scans he was monitoring.  
"Captain Kirk. Inform the bridge. There are now three holograms on the Iconian station."

"What? How?" Kirk said.

"I cannot determine that at this time."  
the android replied.

"Well start firing off those theories son."  
McCoy sputtered. "Captain Kirk hasn't got all day."

"Beam them back. Now.." the EMH said.  
"One of them may have been split by a static field by accident. That station is dangerously alien."

"I'm sorry sir" said Yar. " It seems there's an Iconian gateway open near their comsignals. It's preventing us from getting a lock."

But before they could act, three shapes suddenly shimmered in the center of sickbay into solidity.

Then there was a new hologram next to the returned Holozimm and Moriarty.  
But this one was most definitely,  
undeniably female.

The elegant Victorianly dressed holowoman curtsied low before the rank she recognized as captain. "Sir.. You are not the charming Picard I recollect but I am most delighted to see you instead." Then she noticed the signs of sickness in Alexander and Kirk himself. "Oh, my.. is your vessel stricken? Perhaps I can be of assistance.  
I've nursed the sick during the war."

Behind her and Moriarty, Holozimm's undisguised adoration of the lady hologram was not lost on Khan. He began to laugh and laugh out loud but to himself he muttered.  
"It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved before. And this young Holozimm's faced with his first true love. What an utterly tragic triangle. Why Shakespeare himself could have not written a better tale."

---------------------------------------------- (attachments ) Image: Khan and genesis device

Image: Bashir leaning on his chin. Image: Moriarty and Regina

*  
From : "patti keiper" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Blood Rite Date : Fri, 05 Jul 2002 20:52:36 +0000 This is a tandem post between 'cassidy meyers'  
and 'patti keiper'  
via chat window live writing session. Editted by Cassidy.

Behind her and Moriarty, Holozimm's undisguised adoration of the lady hologram was not lost on Khan. He began to laugh and laugh out loud but to himself he muttered.  
"It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved before. And this young Holozimm's faced with his first true love. What an utterly tragic triangle. Why Shakespeare himself could have not written a better tale."

"oh boy.." Counselor Deanna Troi gasped in non eager anticipation. The cacaphony of emotions rocketing from Holozimm, Moriarty, the newly arrived Lady Regina and Khan were almost overwhelming.

Love from the young cadet holo, a growing flaming jealousy from Moriarty as he noticed the hearts in Holozimm's eyes for his beloved. And high amusement from Khan as he watched it all unfold.

::It's enough to make you pull your hair out..:: Troi slumped in her chair. She rubbed her face in preparation to deal with it all with resignation.

"Don't do that. Won't help in the long run..." Dr. Crusher said quite suddenly next to her. "Takes too long to regenerate new hair locks to replace the old ones."

Deanna blinked. "My god. Did I say that out loud?"

Beverly smiled and shrugged. "You didn't have to.  
I don't have to be an empath like you to see complete resignation stamp itself into your pysche. I just guessed your thought."

"D*mned good guess there. For a moment I thought mother had somehow beamed aboard."

Beverly frowned in sympathy.. "Oo. Sorry. Any thought of Lwaxana wouldn't be helpful just now." She sat down next to Deanna and folded her hands, to wait her turn on the operating table. "So,..." she said expansively yawning, then pointing in the direction of the new triumvirate forming in front of their eyes between the holograms. "What are you going to do about them?"

Deanna raised her eyebrows in mock candidness.  
"How does one patch up the emotions of a hologram.  
They aren't exactly human in most respects. More like fragile young life emotionally. Just look at Moriarty.  
All he desires is to be independent. Holozimm just wants to fit in. And Regina, just wants to belong to someone dearly."

Dr. Crusher smiled softly. "Sounds like someone we already know."

Deanna looked up with a frown. "Who?"

Beverly jerked a finger over her shoulder at the peacefully resting Seven of Nine inside her modified alcove.

"Oh yes..." Deanna said with discovery. "Perhaps I should putt this little counseling problem at Kathryn when she wakes up. She's been in this territory before. Chakotay loves Seven, Janeway loves Chakotay. EMH loves Seven..."

Beverly smacked Deanna on the shoulder. "Hey..Show some tact my fellow colleague. ANY emotional territory is sensitive ground here. Seems the Voyager crew love triangle seems to be resolving. Aren't the holodoc and Seven of Nine seeing each other now?"

Deanna turned her radar onto the holodoc. "Yep. He's glancing up at her more than twice every ten seconds. Definite attachment there."

Dr. Crusher said. "And what about Chakotay and Kathryn? They shared a very affectionate hug a few minutes ago of reassurance and she didn't hide it from the rest of us."

Deanna blinked up in surprise at her friend.  
"Now who's the gossiper here? Not I. What I glean from ship's crew personal relationships is strictly private. Never wags my tongue."

"No. Only your brain. Or you wouldn't be curling your hair around your finger like that." Beverly laughed.

Deanna looked down and saw that she WAS curling long locks of her dark tresses absently. She immediately stopped. "Beverly. I'm a counselor. I'm supposed to have empathy. It's just that I don't think I'll know how to proceed with this new hologram development.  
Moriarty may flare into a dangerous mode if his jealousy of Holozimm eyeing up his lady grows any stronger. And I don't want to hurt Holozimm by denying him his first crush. It's a phase crucial to any growing life form. Holo or otherwise."

Dr. Crusher snorted. "Now you know what I went through when Wesley fell in love with that shape changing envoy. One moment she was a sweet innocent teenager,  
the next..."

Deanna laughed at the memory.." A big fuzzy teddy bear with seven inch fangs and a nasty attitude."

Beverly saw the EMH wave her over as Chakotay's procedure completed. She gave Deanna a parting thought.  
"So,... do what I did. Just be on the sidelines and only get involved if asked. Got it?"

Deanna Troi eyed Holozimm, Moriarty and Regina once more as Kirk introduced himself and the crewmen who were still on their feet in sickbay to her. "I guess. Alright.  
I'll choose your approach Beverly. See you after your surgery.  
I'm in line next after that."

Beverly nodded and then went into her office to change into a surgical gown for her DNA treatment.

Just then Bones McCoy moved over to the counselor's side. "My my.. Isn't young love grand?" he remarked,  
indicating Holozimm and then again at the sleeping Janeway and Chakotay.

Deanna said. "It all depends on how you look at it doctor. The best advice I've learned on the subject today is don't twist your hair over it.." and with that she stepped away to be introduced to Regina by Kirk.

McCoy was left behind to wonder at her odd remark.

K'Ehleyr soon came by tugging a very itchy Alexander at her side, but one eye was still on the free roaming Khan and she scowled as he bowed genteely to Regina.  
"Doctor. Is my son high on your list of surgeries? It's everything I can do to keep him from scratching his Phage sores."

"He is, ambassador. Right behind Counselor Troi. Then it's my turn. Mr. Spock says at this rate of treatment.  
The entire ship will be Phage free by sundown and Sulu can lift the quarantine. The bridge has set up another temporary sickbay to handle the overload on the Commdeck using the ship's medical staff to get to everybody else who's not in sickbay with us.."  
Bones said. "Now son. No tricking mama tribble into rubbing your owies. It'll only pop them and bring out that fever again." he chided the Klingon boy.  
He intercepted the mama tribble into his own hands then set her into K'Ehleyr's..

The tall ambassador sputtered a bit holding her as if she were a sodden lump but the tribble's purring soon calmed her down again. K'Ehleyr's lip corners curled microscopically. "She is kind of cute.."

"See?! I told ya ma!" Alexander said, and he scratched his nose.

K'Ehleyr gave his scratching hand a light slap to stop him. "Consider my eyes opened on the subject Alexander.  
Now hush.."

McCoy discreetly remained silent and then greeted Beverly and helped her up onto a surgical bed.  
"If you'll excuse us ambassador. Or, if you'd like the boy to observe the DNA transplanting...." and he indicated a place at the foot of Dr. Crusher's biobed.

"oh." K'Ehleyr said, looking up from the soothing tribble in her hands. "Alexander? Your choice."

"I wanna see blood!!" he cheered.

K'Ehleyr rolled her eyes. "Glad I'm part human. That particular Klingon desire in me's highly diluted. My son's staying to watch. I'm going to hound Khan for a while."

"Fair enough." McCoy said, and he watched K'Ehleyr move off to shadow Khan shadowing Kirk.

Dr. Crusher pointed to a particular hypospray on a table near where she was lying. "Alexander? Wanna help Dr. McCoy? Pick up that and inject me just above my hip on the left side. You're his volunteer anesthetist."

"All right!!" the boy cheered again. "Hold still and this won't hurt a bit.." Carefully, the little boy gave Beverly the numbing block where she was pointing and then respectfully returned to the foot of the bed to watch McCoy work.

McCoy grumbled. "Quit recruiting little helpers, Doctor. " he told Beverly. "I don't want to lose my job.." he smiled and then he winked fully at Alexander.

The boy giggled and just as fast, oo'd and ahh'd when the scalpel started to cut into skin down to the bone.  
Soon, Dr. Crusher's graft was being injected into place before the rapt boy's wondering eyes.

Bones grunted. "Hmm. You think he's abandoned all dreams of becoming a Klingon warrior to be a doctor.."  
he said peering closely into his surgical field.

"I heard that.." K'Ehleyr said from across the room.

All three around the bed chuckled.

------------------------------------------------------------

Soon, Dr. Crusher and Deanna Troi both were one hundred percent Phage free. And Alexander as promised. The only ones left to cure were Seven, Kirk and Bones.

Troi absently rubbed her tingling thigh where the bone marrow tissue graft from B'Elanna's DNA had been placed. "Who do you want to do your procedure, Dr. McCoy? Dr. Bashir? Or Beverly?  
The EMH's getting set up for Seven's procedure right now. If you'd like. I can hold your hand.." Deanna whispered, leaning into Dr. McCoy while he cleaned up from Beverly's surgery.

"Hush. I may grumble some but I'm not lily livered.  
If I didn't have faith in medical techniques I wouldn't be in medical practice! They can flip each other for it! I'm going to go change." And with that, the older doctor left for a gown of his own.

Unseen on the other side of sickbay. Khan tossed a small device onto the surgical table next to the biobed being prepared for Kirk. It bounced under a steel pan and out of sight. Then his hand hit a tiny switch on his earring as he pretended a tired stretch.

Not even the guards noticed the move.

The tiny device on the captain's surgical tool tray started to super heat the anesthetizing substance in the hypospray near it, until its chemistry had changed from its numbing drug to sugar water.

Khan smiled slowly and took a seat on a stool to watch the coming show.

Dr. Crusher won the toss for McCoy's surgery and Dr. Bashir, for Kirk's.

Dr. Crusher turned to Julian and said. "You can watch how I perform the DNA insertion. You can follow along as I go.." she smiled as she spread sheets over McCoy's leg.

Dr. Bashir grinned back, as he did the same to Captain Kirk's thigh in mirroring copycat.  
"I'll warn you. I'm a very quick study..."

"Let's hope so son.." McCoy quipped from where he lay. He let Beverly place him on oxygen and the mask muffled his next comment into mumbles.

Dr. Bashir picked up his hypo and injected it as he saw Dr. Crusher inject hers.

"Now, doctor.." Beverly instructed. "It only takes a few seconds for the blocking agent to take effect. It will shrink the major blood vessels in the area out of the way quickly as it paralyzes so you'll be able to expose the femur in one easy slice of your laser without any risk. Like so...." and she made the incision on her patient. "That will expose the bone for the grafting probe."

Julian sighed through his mask and said.  
"A sub lateral medial transverse incision. Got it.  
Here goes.." and he poised his laser to cut over the captain's leg.

Two seconds later. Kirk screamed and a bright fountain of blood burst up several feet as the femoral artery, unshrunken by the useless hypospray injection seconds earlier, severed under Bashir's deft slice.

"AHHHHGHGHHHH!!" Kirk cried, struggling to sit as sudden shock of being wounded deeply bit home.

"Oh my word!!" Dr. Bashir paled. "What happened!  
Doctor..." he called the EMH. It was all he could do to keep Kirk on the table and to put pressure on the wound to stem the rapid flow of blood shooting into the air.

Kirk struggled again, in strangling pain as the two doctors fought to stop the major hemorrhaging and he grew more weak as his pressure started to bottom out. Red intense choking agony stole away his breath.

"Don't pass out captain.. Or the Phage will kill you..!"  
the EMH said as he frantically found another numbing hypospray. One that worked this time. Kirk sighed in relief and flopped back down onto his biobed.

The race to stabilize Kirk to keep him from sinking into deepening shock began frantically.

Khan, watched eagerly at his handiwork without moving.  
His arms casually crossed in front of him looking entirely innocent. ::There's just a morsel of pain for what you've caused me Kirk. And more to come if I have anything to do with it.::

MCoy ripped off his own mask when Jim's blood spattered across his face. "What the h*ll's going--"

Beverly jerked up her own laser scalpel and she nodded to two med techs to hold Bones down. "Don't know yet and if you don't want the same to happen to you doctor,  
Stay still!!"

Bones clammed up with a snort of anger but his eyes remained firmly on the bio monitor over Kirk's bed.  
The vitals were falling. "Jim don't you dare!! Hurry up Crusher.. I've got to get over there.."

"You're going nowhere doctor.." Beverly said. "They're handling it so let them and me, work. Now put that mask back on before I glue it into place."

Kirk was now feeling no pain again but he was getting very very shocky to Bones trained eye.  
"Clamp it off! Both ends!" he shouted at the others surrounding Kirk's leg.

But Bashir and the EMH had already done so. But not before over half of Captain Kirk's blood volume soaked the sheets around the wound.

"Hey.." Julian reached over and slapped Kirk's cheek when his eyes began to roll up into his head. "Keep awake. Nurse Chapel. I want O universal whole blood.  
Now! Use both his arms and do it all emergency transfuse..."

The EMH didn't look up from his rapid stasering of the artery repair. "Don't tell me this is the result of too much coffee drinking because I'd be the last person to believe it. Did you forget the anesthetizing agent? Critical oversight if you did."

Julian said. "I followed Dr. Crusher's example to the letter. Using this hypospray that you had set out for me.."

The EMH looked surprised and swept up the empty hypo and scanned it with his tricorder. "This is nothing but pure glucose.. I don't understand.. I had fifteen milligrams lidocainzine in here five minutes ago."

And a further scan showed that only his field traces and Bashir's fingerprints were on the casing.

Kirk started to gasp in air hunger from his blood loss as he fought to keep conscious. The EMH turned up his oxygen support and gave a quick dose of triox to boost his efforts to breathe normally. The captain gripped Bashir's shirt front..."W--Who did i..it?"

"Quiet.. Your bleeding's under control. Lie still as you can.." Bashir told him. ::We're not out of the woods yet.::

A minute later, Kirk could no longer breathe on his own so Nurse Chapel assisted him with positive pressure ventilations from his mask's valve. "Captain.. Keep those eyes open. I got you here.." she shouted. "Let me do the work."

Dr. Crusher barely finished sealing up McCoy's bone when the older doctor sat up ripping away his surgical drapes. "No.. You're still laid wide open Dr. McCoy.."

"Patch it with dermal skin. I'm getting up now!!"  
Bones roared.

Beverly hastily put auto heal over his wound and dermaplast. She could see Seven's nanoprobes hastening to heal the cut she had made through the incision. "Didn't want to rely on them. But.  
There seems to be no stopping you doctor.."  
she said and stepped away from McCoy.

He struggled to his feet limping on his operated and sleeping leg and came eye to eye with Khan.  
"If I find out you had anything to do with this.  
You'll be eating stellar dust out the airlock so fast, you'll wish that Genesis Device had finished the job!!"

Khan didn't smile, for he was the pen-ultimate actor.  
"I haven't moved from this spot in the last ten minutes doctor.."

The guards near Khan nodded in grudging agreement.

McCoy finally looked away, feeling his still numbed leg weighing on his aging bones. "I still don't trust you.  
Never will.. remember that."

And he hopped over to the captain's biobed to feel for the quality of Jim's pulse despite the instruments showing him what it was and he watched the three physicians pull James T. Kirk back from the brink and finish the DNA cure treatment as fast as they could.

Soon, Kirk's infection's orange sensor turned green with the death of the Phage in his system.

"Jim!" McCoy shouted to his friend. "Listen to me.  
It's through. You're cured. It's ok to let go.. We'll support you.."

McCoy heard Kirk sigh and slip finally into unconsciousness. "Keep that up Christine.  
I doubt if he'll be breathing again within the hour after losing that much blood. And watch his heart rate.  
Use Cordrazine if he flutters. Or Neonor. What ever you guys feel best. I'm going to go fume while Beverly tidys me up over there."

Reluctantly, McCoy let loose his grip on Jim's pulse point and limped away to stretch back down onto his biobed so Dr. Crusher could complete his cure.

::What :  
K'Ehleyr was all hackles. She had not seen whatever had occurred to lead up to the attempt on Kirk's life.  
::Did this tribble cause me to let my guard down:  
She glanced down and saw that her young son was equally puzzled and on guard.

Slowly, she handed it back to her son as the smell of human blood made the tribble moan in fright.

And then she did the only thing she could. "Julian. Move away from that table. I know you didn't do it. But until we know more I must ask you to step down as physician.  
I'm afraid I must confine you to Excelsior's brig pending further investigation."

Julian pulled off his bloody surgical gown and gloves.  
"I fully understand ambassador and I'll go wholeheartedly.  
There's every chance that I may have been under alien influence being so near the Iconian station like this. Let me know how he recovers Beverly, would you?"

"Uh.. yeah.." Crusher said, still blood soaked and stunned.

Julian was led away.

Then Dr. Crusher did the next thing to safeguard her patient,  
tapping her combadge. =^=Sickbay to the bridge. Deactivate the Voyager EMH until further notice. An attempt has been made on Captain Kirk's life. Transfer him to these coordinates.=^=

Then she looked up apologetically at him when he started to protest innocence. "Sorry doctor. Standard procedure in any surgical mishap. I'm sending you to the brig too. Don't worry.  
We'll work this out."

And the EMH winked out.

Sulu's voice boomed over the intercom. "I expect a full report."

Dr. Crusher sighed. "You'll get it. As soon as we know anything more.  
Kirk is stable as you see on your scans. Stand by bridge.."

Deanna Troi was all empathic instinct and it was attuned sharply at the non regular ship's crew in sickbay.

Hot raw emotion was in four people. And anger. In McCoy,  
it was understandable. But also she pinpointed the emotion in Moriarty, Holozimm and strangely... Seven. But nothing from Khan.

"What is going on here?" and she took several steps forward to where Beverly and the EMH were working on reviving Kirk back to wakefulness with intravenous fluids and blood boosters.  
"Beverly. " Troi said, "Is there any way the sickbay recorders showing the bridge sickbay's view recorded the last few minutes?" she said, watching Christine set a machine to breathe for the Enterprise captain.

Uhura spoke up shakily. "I'm afraid not. All sensors have been forwarded to take in the telemetry the orbital probe around Pluto is sending back to us.."

"D*mn.." Troi swore. "Looks like we'll have to figure this out the hard way."

Suddenly, the feel of the room changed swiftly and the counselor's empathic sense was befuddled absolutely.

A strange thing happened at Seven's alcove so odd, it drew ice down the counselor's spine. Seven began to smile.

And behind her, a ghosting image of the Traveler appeared behind her from the cargobay. And around them both,  
a cloud of nanoprobes danced around their heads like a swarm of bees.

"Seven of Nine hears us.." The Traveler said as he took full corporeal form in sickbay. "It is good."  
And then on the outer main viewer, a bright flare of blinding light around the Iconian Station covered it like a blinding blue sun.

When it had cleared, the Guardian of Forever was somehow,  
eerily, merged with the spindles of the station in a macabre meld of metal and living rock. "The first of our tasks is complete and we'll guide all who seek us, free of ills,  
to the Great Becoming!"

-  
(attachments)

Image: K'Ehleyr on transporter pad. .

Image: Beverly helping to treat a klingon on a biobed.

Image: Troi talking to Beverly Crusher.

Image: Kirk dying under scaffoulding.

Image: McCoy operating.

*Animated gif* Mechanized sphere with red spikes poking in and out from inside of it.

Image: Khan as a young Prince.

*

Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2002 05:33:47 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: [voyagerliveaction] Nano Variances

A strange thing happened at Seven's alcove so odd, it drew ice down the counselor's spine. Seven began to smile.

And behind her, a ghosting image of the Traveler appeared behind her from the cargobay. And around them both, a cloud of nanoprobes danced around their heads like a swarm of bees.

"Seven of Nine hears us.." The Traveler said as he took full corporeal form in sickbay. "It is good. And then on the outer main viewer, a bright flare of blinding light around the Iconian Station covered it like a blinding blue sun.

When it had cleared, the Guardian of Forever was somehow, eerily, merged with the spindles of the station in a macabre meld of metal and living rock.  
"The first of our tasks is complete and we'll guide all who seek us, free of ills, to the Great Becoming!"

A jolt snapped Seven of Nine to wakefulness within her crafted alcove in sickbay. ::Only an hour has passed.:: she thought to herself groggily. ::My nanoprobes. They're seeking amnesty away from the tasks I gave them to medically safeguard Excelsior's crew..::

And she opened her eyes to feel them swoop and sway around herself in a swirling column on the air despite the ship's gravity around them. The Traveler was there, arms raised and eyes closed in supplication to a proximity change that made her tired body hum in temporal sympathy. The ache was enough for her to finally hit a total recall on those not inside the crew. ##Return to my origination.## Seven told her roaming nanoprobes in the air and those far far away around the Guardian of Forever. ##Any task non medical is terminated.##

The Traveler gasped when the tenuous connection he had with the morphing Guardian of Forever through the nanos Seven had gifted to the ancient stone time portal abandoned him for their creator. "Seven.. what?" he said.

Seven of Nine absorbed the last floating nano into herself before she replied. "Your actions through the Guardian are not wise. The temporal variances from the Iconian Station were interfering with me and the rest of the crew. I was resonating six minutes apart from my normal time stream placement."

Then Seven saw Captain Janeway and Chakotay finally asleep on their biobeds and then the bloody scene around Captain Kirk.

"What have you done?" Seven asked the Traveler.  
She didn't stray out of the alcove which was cleansing her of the toxins in her implants.

"I have done nothing that isn't in the best interest of the Guardian..." the Traveler began with a mild smile and then a lot of genuine gentle confusion.  
"There's really nothing to worry about."

Seven interrupted him. "Then have the Guardian reply to me in your place." She said studying the life sign panel over Kirk, watching it slowly climb from a deep shock plunge.

##I am merged with the Other.## The Guardian of Forever finally said.

Seven of Nine focused inside her cortical implant where the Gateway was sending its telepathic voice.  
"You have left the ship, used my nanoprobes for your self interests to do so far beyond their programmed abilities." Seven countered intently. "Against my will."

##But did you not give the use of your free aspect servants to me on the blue world from before#  
asked the Guardian still inside Seven's head.

"I did. But only for communication purposes.  
They were never meant to graft temporal portals of two alien configurations together. They could have died.." Seven challenged the ancient Gateway.

The Traveler looked nonplussed. "May he have them back? The humans won't be able to understand the Guardian talking without them."

"No." Seven said simply and then she ignored the Traveler completely while she made sure all was well with the humans' medical nanoprobes functioning. The ones inside Kirk were the most active.  
"What has happened?" she asked the room at large.  
"Where is the EMH and Dr. Bashir?"

Data came over from his place on the satellite to probe panel to answer her. "Kirk was unintentionally hurt by Dr. Bashir when a pain killing vasoconstrictor was chemically altered in a hypospray by mysterious means.  
His condition is stable. The EMH was isolated from sickbay to the brig along with Julian as a security precaution. Everyone but you has been cleared of the Vidiian Phage through use of B'Elanna's DNA introduced surgically into their bone marrow. Dr. Pel has safely delivered her daughter and Captain Janeway and Chakotay are merely....." and Data cocked his head.  
"....resting to "make up for lost sleep." "

Seven of Nine said, "Then who's the highest ranking officer in charge now here in sickbay?"

"Ah.... That would be me.." Data said and he smiled.  
"Dr. Crusher's technically slightly higher as a commander than I but as she is still finishing up Dr.  
McCoy's medical procedure to--"

"I understand the distinction." Seven said then she studied the main viewer for long moments on the image the probe was sending back to Excelsior of the strangely merged Iconian Station/Guardian of Forever. Both were hanging in raw space as far as she could tell and only their combined central time gates were glowing with electrostatic energy.  
"What do you make of that Commander Data..?"  
Seven asked him.

Data unblinkingly turned to the same screen that held her rapt and sighed, allowing his emotion chip to control his feelings again. "I suspect it is a conjunction. A juxtaposition of two unequal but similiar time portals to form one cohesive whole."  
Then it dawned on the android commander about the Traveler's comment when he had first arrived in sickbay when Seven's nanos were airborne around him. "Sir,.. would you mind clarifying the Great Becoming?"

The Traveler "I didn't mean to distress the crew." he said with eyes lowered. "That wasn't my personal thought. It was theirs, the Iconian Gateway and The Guardian's. But, now that Seven has recalled back her nanos, the humans won't be able to hear them this far off of Pluto. But what is the matter? I don't understand. You humans usually aren't concerned with supratemporal concerns."

Data angled his head. "They do when such an occurrence may have brought a threat on board Voyager." and his yellow eyes fixed on Khan.

The Traveler smiled in his mild soothing way and said. "Ah, yes. That was a wrinkle we didn't predict."

"How convenient.." Yar snorted from nearby.

Her sarcasm was lost on both the Traveler and Data who continued to stare at each other.

Khan piped up. "Glad to hear I am the subject of much debate gentleman. If I can shed some light on the mysteries here, I'd like to do it.." and he planted a feigned passionate fist into his chest. "Truly..." he insisted when he saw that his tones were once again taken the wrong way.  
And he reached to zoom up the image of the merged Guardian and Iconian station portal hub on one panel. Instantly, the security guards and K'Ehleyr with Yar had out their phasers from their belts and pointed right at him.

Data summed up their unspoken meaning.  
"Touching that panel would be ill advised Mr. Singh. You are as much a suspect in Kirk's wounding as Dr. Bashir and the EMH are."

"Pity.." Khan said. "My intellect would have been a great resource...." and he sat back down onto the sickbay stool behind him.

Seven was surprising flip for a sleepy half Borg.  
"Your intellect doesn't know Starfleet regulations."

Data turned the bantering conversation around with his usual android's tight focus and he regarded the two sleeping forms of Janeway and Chakotay nearby. "We need to wake them."

"In a pig's eye! Being disturbed right now would be d*mned dangerous. They're in REM cognitive."  
Dr. McCoy said, hopping down from his surgical bed.

"I agree with the doctor." Crusher piped up.  
"Four days without sleep has unbalanced their brain chemistries. They'll need to sleep it off on their own naturally before I'd risk hypo stimming them awake. "

"Then I'll inform them of the situation in a dream.."  
Seven said suddenly and her eyes closed as she sank back into a regen mode on her new alcove.

She converted a few of their medical nanos into the same communications ones she had called back from the Guardian of Forever and sickbay faded away from around her before the others could react.

======================================

Kathryn was at home. With Phoebe and Molly lazing on the porch with Chakotay dressed surprisingly in denim overalls and a straw hat as he hoed in a garden looking very much like the one Kathryn remembered planting on New Earth.  
::I swear those beans are growing inches right before my eyes..:: she mused, smiling in the dream.

Chakotay started whistling absently as he worked turning over thistles and crabgrass in the bed when a new hoe thunked the dirt next to his and skillfully did the same in half the time.  
"Boothby!" he exclaimed.

"In the flesh.." the wizened caretaker grinned toothily. "Err... the dream flesh that is. Kathryn's imagining me here."

Chakotay smiled and then shook his head as Boothby finished weeding the row up in seconds.  
He had no choice but to lean on his hoe handle.  
"Heheh." he chuckled. "Care for some lemonade?  
We have some on the porch."

"Don't mind if I do." Boothby said, dragging out a dusty handerchief from around his neck and wiped his face. Then he turned his face into the dawn sunlight, squinting. "Better pour four Kathryn. Guess who's coming for dinner.."

Both Chakotay and Kathryn blinked when Seven of Nine was suddenly there with a pop in front of them.  
"Captain. Chakotay and Boothby?"

"Yep. Get used to it." the old man spat. "Seems Janeway here's conjured my likeness to work out a problem. She always did that in the Academy."

Captain Janeway rolled her eyes, then saw the just barely perceptible strain in Seven's clear blue dead pan eyes. "What is it, Seven? What are you doing out of your alcove?"

"I'm still regenerating. I never left it. Captain.  
The Guardian of Forever used the nanoprobes I gave it to meld itself with the Iconian station."

"What?!"

Boothby started chuckling. "I knew there had to be another reason why the Guardian of Forever came to Earth beyond that plasma firestorm at Starfleet."

"Shh.." Janeway said at him. Then she redirected her eyes to Seven. "What else? You're still frowning.." Kathryn urged her old crewmate.

"Kirk was gravely injured through a surgical accident.  
Some medication was bioaltered into an inert substance causing Julian to severe an artery. He's still not breathing but stable on lifesupport."

Janeway turned to Chakotay and abandoned her lemonade glass on the table. "Khan.." she said grimly. "Wanna bet he had a hand in it?"

"No bet." Chakotay echoed.

Seven nodded in agreement. "What would you like me to do? I'd like to help."

Janeway said. "Let us finish our dream. Then we'll be set to reawaken out of sleep to handle all this stuff. Until then, Chakotay and I are going to analyze things through."

Seven's head dipped.  
"I haven't made any difference yet captain."

"You just did. Now go. Back to sickbay.  
We'll follow when we can."

==============================

Seven felt herself dissolving away from the dream and back into herself in sickbay.

Data looked at her expectantly.

"I got through. They know. What next?" she asked.

Data said. "We finish our mission. Cure the Phage onboard and then study what the Guardian has done afterwards. We certainly have plenty of Time having two ancient time gateways cycling out there as one cohesive hub."

-  
(attachments)

*animated gif* 7of 9 in various emotional states in a moviette

Gif: Data eyes on a bar gif.  
Image: Janeway and Chakotay in a dream outline with Voyager flying past a white star and nebula . **************************************************

From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] The Art of Captaining and Loving~~ Date : Sun, 14 Jul 2002 18:56:31 +0000 Guest writer appearance- KKM with Roxy Dee

Lt. Yar was restless. Thoroughly and utterly frustrated too. ::And you'd think I'd be used to having situations lie out of my direct control serving on a starship as security chief. ::

The whole business about Captain Kirk's horrid mishap had unnerved her emotionally even though on the outside, Yar was all efficient . It took about twenty minutes for her tricorder to find the strange tiny device on the surgical tool tray that had changed Kirk's hypo anesthesia to water.

Ambassador Spock was studying its components.

Yar snorted. ::How convenient that the device had a static charge coat repelling all organic material from its casing. There's no way to trace who touched it last.:: Tasha turned to the guards watching Khan and said. "Cover for me here, huh? Team up with Ambassador K'Ehleyr. Her instincts are rock solid as far as surveillance goes."

"Aye sir.." replied both of them.

Tasha moved over to the foot of Kirk's biobed where Doctor Crusher and Dr. McCoy were arranging the tubes feeding both oxygen and blood to their patient. It wasn't often that someone needed an actively applied respirator and Lt. Yar wanted to know why the usual cordrazine hadn't returned Kirk's ability to breathe back the way it should. So she asked.

Dr. Crusher replied. "He's lost a lot of blood. His muscles have been weakened significantly because of that. As soon as his whole blood volume reaches one third of normal, his natural reflexes will decide to work again and he can be taken off the respirator."

"Thanks doctor." and Tasha went to Mr. Spock's side,  
just as the older ambassador tapped his combadge.

Spock said. "Computer. Release Dr. Bashir and the EMH from the brig. Authorization Omega Nine T'Pol Sierra and site to site beam them back to our location in sickbay."

##That security code has been recognized. Beaming brig occupants to Sickbay Ward One.## replied Excelsior's computer.

The EMH and Dr. Bashir shimmered into being and right away went to Kirk's bed to catch up on details of his condition. "About time somebody got around to freeing us. The only answer to that hypo medication error had to have been a chemical mutation brought on by mechanical means." Julian said to Bev and Bones.  
"Since our own activity's been duly noted and self diagnosted."

Lt. Yar frowned. "Huh?"

The EMH answered her with frank unsmiling honesty.  
"That device Mr. Spock is holding isn't Federation technology. Smart Vulcan for clearing our alibi so we can finish up curing the crew from the Phage."

"No thanks is necessary. Logic dictates that the truth will always be discovered upon careful analysis."  
Spock said.

The holodoc tilted his medical tricorder so that a worried Yar could read it. "See that yellow indicator there? It's climbing rapidly. Seems Seven's nanoprobes in Captain Kirk's system are rapidly stimulating his spleen and bone marrow to make more blood cells. At this rate, he'll be awake in minutes." he replied happily.

Lt. Yar sighed in relief as the doctors unconcern with Kirk grew. "It never should have happened in the first place." she berated herself.

Surprisingly, Moriarty and his lady, Regina, had their own insight to share. "Whenever does life events come predictably? Well, maybe for us holograms." he amended.

Lady Regina bubbled with animated devotion to Moriarty.  
"Oh, Mort. That's so....worldly." and her comment to him started a round of introductions of his beloved Regina to everyone in sickbay but those on biobeds.

Lt. Yar took Regina's hand and shook it. "Lt. Barclay's told me about you and how you met your e-" and she broke off.

"Don't be shy about it darling. " Regina blinked. "I did meet my end in that holocube jail device. And clever beloved enchanting Mort rescued me so he says.  
Although exactly how, escapes me. Last I remember, I was making tea in the parlor."

Moriarty stepped forward and took Regina's elbow protectively. "It's because of another device created by nonhuman bipeds, pet. They have doors of a sort, that look into and out of ...time. I used one of these by the delightfully resourceful Iconians to save you from your untimely demise to take you back before we ever left on that last shuttle foray. Hence, we never ran into the ionic storm Mr. Barclay programmed for us to find in the Perseus Sector. And your program was never struck by ionic lightning to the point of decompiling your matrix."

Regina waved a fan in her face. "Such...difficult words these,  
Mort. Matrix and program. I don't know how you ever managed to figure them all out. I'm afraid I'm not so talented."

Moriarty took up her hand and kissed it fondly. "The desire to survive creates the necessity of adaptation pet."

"Oh. And have you found the means for us to.. be ourselves?"  
she asked.

Moriarty nodded. "I have. You see that red haired Captain lying down over there sleeping? She has promised the means for us to stand freely alone from ship and room bound projectors. The EMH here, who's a doctor hologram for these fine people, has that rare ability of total freedom of movement."

It was the EMH's turn to be abash. "Now Moriarty. We can only approximate the functioning of my holoemitter. The lately frozen Mr. Scott's hoverprobe, Byte, is the closest thing we can create to it."

"Are there more than one of these little things?" Moriarty said, taking it out of his pocket. He transferred it to midair where it bleeped and awaited instruction.

"I don't see why not." the EMH admitted. "From what I've seen on Earth from the size of the gadget locker in Mr.  
Scott's laboratory at Starfleet Headquarters. Anything's possible."

Lt. Yar berated the holodoc. "Doctor. That information is classified."

"It is?" the EMH sighed. "Funny that. Seems all of us know about Mr. Scott's lab already because of the Fire and through Scott's own sharing of it from then, too."  
Then he redirected his scanning medtricorder to Yar.  
"You should stop fretting so much lieutenant. Your blood pressure's doing a good impression of a roller coaster. Try thinking of Excelsior as somebody else's ship and some of the weight of responsibility should just float away..." he said airily.

Yar pursed her lips. "Easier said than done. Once a security chief."

"Always a security chief..." said a new person. It was Holozimm. "Yes, that profession does provide for short life spans now doesn't it?"

Deanna Troi harrumphed loud in her throat from where she stood monitoring the emotions of Janeway Chakotay and Kirk while they healed.

"Oh.." Holozimm said, remembering. He had forgotten that Tasha would die moments after the Guardian of Forever returned her to her own timeline to reengage Armus, the skin of evil.

"Yes, well, That's all just unpleasant supposition." the EMH said. "Let's all just keep to neutral subjects for our patients benefit from here on out. Shall we? Wouldn't want to give Captain Janeway, Captain Kirk and Commander Chakotay here any more nightmares than necessary. Real life's bad enough."

Lt. Yar said, "Will they awaken soon?"

"I imagine so. Their bodies are fully free of any damage the Vidiian Phage may have inflicted upon them. Nothing that a good nap won't cure." the holodoc said. "Barring nightmares.." he said with a glare at Holozimm for bringing up sore subjects.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Captain Janeway turned a corner in her dream. She had taken one step off her childhood house porch when she was suddenly at the portal of another set of steps,  
leading to a cabin and a vaguely familiar man chopping wood.

Chop!.. and she marvelled at the sound which echoed back to her from the spicy mountains surrounding them.  
"Chakotay..." she said softly. And in moments, he was with her in that part of the dream. "Is that who I think it is?" she asked her first officer.

"Most likely. We're not in a vision quest trance here so what is now, must be what's happening." he answered her.

Janeway meandered down the stoney path, closer to the wood chopper until she was sure who she was looking at. "Captain Kirk?"

He was in a strange uniform, a red, white and black vested affair, and it was torn and burned.

Kirk stopped in mid axe swing and his aim missed when he realized that he had visitors to his cabin home. He smiled when he recognized them. "Ah,  
Captain. Commander. Welcome to my humble abode. Let me just finish up this last cord of wood here and I'll set us out some coffee on the veranda."

Janeway and Chakotay stooped to help Kirk gather the fragrant wood he had cut into their arms and together, all three piled their pieces on the logstack leaning against the cabin wall.

Janeway marvelled at the view surrounding them.  
"Where is this place?. It's delightful."

"Farragus Five." Kirk replied with a smile. "It is where Atonia and I hang out when we want to get away. I'd introduce you but Atonia's up there,"  
he said pointing. "... taking a horse ride right now on the ridge. And watch out for the Major.  
He doesn't take kindly to strangers."

"Is he a relative?" Janeway smiled.

"Not exactly. He's a Great Dane. Won't you come in.." Kirk said, showing them the porch.

Janeway followed Kirk and Chakotay up the few hand carved wooden stairs and sank into an equally comfortable birch wood chair. "Seems we just left a porch just like this one.." she murmured.

"Where? I'm the only one in the valley.." Kirk said.

It was Chakotay's turn to smile. "We were at Kathryn's home in Indiana, during a warm summer's night. We're in a dream right now, you know that?"  
he suggested to the bustling Kirk as he hastened to fill Chakotay and Janeway's coffee mugs with his fresh pot from the grill on the porch.

"Really? Can't tell. I've never been one to separate dreams from reality.." Kirk said. "Sugar?"

"No thanks.." Janeway and Chakotay said as one.

"And that quality usually makes the best captains.  
And you were one of the best.." she whispered to herself. Out loud, Kathryn said. "This is some spread. How many acres do you have?"

"I own the whole valley. Took a while to save up.  
Over the years I'd buy this lot here, that parcel there.  
Until I had the rights to the whole Farragus river and it's ajoining valley, all the way up to those mountains there, as far as the snow line. My life savings are here.  
In the land." Kirk said, taking a sip. "Spock told me I needed somewhere once. So here I am."

Chakotay quipped. "I know how it is to be tied to the land. My family's traditions focus heavily on it whereever we colonize."

"I noticed the tattoo, Commander. Guessed about that history already. But what brings you two to this part of the woods.." he said with a low warm laugh. "Are you two looking to get away from it all? You certainly look like you belong to each other."

The contented smiles on Kathryn and Chakotay's face which brightened at the thought of their new future coming together, faded into seriousness as they thought of the current affair news that they had to share.  
"Captain. Do you remember your life outside of this dream?"

Flashes of Vidiians and a menacing face wreathed in shiny long silver hair knifed through Kirk's memory and the birdsong around them in the trees suddenly stopped. "Khan..." Kirk said, touching a hand to his suddenly painful forehead. "And.....a plague.."

"Yes. That's right. You're still in sickbay on Excelsior.  
Chakotay and I are sleeping nearby and you have been wounded accidently by Julian's scalpel. Someone,  
I strongly suspect Khan, changed your medication to water so you weren't properly prepared for your DNA cure procedure. Captain. Dr. Bashir's scalpel slipped on an artery and you lost over half of your blood volume.  
You're stable now, from what Seven tells us, but you're on life support. We have to go back captain. And get to the bottom of all this if you'll come with us.."

Kirk held out a hand as he took off his spectacles and rubbed tired eyes. "Slow down.. It's not a common occurrance that I get a nice dream like this one. If I could. I'd come here more often."

Janeway and Chakotay quieted, knowing that kind of deep need and recognizing it inside themselves.  
A release from the weight of command. So they waited in silence while Kirk stoked the fire on the grill to heat up more stew to share with them and while he finished the last swallows from his steamy cup in his hand from where he rested in the rocker created by his own hands.

"Duty calls, but AFTER dinner..for once.." he said to them.

~~~~

The stew was rich and savory with seasonings and dumplings and the sensations their minds created of the meal in their dreams were perfect. Right down to the belches they all released afterwards.

Kirk winked, "Can't do that on the bridge.."

And that started them all laughing and onto spiced pumpkin cake for dessert.

Kirk had them washing the dishes in the creek like any frontier campsman and soon, they were settled with warm afghans and brandys. The older captain finally studied the beading of the alcohol in his snifter as he spun the golden liquid around in a swirl and he peered thoughtfully over its rim. "OK.  
Now tell me about what else's going on.." he said to his fellow officers.

Janeway started in immediately. "The Guardian has revealed its true motive coming to Earth. It's melded with the Iconian Gate Station over Pluto."

"What?!"

"That's what I said when I heard." Janeway replied with a roll of her eyes. She redid her long ponytail and resecured it while she talked. "The reason why is beyond me. I just wanted to know why Moriarty and Holozimm felt it so compelling to break orders and leave quarantine to go there."

Chakotay shrugged. "No doubt, Kathryn. We'll find out answers when we awaken."

"I don't like surprises in the morning.." she said.

"What captain does?" Kirk said.  
"Listen. You two go on ahead. I'll follow as soon as I've regained back my physical body's voluntary and involuntary control. No doubt my rejoining you isn't going to be high on my list of fun things to do."

Janeway smiled warmly in the fading sunlight.  
"But here certainly is. Thanks for showing us your home away from home Captain. Wish I had a place just as majestic. I'll come visit you here for real sometime. I'm a sucker for rock quarry swims."

"Deal." Kirk smiled. "Now go. I'll catch up."

"See you on the other side. We'll be there with the doctors helping you come back." Chakotay agreed.

Kirk watched them fade out of the dream as surely as the sun did over his perfectly dreamed beloved river valley.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chakotay and Janeway both shot up from their biobeds,  
startling Dr. Crusher and the newly brig sprung Julian Bashir.  
"Hey take it easy.." they said at the same time.

"We're fine." Janeway told them. "Right now we've got to be there for the Captain. He's coming to."

"I highly doubt that.. He's only just got his normal blood values back.." Julian said.

Right then he saw the consciousness meter spike and Christine felt Kirk begin to fight the airway tube down his throat underneath her hands. He started to gag on it.

The EMH said. "That was fast." And he deftly pulled it out as the captain struggled to begin normal breathing.  
"Just what did you two tell him in there?" he said to Janeway and Chakotay bending near Kirk's head as he fought to wakefulness. "That he's got to save the universe again?"  
he said sarcastically.

"Easy Jim." McCoy said. "Cough a few times to clear your lungs. Christine will help." and he nodded to the blond nurse.

Kirk was only just awake but he obeyed, seeing two blurry forms of red and black standing near him. ::Janeway and Chakotay. They kept up their end of the bargain:  
He coughed and a jolt of pain in his throat bit down where the hastily removed airway had scratched him.

He felt cool air from a mask press a breath of its own into his lungs in time with his own intake as he relearned how to breathe with shaky muscles. Finally, strength returned to his body and he was able to breathe on his own. He brought his hands up and the breathing mask was removed and the head of Kirk's bed was elevated while he coughed fluid free from his chest.  
Then he said. " All right. Who was the clumsy one with the scalpel?" he joked.

Dr. Bashir turned beet red and started to stammer worse than Barclay until Kirk bailed him out. "Just a little humor doctor. Relax. I promise I won't sue. We're all friends here. Besides. You patched me up again. Didn't you?"

"Well yes.. but.."

"No buts doctor. It's over.." Kirk grinned as Christine handed him water. "Now give me that clean bill of health so I can do my captain thing with the captain and commander here." he ordered as he sipped slowly.

"You've absolutely been given a clean bill of health captain.  
The best recommendation I can give considering your extremely close call and previous etiology.." Bashir burbled nervously, rambling. "You're obviously capable of your own life supporting now and..and..and.."

"Perfect.. More than a man could want aside from a remote river country cabin in a valley he alone owns."  
he said quietly.

"What was that?" Dr. McCoy said. "You don't own a cabin."

"It's a secret. Bones doesn't know about it." he mouthed silently to Janeway and Chakotay. And aloud he said.  
"Nothing. Just thinking a bit to myself." Kirk answered.  
"Janeway and Chakotay here understand what I was doing."

And he looked up as McCoy freed him from intravenous tubes and the chest medical arch. Kirk saw that Janeway's mouth was flopping open. "What?" he asked her.

"Seems we've a few of those morning surprises we talked about captain right over there. Look." she said to Kirk. "The crew on board has increased by two."

Kirk looked.

A squirming delightful newborn was in K'Ehleyr's arms and Dr. Pel was explaining to her how to hold a Vidiian baby while an elegant, beautiful Victorian lady looked on with open maternal curiosity.

The EMH elaborated. "Oh that's right. Denara delivered right after stabilizing your condition Captain Kirk. It's a girl.  
And to explain her frilly lacy gowned nursemaid standing nearby,  
our errant younger holograms contingent to Pluto brought back a special friend through an Iconian Gateway.  
That, Captain Janeway, is the fair Lady Regina,  
Moriarty's long lost love."

Janeway's mouth closed in frank irony. "You mean she's the hologram Moriarty claims who died inside the holocontainment module of Barclay's."

The EMH nodded vigorously. "There's been a lot of dead people walking around here lately if you've noticed. Khan,.. Lt.  
Yar,.. I don't know why you're so surprised. Adding one or two more to the ship's complement that way ought to be old hat to you by now."

Janeway frowned at the doctor's horrid teasing.  
"Back from the dead is still a captain's concept that's hard to swallow no matter how many times one sees it."

"Hear hear.." Kirk echoed, pushing off his bed and to his feet. "Spock's should be able to speak from personal experience about that one."

The Traveler stepped forward. "I'm sorry this has happened Captain Kirk. I didn't know the Guardian of Forever wanted contact with another Gateway."

Kirk stood in front of the tall gentle being and put his hands on his hips. Janeway echoed the gesture,  
doubling the captain's command tone effect subconsciously. "Wait a minute." Kirk said, "I thought you and he were "business partners..." he remarked.

"More like fellow timeline travelers joined up on the same dimensional event, captain. We...have similar interests but no real collaboration. I've told you all that numerous times." the Traveler insisted.

"Yes.." Kirk said evenly and deep in thought.  
"Well, can you learn anything new about what's going on?'

The Traveler said, "Do you mean interpersonal relationships among the holograms or about what the Guardian intends captain?"

"Is there a difference?" Kirk roared.

"Uh. No." the Traveler said sheepishly. "The Guardian used Moriarty's transfer of Regina from the past to bring itself into conjugation with the Iconian portal crux. The fact that Holozimm is in love with her is a minor temporal complication unfolding as a result of this activity."

Even Chakotay blinked. "Holozimm has a crush on the Lady Regina?"

"He does?" Regina asked, turning to the hologram that looked a lot like a younger EMH in innocent coquettishness.

"I do?" said Holozimm. "I wouldn't know. I've never been in love before. I'm only a month old you know."

"He better not be.." Moriarty sniffed. "For then we would have to duel for the lady's hand."

"A fight?" Holozimm cried aloud. "I don't want to fight you.."

"Then you besmirch the lady's honor, sir!" Moriarty shouted back, eye to eye with the bald cadet hologram. "By your obvious lecherous emotions for her from afar!"

"No, I don't..." Holozimm said. "I ...I..I.. feel something.  
and..." his eyes glowed with the depth of his crush on the beautiful lady holo,.."I'd do anything to be near her but.. I certainly wouldn't want to... You know."

"Don't knock it unless you've tried it Holozimm."  
the EMH commented. "That activity is rather stimulating."

"You mean you've actually.."

"Of course. I programmed myself on how to years ago.  
And so has Mr. Data here. Yar could tell you about that.."

"I beg your pardon..." Yar said, flushing red. "How in the world did you find out about that...?? Data...." she began warningly.

"What?" he said, looking up from his computer tasks.

"Did you tell the EMH about us....." and she finished non verbally with a stretch out the idea gesture..

Data mimicked her gesture, clearly not understanding.  
"Did I tell the EMH about us doing what... exactly?"  
he said finally.

Yar put her hands on her hips, "Just what part of ***SEE sound bite attached at top of your email*  
didn't you understand back then?" she asked him.

The EMH said, "Or, Holozimm, if you'd rather. Captain Janeway could tell you about herself and Fair Haven's Michael Suvillan."

"Doctor!!" It was Janeway's turn to blush.  
"Any holoactivity backlogs are strictly confidential."

"So they are." the holodoctor said. "I didn't get that from the holologs. Remember our conversation in the corridor about having needs taken care of?"

Chakotay cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Just how did we get off subject here anyway?"

"What subject?" Holozimm said innocently.

"Forget about it for now, Holozimm. " The EMH said quickly. "Getting... back...to.. the subject...." he firmly emphasized. "Regina this is Janeway. Janeway,  
Regina. And this is baby Denara Pel Schmolis."

"You fathered a child?" said Holozimm, getting it at last he said, pointing at the EMH.

"Yes, I mean, no, not in the way that you think. I engineered her as a favor for her saving Voyager's crew. Look, Holozimm, if your budding teen holoyears are upon you, go look up the subject of biped propagation in the ship's library. Then you'll understand why all these others...are..so ....perturbed by the idea."

"I think I will." Holozimm said.

"Don't get any ideas boy." Moriarty said as the holocadet left to stand by Data to do research on the subject matter.  
"Regina and I are betrothed."

"Holograms getting engaged?" the EMH muttered. "There's another first."

"Hush. Doctor. No more a shocking first than a hologram dating a Borg."

It was the doctor's turn to stare back. "Leave Seven out of it! She's not awake to defend herself."

Kirk rolled his eyes, looking at Chakotay and Janeway with irony. "I'm sorry I woke up out of my dream. Aren't you?"

"Fully." They both replied.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Data Yar romantic collage.

Audio: Yar - It never happened.

Image: Kirk sees dead Spock..

Image: Janeway Chakotay in a framed collage. Kathryn dressed as a Fair Haven governess

Image: Janeway's Fair Haven hololove- Michael Sullivan

Image: Kirk looking pogniant with a blue glow behind him.

*************************************************

END WEEK EIGHTEEN 07-14-02

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WEEK NINETEEN RECAP 07-17-02

*  
From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Taking the High Road... Date : Thu, 18 Jul 2002 00:26:34 +0400 Kirk rolled his eyes, looking at Chakotay and Janeway with irony. "I'm sorry I woke up out of my dream. Aren't you?"

"Fully." They both replied.

"Will all of you just stop!" came a distressed voice. Usually, it was the voice of reason, but now it was tinged with distress and doubt and that caused Beverly Crusher to look at Troi in utter surprise.

"Deanna.." she said quietly while the others silenced and their faces fell into looks of concern and worry. Dr. Crusher went forward. "Are the emotions from the crew getting to you? You told me yourself a few hours ago that once cured, that many would relapse into delayed traumatic stress reactions because of their brush with a fatal disease."

Deanna Troi's emotional shielding was full up and she was no longer reading anyone in the crew, but one strong impulse almost overwhelmed her. One that she could not yet name. Then words escaped her lips. "I can't hear ...him any--anymore.."

Captain Janeway held up a hand when Beverly started to move a hypo upwards to inject the counselor with a sedative. "Just a moment doctor. This could be important somehow." she touched Deanna's shoulder maternally. "Easy.. Shh... Hear exactly who counselor? All the crew on board have been accounted for, apart from Dr. Pel's newborn daughter and Lady Regina, Moriarty's co-holosentient who've just arrived."

"I don't know!" Deanna said, sudden tears in her eyes. "I only know it's stopping in my mind and something inside me is going hollow. A deep need and a sense of loss within that's pulling me down."

At that, Dr. Crusher set down her sedative back onto its tray softly and she took Deanna by the shoulders and pushed her to sit on a computer chair. "I've seen you like this before. Something you've latched onto with your empathic sense is influencing you."

"Or no longer.." Janeway muttered softly.

"What?" Beverly blinked, the thought from the ex Voyager captain was new.

Janeway held up a hand in an open gesture. "Don't you remember? Counselor Troi just said it a minute ago. 'I don't hear HIM anymore.' "

Beverly blanched. "Ohmygod, Deanna. Is it Will?"

Troi looked up, her grecian face filled with pain and sadness and wet with tears, but her head shook a firm no with conviction. "No. He's fine. So is mother. I-- I can't explain it. Something's changed.. I.. It's slipping away. Growing fainter."

Chakotay crouched down by her knee and gripped her arm. "Quickly. Before it's gone. Just say the first thing that comes to your mind."

"Commander.. " Beverly said skeptically. "I don't see ho--"

"Just give him a moment doctor... "Janeway interrupted. "Chakotay's no Tuvok. But he had vast experience with the innermind's realities. Let him proceed."

Chakotay got up to the replicator recessed in the sickbay wall near them and swiftly recreated an akoonah, his trance inducer device. "Here." he said, pressing the stuporific touch pad beneath Deanna's trembling hand. "This will give you focus without interfering with your thinking processes. Trust your empathy. For that is your first instinct. Tell us more by curving your perceptions inward."

Even Khan sitting on his chair had some of his smugness leave his face and a barely veiled curiosity about what was unfolding with the counselor visited his eyes.

But no one noticed him at all.

Chakotay began speaking softly and Janeway echoed him, repeating the familiar mantra of words that made a trancing mind open to the subconscious more easily. As one, the Captain and Commander spoke the centuries old words. "Akoocheemoya, we are far from the land of the spirits of our grandfathers, we are far from the bones of our people, think of the time when you were the most content and peaceful that you've ever been in your life, and that will be the place where your insight will begin........"

Deanna Troi's view of those around her faded even though her eyes remained open and she obeyed what the Commander had said. Professionally, she knew the akoonah for what it did and wasn't afraid of its dimming her outer perceptions. ::For it's going to open that which I need to know far better than I could have done it alone..:: And she reached with her mind..

Then she saw it. "Where are you going?" she shouted, seeing a large massive ring of blackened slate lit internally, fading like fog amongst strange alien machinery of clean precision around it.

There was a sharp glinting of nonglass, ::Is that a dimensional shift?:: she thought.

Chakotay saw the counselor's eyes focus on something only she could see in front of her. "That's it, trust what's telling you what you feel. Who is there? Concentrate. Whatever or whoever it is, the impression was strong enough to garner your attention even out of trance.. Focus closer and you should see the source of your mind's angst."

"Ah.h.." she said. "I can't. It's pushing me away still. " she said with a fresh wave of grief. Then professional clarity reasserted itself and her face started to relax with only her eyes mirroring the emotions washing over her. "Wait a minute...."

In her mind's eye, her fingers played over the Iconian buttons in the sequences she had seen before in her vision on the panel she was seeing.

Amber. Amber. Red.... Blue Red. Yellow. Blue. Amber Blue White... and the fading suddenly stopped.

Then her face contorted in anger as something she felt/saw came near enough for her to connect. It must have been something she recognized for her fury was sharply intimate."Why are you doing this? Many will not want to see you go."

Janeway got a sinking feeling in her stomach and looked up at the main viewer at the glowing, tumbling mass in space that made up the Iconian Station and the entity that had aided them on Earth and again on Excelsior at that last sentence Counselor Troi uttered. "Oh, no.. Counselor. Is it the Guardian of Forever? Has it reached out to you?"

Finally, Deanna nodded as her feelings all started making sense. "I remember this ...feeling.. The way I am now.. Lt. Barclay had told me that he had felt the same way after he had spoken with the Guardian of Forever in Building Five after the fire.

Like me, he, too, didn't want to be separated from it. I thought it was just another of Barclay's quirks to get attention from me. But it's real. The effect is like a Siren's call. All I want to do is go to it."

"What is the Guardian saying to you?" Chakotay asked.

"I don't know. I can't hear him. Not anymore. I hear speaking but no words and even they are fading." she sobbed.

"Then break the connection. You don't have to "listen" anymore. There must be a reason for what it's doing right now." Gently, Janeway took the akoonah out of Deanna's palm, lifting her fingers off the tingling contact on it. "It must be moving. Like it did when the Guardian allowed us to beam it aboard Excelsior. And then, when Kirk asked it to come to earth to solve your murder attempt from the Planet of Time. Only now, it must be moving away from us in a way not through physical distances."

Deanna sighed in relief when the captain finally put into words what she had not found the ability to do so. "Yes.." she said. Silver tears marred her dark limpet eyes. "That's it... I am....missing a large part of its presence already."she sobbed. "I'm sorry. I can't put it into better words. It's..it's..it's...half there. I'm seeing faint images but not clearly. I'm so wanting to touch but I'm not reaching. It's like hearing a familiar voice you so desperately want to find but you're not able to locate it. And overall, you burn, with loss and sadness and longing. All I know is that, He is leaving us..!.."

Chakotay again looked up at the main viewer on the wall across sickbay. "But it hasn't gone yet. The Guardian is still on sensors out there."

A new hand joined over the top of Deanna's and its cinnamon alien warmth soothed her like a balm. "My dear counselor. We had not anticipated the sensitivity of your kind to our dimensional movement. Forgive us. But you are right. The Guardian and I will soon be gone from this particular dimension. He is showing me the limitless places to which I've never yet folded. All this is now becoming possible through his affinity-joining with the Other Gateway. It isn't sad at all. You are misunderstanding. It's wonderous.."

Kirk was fabbergasted. "The Other Gateway? You mean the Iconian Station?"

The Traveler nodded slowly. "Yes. That is your Starfleet voicing for it. We were the ones who called it here. And its fingerling spindle gates have accidently allowed Khan and the Lady Regina to relocate from their own proper timestreams to this ship.,An oversight that will be overlooked.

Everyone this is what's happening; what the counselor has picked up on, the Guardian is inviting me to accompany it beyond this universe's boundaries and beyond even the ones I accidently took Deanna Troi's Enterprise once to the Great Emptiness that as yet, still exists unchanged."

Lt. Barclay started up from his chair, "But why?" he blurted out. Then mortified in front of the two captains. "Sirs. I. We can't let this happen. I.. I mean, the entire contingent science team back on the Guardian's home world have only begun to scratch the surface of the images they've recorded from the Guardian over the last twenty five years.. And, and.. and the Traveler here is Dr. Crusher's only link with her son, Wesley, right? If they go, so much will be lost.."

Captain Janeway straightened subconsciously and a firm change in her face drew everyone's attention. A moment later, she was tapping her combadge. "Janeway to Captain Sulu. Our ..."stoney advisor" is getting itchy feet now that our Vidiian Phage crisis is over and Deanna Troi has just sensed its starting shift into ..into... other subdimensions. And the Traveler by his own declaration has confirmed it just now. We believe they'll soon be leaving us. Your orders, sir?"

"Captain. There's only one recourse open to us and only one guideline that's needed to be followed in that case." came the deep tones from the bridge commline.

"Yes sir, I understand. The Temporal Prime Directive must be respected. So we cannot follow them. The Traveler and the Guardian of Forever simply aren't our crew to be bound by it.." Janeway said in a rich confidence.

Deanna began nodding, and fresh tears flowed out of her eyes. "But He has never left us before! "

Dr. Crusher was still frowning. It was because she wasn't entirely sure that her friend wasn't suffering from an empathic overload. "Deanna. What do you mean "never has left before?" "

Before she could answer. A warm heavy misting of telepathy blanketed all of their minds in a soft presence. Its soothing feel healed Troi of her painful empathic link that they could all now see, and then the Guardian of Forever began to speak.

##Long have I awaited Questions and long have I shown the Answers to all the Child Races of this Universe. I have been here since the Beginning of All Things. It was I who watched the Supreme Being begin Light and Life here. I am content that all is well with that work. It is time that we move to another place of emptiness and fill it.

To the one known as Kirk. Your theory of the Procreator Race is a Truth. They and I, have seeded all life here throughout the Ages in this realm's universe, enough to offset the antithesis, Chaos effectively.

I have watched you all through all eternity and I am Pleased.

But now, it is Time. Enough in the Present are Ready Life and so, as in any occurance when the time is right, Children outgrow the need for their Guardian's views on existence and so we depart, the side time Traveler and I. There is a select few who will go with us. Beverly Crusher, your Wesley is one of these.

But for the ones who remain behind, there is always pain with the Weaning. As the one with the sensitive eyes and heart feels this even now. So I have eliminated it her and in all who Know. I am not an un-tender Guardian. ##

Instantly, Troi was no longer distressed. She was smiling through her tears and she gripped Dr. Crusher's hand. "This is it Beverly. Time to say goodbye. What is coming is The Last Message.."

##Is there anything you wish to convey of Life's Experiences to the new ones we shall create in another emptiness? Speak now for them, and I shall deliver the message.## the Guardian commanded of all on board the starship and across the Federation and across all spaces known.

Spock was the one who spoke first. "It is in the doing which challenges the restrictions of logic and betters the self against all obstacles."

Barclay murmured. "The only thing to fear is fear itself."

Dr. Crusher whispered next. "Wesley. I'm so proud of you. You've come so far, evolved far beyond what your father and I have ever imagined for you. Being with the Guardian and his purpose is so wonderous. Just make sure the doctors you'll fashion can take on death over there on fair ground. Let them win at least sometimes. And remember, I'll always love you."

Kirk said, "Never believe in the no win scenarios. There are always possibilities."

Moriarty said. "Live with your fellows in harmony and true happiness will follow."

Khan deigned not to share anything.

Janeway addressed the air with the powerful feeling that every thought, every nuance of what she was thinking and feeling with every fiber was on display. She took Chakotay's hand and squeezed it. "Your family, be it shipbound or bloodbond, is the one thing that will always sustain you through seemingly unsurmountable hardships and across the many miles and years. Trust in them always."

Chakotay said. "Know the strength of your mind and explore it on occasion. Inner reflections will help define who you are and will help you find those who will journey through life together with you."

Alexander said. "Always carry a sword against the monsters or they might get you when you aren't looking."

Seven of Nine was freed from her alcove, fully rested and healed by the Guardian, so she could participate. "Even if you've been lost from yourself for years, a new definition of who you are will emerge. Embrace it and continue above all else. Life, is good."

-----------------------------

And so it went, for almost an hour.

The Guardian gathered advice and wisdom from his Children across the Federation and the whole Universe everywhere until the feeling of close inspection left those standing under it.

Excelsior was the first to be released.

##I have collected all you've said and shared my Children. And Know that the others who will follow in the Other Places will follow in your footsteps and will hear the words you impart. I shall share your wisdom with them. All is, and as it was, and shall be. Journey well and journey far my Children. We shall never forget you you ....you....you......you..........you...........................you"

In a blink, the presence in all their minds ...and the floating image of the Iconian station blended with the Guardian's ancient living stone in the outer space above Pluto, was gone.

And with them, the gentle Traveler, only the faintest scent of alien cinammon remained to tell them that he had ever been.

On the floor, McCoy found a huge black book left behind it his place.

It was lined in black irridescent material and written with silver sparkling writing.. He could barely lift it.

He flipped open the cover and read the inscription. "To the doctors on board Excelsior and everywhere. Your battle against the spectre of death is still too big yet in my mind. The way the Vidiian Phage almost killed you all showed me that. Here's an ante to better even the odds. Your friends in and out of time, The Traveler and Wesley Cr-- Ohmygod.. This book. It's the complete Fabrini Homeworld Medical Database in micro isolinear chip datacubes. We've only just had the one tiny library from Yonada's Dyson Sphere. This collection must be their entire holy grail of all known medical knowledge." He got weak kneed and Data had to catch the huge book to keep it from slipping out of the older physician's fingers. He neatly intercepted it and unfolded its computer chip folds out on a biobed while one hand steadied McCoy on his feet.

Dr. Bashir came over, all eyes bugging out as he flipped chapters to the index in its non paper pages. "There's even a more complete cure here, of any strain of the Vidiian Phage, even more effective than the one we've been working on. Wow. This is some parting gift. Mr. Data.. Can you memorize this medical formulae? It'll end our Phage outbreak in minutes unless I've missed my mark with just a simple ship's infusion of it into the environmental control air vents."

===========================

And so, the momentous event's summation closed a difficult chapter in the lives of the crew on board Sulu's USS Excelsior, two ancient lives physical departure from their universe for an almost endless wealth of Fabrini medical knowledge.

Six hours after the Traveler and the Guardian of Forever had left the Known Universe forever, all was incredibly, normal in Sector Zero Zero One.

Janeway and Chakotay were in the messhall, eating everything they could get their hands on with a newly found intense hunger that they hadn't felt in days while sick.

Everyone's happiness was complete. The medical gift left behind was absolute and whole encompassing. Save one symptom. The only side effect to the Fabrini gas cure was that NO ONE ordered coffee with dinner.

McCoy had a rejoiner about that. "Have you ever seen a kid eat a chocolate chip cookie the day after a trip to a bakery where he was allowed to have all he could eat? Well we're those kids today. I suspect all your coffee addictions will return in time."

Everyone was only half listening to the orders Captain Sulu was receiving from Starfleet Command via Admiral Komach. The oriental captain had piped it shipwide everywhere except where crew was registering as sleeping in their quarters.

=^=Admiral Komach. Starfleet Headquarters. HQ.

We've noted the tremultuous events occurred with the permanent disappearance of both the Guardian of Forever, the Traveler, and the Iconian Station off Pluto and the terminated signs of plague on board Excelsior on our medical sensors.

Your official quarantine is hearby lifted and you are free to transport to Earth for necessary R & R, refit, reassumptions of your normal Academy and/or ship duties immediately. Congratulations all. And may you have a wonderful week's leave off duty, hereby granted to every member, guest or crew on board.

Off the record, There's even young fans here at the academy who want to adopt those baby tribbles of yours. McCoy? The how to on that is fully up to you. Oh, and one other thing.

Boothby asked me to spread this message. "My gardens are in and planted and ANYone caught taking a shortcut through the beds making up time from being late to class will be drawn, hung and quartered following a full day's duty scrubbing out the matter/anti-matter manifolds with a dentabrush. Eh hem... Nice work all. See you Earthside or Commside, situation permitting. And nice handling of your medical emergency all. I knew we had some of the best Starfleet has to offer up there. Admiral Komach out.=^=

Snick.

Light laughter and sounds of happy eating filled the air of the messhall as crew gathered to share meals and blissfully normal non duty talk.

"So, where are you headed to now, Kathryn?" Chakotay asked. "I'm offering to show you around that river canyon my father used to take me to as a little boy. It's sacred Tribal ground and it's very beautiful. It's about as far away from a bridge or a sickbay as you can get."

"Hmmm. Nice offer Chakotay. I think I'll take you up on the offer. We've a lot of catching up to do concerning us. But remember that lecture I never gave on Hybrid Genetics at the Academy when the Fire and Phage began? I still have to give that before Ambassador Spock sometime soon in the next few days. We lost time this semester something awful."

"Kathryn. I think a city wide castastrophe and shipwide plague are good excuses for that, don't you? A few more days delay isn't going to irk the cadets in the slightest, believe me."

"Still. Give me three days to get that lecture over with and it's a deal. I don't know about you. But I want to get my life back to normal as fast as humanly possible. But it is funny..." she smirked, sipping simple zero C temp water.

"What is?" he asked.

"I'm almost embarrassed to admit it.." she said. "That lecture which terrified me only three weeks ago now doesn't seem all that bad."

Chakotay chuckled. "See? A bumpy road every now and then lessens any burden in the long run. Especially if a hard problem's solved. " he smiled. His dimples lightened Janeway's humor. He went on. "So you're on for a little camping. Should we drag the EMH and Seven with us? That canoe country's perfect for couples."

"Only if we give Moriarty and the Lady Regina the means to accompany us. That trip would be as fun for them as it would us. They've only seen the inside of a shuttlecraft holoprogram." Janeway said, taking a bite of peach.

"Ok.." Chakotay agreed. "And we'll match up Deanna Troi and Mr. Barclay. Didn't they have an interrupted first date or something?"

"Don't forget Tom and B'Elanna. And K'Ehleyr and Alexander. They can at least compare parenting notes with Dr. Pel and baby DenaraPelSchmolis."

"Ok, we can invite them too." Chakotay said. "Make it group vacation. But how about those not with kids or in couples? Does my outing conform to their interests as well?" he asked.

"All right. An all Academy/ all ship's picnic in your river canyon. Sounds perfectly fun and feasible Chakotay." Janeway said.

"It does. And we can have vision quest lessons after dinner at night. Being in the canyon the technique was created in has incredible impact on what you dream up in trance."

"Ooo, can't hardly wait to try one. I miss my gecko something fierce." Janeway's face fell from her excitement as she thought of duty over fun once more. "But we could get new orders from Headquarters. I know the engineers probably have rebuilt the city already, even after the intensity of that fire. We may be shipped out so to speak, or sent home.." she said, a little fearfully. "Now that we've been dragged out of retirement and have tasted a little action. Home life will seem boring by comparison. I don't know if I can be content again that way anytime soon."

"We can speak to Kirk about that when we're all sitting around a campfire. He's been there Kathryn."

"Ok. We'll consult the voice of wisdom. Afterall, he's the captain who save all our cahones. Without his influence, The Guardian may never have arrived on Earth to bring the Traveler to clue us how to end that fire."

"Or the Phage for that matter. Yes, we all owe a great debt to Kirk and I can't think of a better way to thank him than to invite him and Spock into our social circles."

"What a wonderful idea Chakotay. Barclay will love to include them in our monthly holo tours of Voyager at the museum."

"We can do that before we all leave on the river camping trip."

"Let's drag along Khan, too. It may loosen him up a little. "

"You think so?"

"Sure.. He still feels hunted and singled out for his past actions."

"How do we keep Yar and K'Ehleyr from "guarding" him with phasers.."

"We give them a direct order.." she said in a command tone in jest.. "It's going to be fun Chakotay. All of us on Earth, off a ship's sickbay for once. Sounds like a wonderful new direction to head into." Janeway sighed. "And just think, Holozimm has never seen the woods before. He'll jump at every sound and experience."

Chakotay didn't say anything and toasted her with his apricot juice in salute. "Let's not worry about that until we come to it. For now, we all have the rest of today and finally, a guaranteed tomorrow to fill our thoughts."

"Yes. I had forgotten about that boon Chakotay. Our future's been given back to us on a black book with silver writing.." she laughed. "To the Fabrini ! And the Guardian of Forever and his nether dimensional traveling entourage.."

They both drank deeply of the sweetness of life.

Beyond them, in the windows, a single star sparkled in blue fervor as if in agreement.

The Excelsior decided to blue land at Starfleet Headquarters where she had launched so desperately from a week before. Her landing feet settled right next to Starfleet Headquarters on the starship pad reserved for her. Her outer hull seals released and savory night air, no longer smoky from the fire filled the starship, giving comfort to her resting and eating crew.

"Do you smell that Chakotay? It's incredible. I thought I'd never smell fresh planet made air again."

"Yes. It's the smell of home.. Let's hurry and eat, we've much to do to get our little vacation idea ready." he said.

-  
(attachments)

Image: A tearful Troi, concerned.

Image: Beverly Crusher, seated as captain.

Image: The Traveler.

Image: Crew members, Mccoy, Scotty, Uhura, Spock with the Guardian of Forever in a meeting.

*animated gif* Stars at warp.

Image : Chakotay has dinner with Janeway .

Image: Janeway has dinner with Chakotay.

Image: A streamlined Starship flying over a valley.

Image: Starfleet headquarters command in daylight.

*animated gif* A lcars computer bar, morphing lilac and orange colors.

**********************************************

Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2002 01:40:30 -0700 (PDT) From: "Myron Ojala" Subject: Family Khan-tact

"So, what's your answer?" Chakotay asked as he stood in the doorway of Khan's newly decorated residence.  
Khan stood, looking out over the newly rebuilt Starfleet Complex overlooking San Francisco. Since his return to Earth three days ago from the cured starship, he had spent most of his time restudying the world he had not walked upon for nearly four hundred years.

::This place is so like what I have envisioned for my people. There's no hunger, no crime, no wars or injustices, a world truly at peace. The most remarkable thing is that there is no one dictator ruling this ...this Utopia. Is there a place for me in this time? ::

Khan looked into his heart and already knew the answer.::I can never enjoy such an Eden for I am forever held to my past by the condemnations of one man.

Kirk is many things these citizens admire; courageous, loyal, self sacrificing, duty bound, but he is still the quintessential warrior displaced from his station by the passage of many years. Enterprise no longer serves him. . Time is a cruel sister. She has broken me in the heart by taking Marla and now all I see is bitterness and hate most days. Why is all this blackness growing inside me for just this one aging man? :: Another stray thought answered him. ::For you are just like him. You are both proud, old, no longer in the bosom of fate's favor. . And without a wife..:: Marla's memory came back so strong it brought wetness to his eyes. ::And he constantly reminds you of how much you've failed yourself.::

The thought was so provoking that he hadn't even heard the Ex Voyager Commander Chakotay and the augmented Dr. Bashir enter his domicile at all. His ears had simply failed to deliver their question any deeper other than recognizing that he had been spoken to.  
"I'm sorry Commander. Would you repeat your former inquiry? I'm afraid I was very deep in my studies of your current Earth's history. Remarkable achievements.." he said in awe, quite truthfully. "Every one of them.." he said, lifting the padd he held in one hand.

Chakotay nodded politely.  
::The amnesty that Starfleet bestowed on Khan's sure going to be tested if he follows us all into the Amazon Basin for our vacation.:; he thought with amusement. But aloud he didn't betray his internal feelings on the matter. "Would you accompany all of us on a shoreleave of sorts to my ancestral lands? We're all headed to the "Heart of the Soul", a very beautiful rainforest river valley in which we're going to do some exploring and just sharing common activities with ..."  
Chakotay smiled ironically..."..friends and family."

Family ..family.. family.  
Marla's voice echoed painfully in his ears and Khan angled his head as if deafness had struck. "Again I did not hear you.. I am very unfocused these days.."

Julian smiled, "Understandable. It's only been four days since you appeared on Excelsior mostly dead. It's bound to take some time to regain control of your faculties. Chakotay asked you if you'd .... like to accompany us on an excursion to a region here on Earth that is particulary sacred to Chakotay's people. Most of those you've met on Excelsior are going. Even one or two you haven't met. Boothby for one. I think you'd both play a mean game of chess. I've heard he hasn't ever lost a game."

"What are games to me, doctor? When I've lost ...everything and everyone important and dear to me. I'm a refugee from my own history. So don't talk to me of banalties such as tedious uninspired, two dimensional strategy games."

Dr. Julian Bashir took a step forward and looked Khan Noonien Singh directly in his eyes. "So you're alone. So what? It's really stretching my limits to think that physical isolation is something that could ever drag you down. I think that it's just being without a clear direction to travel that's truly bothering you."

Khan looked up sharply and controlled his angry physical reaction by taking a deep breath and clasping his hands together in a strength quatrain move before he allowed his eyes to remeet the doctor's. "It is only because you are an engineered being like myself that I do not take insult at your being so foward in your thoughts and words doctor."

Chakotay stepped between the two men, determined to keep the visit friendly.. "This excursion of ours is more than just a simple vacation for the physical body on a river canoe trip. It can be a time where the soul can begin a new journey of the self through guided vision quests.

You seem to be a very spiritual man to me. I won't pretend to know of what religion upon which you base your faith.. But please accept this invitation to join us all on my family's land. It may bring you the peace you are seeking. That is what I asked you when we first arrived. Didn't you hear me ask about what your answer would be?"

Khan walked across the lush replicated Persian carpet in his bare feet and knelt in front of his jade image of Kali.

"I heard you quite clearly commander. About your offer of companionship to experience a double journey, one very physical, in a simple water craft, another in the spirit realm, with others, in this natural place. It is the difficulty about how I should answer that silences me. Should I accept, as it seems that fate has given me a second chance at redemption through your words? I don't know. But, I am sure that I am not ready for such a purging of the heart. Do you know how deeply one can hate another? It is a state which can drive a man to insanity if coveted for too long.."

"It's Kirk isn't it? He's the only demon you have left to face." Chakotay said. "Is he why you tossed that chemotransmuter on the surgical tool tray? To have another do your dirty work for you? Bashir almost succeeded in killing him you know."

"Ah,.. your people still don't know who did it. And your security instinct is still trying to get me implicated. How very Starfleet. But,.That whole issue is in the past, like my old life and desires. I do not care to revisit it. So stop pursuing me." he said with a bit of fire in his eyes. But then, they cooled with a new thought. "So you are more perceptive than you appear Ch'Ak-O-tay."

The way Khan had said his given name sent chills down the commander's spine. He had said it in the proper pronunciation that only someone who had been in his own tribe would know.

Khan went on. "I would expect that only from one who knows me very well, even if that reaction is only prejudged with pure instinct alone. Ob Chamoosey akahara Doni ahanawan Sheo Ana hay' Ee. "

Chakotay's eyes widened and he sat heavily on the woven pillows that served as Khan's only furniture. "Only One Who has Risen and Fallen Far Can see the Truth within us, my son of the True Father.." he translated for Bashir's benefit.

Khan smiled a cold smile.  
"And you are a son, Chakotay. Mine, twenty nine generations ago. Do you not feel a bit of me in your soul? I've just learned that we are related by full blood. We are descended through a genetic line from the oldest regions of your Earth. Examine me if you will doctor. For it is true. You will find irrefutable evidence on the seventeenth chromosome, ninth nucleic base pair that only Chakotay's people and I share. We have a common descendant. Tell me commander, have you heard of Necomah Necedah Wakondeh. Translated into this Common Federation language of yours, he was known in your eighteenth century as He Who Sees Wolves. He was my grandfather's great grandfather."

"Necomah is the foremost, best recorded ancestor in my people's history." Chakotay said, still not yet realizing the impact of what he had been just told.

"I had a feeling about you Chakotay on the ship even when I first saw you. I knew that there was a connection between us,  
but I didn't know until just a few hours ago about the nature of it. How does it feel to be a son of the Murdering Tyrant? For that is what Kirk has called me. My burden is now yours by rite of family."

Chakotay regarded the man kneeling front of an image of a deity about which he knew absolutely nothing. He knew that his people had journeyed far, even off Earthand to many colonies spread throughout the galaxy. But he had never considered his roots deeper than just his own grandfather before. ::Perhaps my many disagreements with my father Kolopak led to that oversight. But is what Khan telling me the truth?::

Dr. Bashir was still analzying the DNA signatures from the clue Khan had so shockingly offered on his med scanner.  
It found an exact corrolation. "He's right. You ARE directly descended from Khan.  
This is incredible."

The commander tipped the doctor's tricorder over so he could read its results for himself. The genetic markers were undeniably the same precursors of his own family line.

Chakotay frowned, telling his face to scowl. "And what part of this lineage is engineered artifact doctor?"

"None of it." Julian said quietly serious. "Can't be faked or homegrown Commander. Implanted DNA tags never stay viable if not grown in the natural way. Ever."

Then Chakotay did the only thing open to him. " The scans say you and I are family. But in my Tribe, relatives must continue to prove they are family by living honorably. I will hold you to that if I am to accept you as part of my past heritage. Any harm coming to Kirk will end the charity this world and my Tribe offers you."

"A man is nothing without a home and people around him who are family." Khan said, finally lowering his eyes. " I have always believe that.  
Julian here says that I am lost because I have no direction. So show me one to take to task.  
That is all I ask of you." and he held out his hand rising in his robes and pulled off his Sikh turban.  
"No man should be an island."

Chakotay studied Khan's eyes for a long moment before taking Khan's hand in a firm grasp.  
"Come. Let me take you back to the land of our fathers to introduce you to the Spirits dwelling there."

"I would be honored."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Chakotay glanced at Kathryn when in the third hour of carving, she still didn't reach for the clay jar of spring water he had fetched for her. "Don't tell me you aren't feeling thirsty. Cause I wouldn't believe one syllable of it."

Captain Janeway straightened, brushing wood chips off of her head and ponybraid. "Believe it or not Chakotay. I'm fine. Maybe actually surviving that Vidiian Phage has given all of us unnatural tolerances. That Fabrini after cure was very accurate in righting our medical conditions. Maybe it even made us all a little fitter.  
Though I'll admit. This rain forest of yours seems very unreal to me. Dreamy, in a way. Thanks for inviting us all."

"No problem." Chakotay said. "And I think you're right about the superhealthy effect here. I haven't had to swat a mosquito yet. " he chuckled.

Kathryn laughed back, "Squeaky clean scented to go along with ultra fit? I think I like that image."  
Janeway rubbed the sweat off of her forehead as she slathed wood chips off the long teekwood canoe Chakotay was carving for their group's journey down the Amazon. "So, how does it feel to have such an esteemed Tribal Grandfather.." she teased.

Chakotay frowned but then thought better of it, giving a glance back at where Khan was studying the map of the journey the Excelsior and Starfleet group would embark on in the morning. "It's not important how I feel, but how the spirits will feel when I take him to meet them."

"Can't you take a quick vision quest to find out? It worked for me on Voyager. And I'm not even related to you." she quipped.

Chakotay smiled for the first time since they all had beamed into the Amazon River Basin. "You wanted to meet your Spirit Guide, Kathryn. Badly. I'm not so sure that Khan would even look at one."

"Won't know until you try.." Janeway said.  
She pulled the machete out of Chakotay's hands and said, "Go. The hard part's done here. Even I can smooth out these rough edges.. " she chuckled,running a hand over the knotty spots still left on the long canoe's hull. She immediately set to work smoothing them out. Sweat was pouring down her face but her borrowed traditional halter and short skirt was still dry.

"I forget how well you take to new things.  
Be it climate or tasks." Chakotay added.  
"If you get too warm, the river's in that direction. Follow the same route if you cut yourself. The doctors are categorizing the native fish with all the holograms."

She flung a wood chip at him for teasing her. "Oh. ha. ha." Janeway said with her hands on her hips."I have learned a thing or two about carving, just by watching you. It will be your hands blistering when I outpaddle you down river tomorrow.  
Now go do your mystic's thing and back again before I shave this hull too thin in your absence for your liking."

Chakotay paused a bit, looking around camp at everyone who accepted the invitation to come to the valley. ::Everyone from sickbay for sure. And one more.:: he grinned.

Boothby was in hog heaven studying the monster rare flowers blooming in the underbrush beneath the rainforest canopy. He had on an old style fly net from head to foot but didn't look at all ridiculous.

Most of the vacationing crew were around the campfire, preparing their first meal. Data was double checking the safety of the three hologram's link with Byte and the EMH's holoemitter before taking them off the orbital satellite signal from Starfleet. Chakotay's protected valley allowed no sensor feeds of any kind in the area, only those of tricorders of medical origin. Holozimm, Moriarty and Regina had all changed their appearance to look like they were in safari clothes. The EMH had not bothered with that detail.

The bird and small animal cries around them were grower softer as the heat of day began to build as they all worked.

It wasn't long before Khan visited the clay water jug near where Janeway worked on the canoe's shell. "So, you aren't afraid of manual labor.." he began, nursing his clay cup of spring water. "I like women who are that way. Shows strength of the body."

"I beg your pardon.." Janeway said without turning around. "That has got to be the worst pick up line in history Mr. Khan."

"That didn't come out the way I intended. What I meant to say was that I admire women who are natural leaders. I meant no disrespect. My days of pursuing romance are long over. I'll have no other to sully Marla's memory."

Kathryn turned, setting down her slathe, and uptook a tribal cup from ones in a basket near the water jug. She joined him in a drink, toasting the air in a mock salute. It wasn't without a little sarcasm. "I'm flattered. I'll be sure to tell Yar that. She was highly offended by some of your comments about her and the counselor in sickbay a few days ago."

It was Khan's turn to be surprised. "I was a pig on the Excelsior. Old habits die hard. Please offer the young security officer my apologies. A strong woman should never be cheapened. I offer mine to you as well."  
and he raised his cup in a matching gesture.

"Khan.." Janeway said, not drinking at all, "Just what are you up to pretending to be kin to Chakotay's Tribe."

"Oh, it is no sham, fierce lady captain. I was surprised my lineage connected me to this place too." he said, gesturing at the breathtaking valley just below them downriver. He then studied his simple woven sandals. "I just came over here thinking that two ships leaders such as we, might have something in common to talk about. Perhaps I was wrong." and he got to his feet, carefully returning his water cup to the grass basket near the jug."I'll not disturb your labors further.." and he started to walk away.

Janeway regarded his back for a few moments then she found herself stopping him by asking, unbidden,  
"Khan, wait.."

The silver haired Middle Eastern man turned around. He was wrapping a light turban in his hands. He didn't say anything and simply paused in his tracks,  
studying her face and dipping his head in question when she did not speak again right away.

Janeway's mouth twitched with emotion. "Do you... do you ever .....miss... your old ship and crew?"

Khan was strangely sobered from his guarded hostility and the void between them shrank with the voicing of that simple personal question. It was one only someone of captain's rank could ever ask another captain.

"Yes. All the time. There isn't ever a day where I don't think of them. You are fortunate that you still have some of them with you now. I don't have that luxury. Don't squander it." and Khan disappeared to join up with Data and the holograms by the river's edge.

Khan emerged from the brush thinking about what Janeway had asked him. His haunted vague memories were all that he had left of his crew. ::They were treasures that I have lost because the choice I made all for the sake of revenge. First Marla tasted death for it. Then Joachim, my firstborn. Everything that I have ever loved is now ....ash, or perhaps something even less than that . :  
He had much to think about when it came to his future, if indeed he actually had one. The last thing he remembered doing on the Reliant was cursing the viewscreen as Kirk's ship fled away from his Genesis wave dentonation buildup. And the horrible pain in his shattered arm.

Suddenly he remembered that there had been a shimmer in the very air. He had tried to stand and then he had fallen through....to another ship. :: What was that light that had delivered me to Excelsior's sickbay? Was it Fate telling me that seeking revenge wasn't my path? Is there a reason I was pulled away? How can I find this answer?::

Just then a rustling of branches brought Khan out of his troubled thoughts. Khan turned around and saw Chakotay approaching him.

The commander was wearing white animal hide that appeared to be ceremonial in nature.

Chakotay noticed the lost look on Khan's face and slowly came nearer. He said. "The long boat's almost finished and so's dinner. I hope you've worked up a good appetite."

"Food is one thing that I do not need at this time." Khan said. Then he noticed the curious bundle in Chakotay's arms. "Gone hunting for the others?"

"No. My people never take mammals this close to the sacred valley for food. This is my medicine bundle. I brought it to show you."  
Chakotay.

"I shall permit it. Please sit down."  
Both men sat in the small patch of sunlight beneath them.

With reverance, Chakotay unwrapped his spirit bundle and spread them out onto the prayer hide. He held up each object in turn sharing their meaning in a hushed voice. "This is my akoonah.  
In the past, my people used herbs and fasting to induce a vision. Today, that state can be achieved by using this device. Let's journey to a place where you can discover a family spirit guide since you've never known one. Perhaps he can give some insight you seek."

Khan picked up the severed bird's wing and examined it. "How can a dead creature tell me anything?"

Chakotay said. "These objects are merely a focusing point. A way of actualizing an intent to enter a trance where your inner mind joins the conscious with the is this akoonah which will allow you to reach within. Set your hand here."

Khan placed his hand on top of the device as Chakotay instructed and watched as the commander closed his eyes. He did the same as a curious tingling sensation ran up his arm and soon the sounds of the forest died away but he could still strangely hear the words spoken by Chakotay. It was a native benediction and when it was through Khan was swept into another place with a rush.

Khan gasped and opened his eyes as a very familiar oasis from his early childhood in India filled his sight.

Chakotay said. "Share not about what you see. Your animal guide will be the first creature that you will lay eyes on. It will be the one nearest you. That is your Spirit Guide. Speak to it."

Khan felt a cool dry rasping of scales across his ankle. He looked down and almost swiped it off when he saw it.

A King Cobra.

It rose, spreading its hood and it seemed somehow more beautiful than the memory Khan usually had of a snake. But the eyes were like rubies and they shown with an irrisdescent light. Khan said. "Do I know you?" to it, not thinking it would answer but he had a feeling that he had to address it first. Khan was nonetheless startled when a rich masculine voice filled his head.

##I know YOU.## the voice said with assuredness.

"So you are a spirit guide. Something my mind has shaped into the form of a gigantic snake. How very fitting. Do you spit perchance? My face is very near." Khan said with a sneer.

##Why do you seek to die?## the snake said. ##I do not end existences. I heal the mind and spirit of the one I represent. And now, after all this time, you are seeking me, made man. What do you wish to know?##

Khan was startled at the power of the presence in his mind. ::A snake is talking to me?::

Chakotay's voice interceeded. "Remember that this vision quest is all in your mind. You've created the surroundings and chose the shape of your spirit guide. But you must ask that part of yourself the questions for which you want answers. Your guide will ask you this. Nothing he will say will be a lie. Just the opposite in fact.  
For he is an aspect of you. Go ahead. Ask him what you most want to know. I feel he's with you already. I will hear none of it, so don't worry. What is said between the spirit guide and you is all protected and private thoughts."

Khan reached up and touched the top of the swaying cobra's head as it wrapped around his raised knee and annointed it with water from the oasis pooling just before them."Is there a future for me beyond the emptiness I feel inside my heart?"

The Spirit Guide Raja flicked out a golden tongue and spread its hood at the level of Khan's eyes. ##That much I know. You will either kill Kirk and be destroyed by hate. Or he will destroy you on your present path. Only if you choose good can you avoid the destruction of your soul.  
Choose life. ##

Raja faded out and Khan snapped awake with a gasp still clutching the akoonah. Beside him, Chakotay opened his eyes and studied Khan's face. "Don't speak of what was said to you. Just act on it and perhaps, one day soon, you'll find the peace that eludes you. Give it time."

Chakotay smiled when Khan still seemed stunned by his first vision quest experience. "My bundle will be in my pack our whole visit to the tribal valley. Use it as often as you like."

And with that, Chakotay gathered it up gently and walked away, leaving Khan alone to his thoughts and the timelessness of the forest.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

-  
(attachments)

Image: Khan embracing his dead son,  
Joachim on the Reliant.

Image: Two Starfleet people in the middle of a natural wonder in a rain forest.

*animated gif* Janeway and Chakotay in offduty clothes, laughing over a shared task.

************************************************** From : "Cory Anda" Subject : Feast of Fishes with.. .. Foes? Date : Sat, 27 Jul 2002 20:05:22 +0000

Reginald Barclay was wearing light clothes, a huge smile on his face as he swayed lazily in a hammock that Chakotay had made for him.

He thought back on the advice Captain Janeway's ex first officer had given him before he left to check the Amazon's water level to plan out their best route to the Sacred Valley.

"Get some rest Mr. Barclay. " Chakotay had said. " We've about twenty five kilometers of river to navigate in the morning before we reach the Tribal settlement." he had said.

"Oh, uh, thankyou Commander. I will. This is a uh, nice idea... getting away from it all. I'm sure the fresh air will do me good." Reg replied back, trying to figure out how to lower himself into the vine hammock without disgracing himself by flipping over.

"I know this rainforest isn't a one of Project Pathfinders apartments, but..."

"This is fine..commander." Barclay said hastily. "Uh, really." and he finally got brave and flopped onto his back into the broad sweep of the hammock. He gripped it when it dipped wildly on both sides and froze until the motion eased off. "I'm a Starfleet lieutenant... I can sleep anywhere.." he said with a grin. "And to add to that, I'm not on duty, nor in some horrible situation gone bad anymore. I'm perfectly comfortable, I assure you."

"Just trying to be a good host. If you need anything. I'll be in camp. If you'd like to do some reading, Ambassador Spock's brought along some reading material. He's placed padds linking Starfleet's library near the water jug." Chakotay said.

"No. no no no no. The less I see of technological schematics, the better. My head's still swimming with Excelsior's designs from our ordeal with the Phage."

"Suit yourself." and Chakotay grinned, and he left Barclay to his hammock and nap.

Reg had just about dozed off in the midday warmth when a shadow crossed his eyes through the grass hat he had woven to keep out the light. "Ah!!" he startled, and the hammock swung into motion again, making Reg panick even more when at first he had forgotten where he was. "Ahhh!" he shouted even louder almost tipping out of it until a strong grip steadied him .Barclay finally pulled off his hat, peering up through the misty sunlight above him. "Oh. It's you, sir. Sorry. Must've,.. must've been dreaming."

Ambassador Spock was standing before him with a calm expression. "I did not mean to disturb your rest period, lieutenant. Chakotay told me that you might "feel more at home" tackling an engineering problem than camping in a rainforest. Perhaps I should leave..."

"No, sir.. uh, stay. I- I- I.. wasn't really sleeping. Not exactly. You see, I never sleep good anywhere except.." then he broke off, thinking that the ambassador would think it another odd human quirk if he told him that sleeping in a holodeck in a replica of one of Voyager's crew quarters was the only way Barclay could sleep at all. " ...when I'm good and tired and the EMH did a pretty good job at patching me up from the Phage so I'm not really very tired..heh heh heh.." he amended quickly. ::That sounded dumb..:: his mind chided himself.

He felt inches high when the Vulcan Ambassador's gaze didn't blink from his own for long seconds. Then he said. "I shall be by the water's edge if you'd like to learn more.." and he paced quietly in his light Vulcan robe back the way he had come, giving Reginald some privacy while he fought his way out of the hammock. A muffled grunt and crash as a body landed in crunchy leaf litter met his ears and his eyebrow rose in slight amusement. A few seconds later, he heard hasty boots pelting up the dirt trail towards him. Mr. Barclay caught up to him, slightly out of breath. "Uh, lead on ambassador. I'm curious as to what you are referring.." he said, trying to be dignified.

Mr. Spock's eyes wandered up to a dead fern frond perched on Reg's head calmly and he raised the other eyebrow.

Lieutenant Barclay saw the brown there and he hastily swiped it off before clearing his throat and gesturing that Spock should preceed him on the forest trail leading to the river. ::Why do I always turn into a clutz in front of people I'd admire. I don't do that in front of Deanna anymore...:: his thoughts complained.

Ambassador Spock and Reg soon reached the open space widening over the Amazon River below Chakotay's canoe building camp. A series of waterfalls beneath the towering trees showed that they were at just one point along a gradual drop of falls, that led into a larger secluded river valley below, the one his Tribe most likely owned. "Wow.." Reg sighed.

He blinked when Spock turned to him.

Reg smiled, staring out over the water. "I don't think I've ever seen water not contained behind a hydrofield before. It's ..it's beautiful..."

"I've read , the indigenous people of this region strongly believe in non intervention practices. All is left, to nature. Even the weather control satellites are steered from over this area by matter of choice." Spock said. "Chakotay's Tribe shares the land with the Peruvian Museum, who maintains the Aztec Ruins deep within the valley's heart. There scientists from time to time, come to map out the ancient city and to make repairs to the hieroglyphs and statuary there."

"Is Chakotay related to the Aztec people?"

"No. But his culture was influenced by the SkyPeople of the Preserver Race. It is they who inspired Chakotay's ancestors to take their ceremonial tattoo onto their foreheads."

"Oh..." Barclay said with a little wonder. "They sure picked a beautiful valley as their home."

Below them, on the wide sandy beach dotted with ferns below the sweeping vine heavy cypresses, Reg could see three figures at the water's edge by one of Chakotay's traditional wood woven fish traps. The lady Regina's long skirts were not absorbing water where she waded by Moriarty, who was tossing fish into a "net" she had made of them partially filled with the deep brown river water. "Oh, Mort!! " she exclaimed.. "Just look at the teeth on that one! I shall be very frightened when I take my bath later.."

Moriarty leaned down into the circle of her skirts and announced. "It's another Piranha doctor, the red eyed variety. Looks like a male of the species.." then he looked up at his hololove. "Well, my dear, you don't have to use the River for your afternoon soaking. Chakotay's carved a tub just for you. And even Captain Janeway swears on its effectiveness to soothe the body.." he said.

The EMH who had waited for Data to stop tossing fish his way to toss into Regina's dress, rolled his eyes. ""That's all of them. The commander said that the Tilapia would make the best eating for the others." he said, pulling the fish trap out of the shallows. "Regina.. are you forgetting so soon? We are holograms. If you don't want to get bitten, just phase that part of you out and the fish will never reach you."

Regina sighed elegantly, her fear of the green and gold fish milling about in her skirts fading away. "Oh that's right.. thankyou doctor. I need to be reminded quite often that I am not flesh and blood. Mort's desire to be fully real and independent has quite rubbed off on me.." she exclaimed. "Now." she said, reaching in and grabbing out an oval silver sunfish, "These are the ones for dinner?" she asked.

The EMH nodded. "Those.. Save eight or nine. That should be enough for dinner. Seven of Nine is gathering fruits and nuts while Chakotay bakes the traditional corn bread. Moriarty and Regina easily subdued the squirming Tilipia school and she let the Piranha go. A few easy steps to shore and all were back on the bank.

Barclay clicked his tongue in amazement, looking down at his own leaf litter dusted tunic and then back at Regina's perfectly pressed and dry hoopskirt despite her adventures with the splashing fish. "Must be nice being a hologram.. " he mumbled. "No repli-laundering bills."

"Speak for yourself.." the EMH quipped with a teasing mock sarcastic look. "I'd love to get my hands a little dirty now and then. That's an independent privilege that we holos can't experience.."

Ambassador Spock folded his arms into his light rust cloth sleeves and dropped a bombshell. "That will change in about one point four two hours if Mr. Barclay and I are diligent. Doctor, if you'd allow us to examine Byte. I believe I've come up with a way to grant full sense reality, like that which you possess, honoring Starfleet's promise to Professor Moriarty and his companion. Lt. Barclay is here to assist me in making the changes to your programs.."

The Lady Regina jumped up and down in full delight. "Oh Mort! That's wonderful! Captain Janeway must have forwarded her request to her superiors already. I can hardly wait to take a bath for real!" she broke off when one of the beached food fish started flopping around on the sand. She pinned it with an elegant shoe.

Moriarty's eyes glinted in a pleased sparkle and he held out his arm to Regina to accompany him to higher ground. "Doctor. I think you and Mr. Data are on your own for this fish hunting excursion. I do believe the lady and I are being called away on the most happy business."

"Of course.." the EMH beamed. "Data and I will manage just fine preparing these.." he said, he hastily placed his boot over the lively fish Regina had left as she followed the Professor up the bank. "See you at dinner.. I'll be sure to replicate some napkins.. You're going to need them.." he joked. "Full tactical reality indeed. Now that WILL be a pleasure for both of them. Oooo," he frowned. "Should I warn them about ticks?" he asked himself, watching the four of them and the hovering Byte probe weaving in the air above them. "Nah.. " he decided. "A few surprises about biological hygiene problems will be good for them."

Regina and Moriarty perched themselves on a long narrow rock sitting very properly English as Mr. Spock plucked Byte out of the air. He drew out simple metal isolinear rods and a small dynoscope. He called to the air. "Byte. This is Ambassador Spock. Authorization Code Nine Beta Five Alpha B for Captain Scott. Authorize an internal examination and lower your defense shield."

##Working..## said a computer voice from the tiny mirror silver round sphere in Spock's hand. ##Parameters specified are enabled.##

Lt. Barclay looked up in surprise. "Why,, that voice modulation sounds like the computer from the old Enterprise.."

Mr. Spock raised an eyebrow. "So it does. Captain Scott is getting more sentimental in his old age."

That brought a frown to Barclay's face. "Ambassador. Do you think the doctors were successful retrieving the captain from stasis and repairing his cervical fracture he sustained from Khan?"

"Undoubtedly.." Spock said as he handed Barclay the aerial probe housing Holozimm, Moriarty and Regina's holoprograms. He tapped the sphere's shiny shell and it obediently slide aside in a nimbus of daisy like petals. "But Mr. Scott is not one to like vacations taken away from his labs at Starfleet. He is most likely working on another, "wee brew" as we speak, even now."

Reg grinned. "If he's fine now, so's Colonel Kira and Commander Riker. I'm glad Mr. Scott wasn't dead permanently, sir. The Academy would have been a very dull place without him."

On a hill at the edge of the canoe camp, overlooking the river, the bankside group saw Kirk, K'Ehleyr Lt. Yar waving to them with huge bunches of grapes, bananas and baskets of forest nuts to compare their "catch" with the river fishers. Khan was in the shadows, hanging back but watching the activity with some interest.

Holozimm raised the rope he had strung with the harvested Tilapia on it, waving back enthusiastically, and spreading his arms in an exaggerated show of how big the fish was that got away in jest.

Suddenly, the ground opened up in the hillside in a minor landslide and the side of a buried aztec pyramid jutted forth in a blaze of energies.

A woman in sleek black leather stepped from the newly emerged temple ruin that was quite lit up on the inside,and regarded both groups of people staring gape mouthed at her.

Ardra said, "My my my, look who's moved to the jungle. My favorite ex opponents from the stars. Hello Data. Mr. Barclay."

Mr. Data moved between the others and the woman he knew to be a onetime dangerous technological con artist to his old starship, the Enterprise D. "Ardra! Stay back, everyone. This individual can pose a significant threat to others.."

The sleek woman standing before them left the subterranean lift and both the aztec ruin and the underground turbo retreated into both earth and hillside once again. Ardra clicked her tongue in mock chiding and smiled even bigger, moving calmly around the tensed android and even stroking his cheek playfully.

Data jerked his head away.

"Data. I've served my hard time. Now, I'm doing your Starfleet superiors my five decades of "community" service. Who better to upkeep dusty ruins and terraform the jungle from its advance on the ancient city, than I?"

Then Ardra's attention was drawn to the high hilltop where Yar, Kirk and the others were rushing down to the bank in response to Ardra's shocking appearance.

Ardra looked up hill at the activity coming her way, but her smile never lessened." Now what a pretty problem. My. I do believe I find myself facing some real bonifide "ghosts" right before my very surprised eyes." The darkly beautiful woman with long black wire earrings smiled as energy sparked from the very real high ranked Federation datapadd she held in her hands.

Then the strange, seductively grinning woman looked at Mr. Barclay blandly. "Tell me Reginald. How are you going to return Khan, K'Ehleyr, Kirk, and Lt. Yar back to where they belong in history without the Iconian station or the Guardian of Forever? Death can't be denied indefinitely you know. Oh but I forget, there's at least one clever Vulcan here among us who's learned how to cheat it all by himself. Handy things, your race's katra ceremonies, Mr Spock. But how very inconvenient those Federation Temporal Prime Directives prove to be almost always. Aren't you going to have to bury those living dead, rushing down here to greet me, soon, to live up to them?"

"Oh boy.." Reg squeaked in a panicked voice. "There's goes our peaceful little vacation."

Ambassador K'Ehleyr was leaps and bounds ahead of the others down the steeply vined bank and she landed face to face with Ardra. "Worf warned me about you. Don't move..." she growled..

-------------------------- (attachments) :

Image: Ardra, the con artist looking smug.

Image: Spock, ironic.

Image: Barclay and Spot, nose to nose.

Image: K'Ehleyr in battle sim.

************************************* From : "Clairissa Fox" Subject : The devil lady and Bootbys secret that I wont tell. Date : Sat, 03 Aug 2002 06:01:49 +0000

Ambassador K'Ehleyr was leaps and bounds ahead of the others down the steeply vined bank and she landed face to face with Ardra. "Worf warned me about you. Don't move..." she growled..

I ran out of the bush and drew out my belt knife. Mum! Mum! Dont get too close to her! Its the devil lady dad told us about. She can hurt you!

I ran to mum and got between her and Ardra. The devil lady just smiled at me and said. "What a cute little boy Klingon. Don't tell me this is the turtlehead's progeny. He's a chip off the old block. "  
and she tapped a key on her padd and it made the ground spark once more when she locked up the lift in the ground from where she had come.

I jumped. I was a little afraid. But I had to see. I had to see for me. Ardra! You behave. You were a criminal with those Ventaxians. Trying to steal their world by using your ship to shake it! You even tried to take a Federation Captain away from his ship! Shame on you. You should be good since Starfleet made you do your brig punishment with the Federation instead of on that planet where you made the people so mad.

Ardra smiled and knelt down to Alexander and held out her hands. "See? No wrist beacon, nor ankle shackles. I'm a free woman, little one, and I assure you, I am not all bad. Well, maybe half bad. In thought. Did you see the Aztec pyramid I just came out of inside that hillside? Well I'm its caretaker. I maintain all the ruins inside Chakotay's tribe's Valley. We've been in touch. I invite them for tea and they do the same for me in turn. We share jokes in hierogylphs." she added sarcastically.

I was mad. I had heard how she turned into Feklar and made my father so angry he almost lost his honor in Datas courtroom session about her contract with the Venexians. I stood as tall as I could and are just saying that. How come all the shipcrew with me are looking surprised in the faces? They didnt know you were here in the ground and Captain Janeway is supposed to know everything!

The red haired commander in question chuckled lightly. "Well I wouldnt go that far, Alexander. I've never been to the Sacred Valley before. This is my first time here. First time for even seeing the Amazon River like this."

I frowned. Well. I guess its ok. You only know about Starfleet stuff. And we were on that ship a long time with that slimeface bodyweak making us all itchy and feverheaded. But Im just telling you that me and mum arent taking a single eye off her until you and the other officers are sure Ardras going to play by the rules!

"Sounds fair to me, isn't it so to you Chakotay?" Janeway asked him.

He was amused by Alexander's bravado almost as much as Kathryn was." A Starfleet officer must always be vigilant. And so must a Klingon warrior. Ok, Alexander. But I am giving you a direct order. You are to treat Ardra as you would any visitor to this family territory, with honor. Until the situation proves otherwise. Is that clear? Ardra has been legally rehabilitated by her own words and just by the fact of her presence here with a Class Two power controlled datapadd in her hands, that alone tells me that everything Ardra has said to us so far is not a lie. So stand down and put that knife back into your boot. Or go clean those fish the others are piling into that basket to help with the sunset meal if you still want to have it out in the open. Deal?"

I flung my eyes downwards. Yes. I said moping. Ill go gut the foodtails for the fire. And I left them all standing by the river.

Mum was just as mad as me. I could tell. She still had her hand over her heart dagger underneath her ambassador unitard. She watched me go and shook her head and pointed back up the green weed infested slope when I tried to sneak back down to guard mums back. Not today. Go. she said.

Yes, mum. And I picked up the footail basket from the sand and set it onto my shoulder. I put my knife into my teeth while I carried it. At least, then my knife was closer.

I got to the top and decided that the captains and everybody knew what they were talking about. I just remembered the stories that dad told me about Ardra. And none of them were honorable. With a Q, it was just play. But with Ardra, she tricked! Thats the one thing Klingons never do. Its like us never taking hostages when they are only children. Its a cowards way. And to me, Ardra was still a coward even though her brig sentence was done. She was the targ that always butted you in the back when you turned around to fill their dinner bowl.

I just wished dad were here. Or Tom Paris. Or Belanna. I dont think Lt Torres would like Ardra much at all despite of her being half Earther! An honor tricker always made those who were nice angry real fast.

I was still stewing. My face was flush dark and I carved up those foodtails so hard, I cut off the tails where the stick goes to turn them over the fire. On all of them. Oops.

But I didnt have to worry. Holozimm was there and got some big leaves to cook them in instead of using a tree stick spit.

I saw Kan too. He was watching Ardra and they seemed like two Targs who were about to fight or pair up. Now that was funny and I laughed.

I saw mum relax far below when she heard me. But she didnt blink while Ardra met each Starfleeter in turn.

**Moderator insert*  
....But how very inconvenient those Federation Temporal Prime Directives prove to be almost always. Aren't you going to have to bury those living dead, rushing down here to greet me, soon, to live up to them?" **

Then I thought, That was a good question. Yar and Kirk and Kan and my mum having to be dead later on. I didnt want that to happen. It was the Guardian of Forever who brought them to Earth so it was to our own good fortune that he left before sending them all back to where the fates ended them. I had a chill thinking that one day soon, mum would be dead. And I had a feeling that I could not fight of, that Id be the one seeing her that way with dad in the future. I dont know how I knew I just did. But there had to be a reason why the Guardian gave mum and me more time out of time like this. I scratched my ridges and thought about it. The only thing I could think of was that he too wanted me to try and be a Klingon warrior like dad. So that was what I wanted too. Just like that. I owed that big stone donut whereever he was. Mum looked great getting all hot and steamy mad over Ardra. I could tell mum wanted to just battle her to the finish. Maybe later I could make Spock make Byte turn some hollow characters into fighters in a program just for us to vent in.

Then my stomach growled. And the V'dMeer still inside my shirt purred in response, thinking I had made a soft noise to it first. What a dumb thing. It didnt know when someones guts were wanting to eat.

"My fine young man Alexander. How very clever of you bringing the tribble into the transit beam with you." Moriarty said.

I didnt want to tell the Professor that I had forgotten the mum tribble was inside my shirt so I made up an answer. I was going to give her back to Dr McCoy! I shouted to him. Then I stormed up, foodtail juice all over my hands and I shoved the wet V'dMeer into Dr McCoys hands when he came over to the huge tribe kettle full of dinner over the fire to taste stuff.

The human doctor grunted when I did that but I couldnt tell if it was a satisfied grunt or not. He was a doctor. Foodtail slime shouldnt be a grossy thing to him.

Then I decided to tend the cooking fire for the women. In your place with honor. I told Uhurah and Chappel. And they knew enough Klingon to let me be the cook for them by giving me the turning tools in their hands for the footails inside the leaves cooking in the embers.

When no one was looking, I ate a whole fishhead real fast to stop my belly growls to keep the tribble from making that stupid noise at me. When that didnt work, I snuck her some raw corn meal from Chakotays stone mixing bowl.

Then I sat back with my hand near my knife boot to see what would happen next.

"Full of fire aint ya boy?" said an old human man in a dead grass hat who was suddenly near me.

I was surprised that I hadnt heard him come! Oh Bootby! Why did you have to go and do that for?! I almost knifed you.

"I wasn't worried son." Bootby said ruffling my hair. I growled with my mouth to warn him off but that only made mum tribble purr louder.

So why are you here Bootby? Im not so interesting. I thought you liked flowers better than people. I said to him.

"That's still true..." Boothby replied. "I'm just taking in the sights. Just like the rest of you. Splendid place, this rainforest. Is it not? Makes an old man like me wanna cry. Not because of the visual beauty. But because I forgot to pack my belt bug repulser! "

It feels just like Klin'zai. I said to him, throwing another dead tree thing into the fire near the foodtails so theyd meat steam faster.

So whats the real reason you came with us on this wild place visiting from the Academy Bootby? I asked him. Apart from that devil lady, theres nothing to bother with.

"Oh but there is." Boothby said grandly. "I've several captains to watch. I've an invested interest in those and I always watch my picks from start, to finish.. Heh. heh. heh. Especially with Kirk there."

I frowned. Are you talking about knowing who are the good ones again? The human cadets you say will be captains one day?

"Yes. Of a sorts." Boothby replied. "Kirk's almost a son to me." I saw the human flower tender say.

I looked back down the hill to the river bank again where mum and the others were still talking to Ardra. But hes almost older than you Bootby.

"Don't get sassy with me young turtlehead. Who do you think sent Guinan to watch Picard in his prime days on the Enterprise D? She took her orders from me..."

My mouth flopped open so far that a fish scale dropped out of my teeth. You are a Listener? I didn't know that. Does anybody else know that? You guys really live a LLLoonnngg time. Now that explains how you knew Kirk and Picard and Janeway would all be captains someday. Youve had so much time growing those flowers that you learned how humans grew too.

"That's right. Now that little fact about my true nature is going to be a pact secret just between us my fine astute Klingon kidlet. Or Ill tell you the REAL reason why Ardra's here..." Boothby said. "Now fess up and give me the Honor Vow."

I twisted my face when I knew he had me. Ok. On my honor. No one will find out. Is that ability of yours to pick captains so good from the human cadet students why Counselor Troi and Beverly Crusher want to find out your Starfleet rank so bad in that bet of theirs?

"Yes. Partly. And I look human enough that they never suspect that I'm an El Aurien like Guinan. And that means a I hold an official rank OUTSIDE of Starfleet norms. Heh." the old man admitted. "They'll never guess it."

What a Klingon thing to do. Brain challenge women humans. I said smiling. Dont worry Bootby. I wont give away your actual blood people race to another human. This is one game puzzle I wanna see end. I had to see. I had to see for me.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Alexander in the sun outside.

Image: Picard listening to Boothby's council on the Academy Grounds.

Gif: A fuzzy scraggly tribble.

*********************************************

From : "patti keiper" Subject : Revelations and River Camping in the Rain Date : Sat, 03 Aug 2002 18:18:35 +0000

K'Ehleyr watched her son tromp off to the canoe launching camp up on the high ferned bank and was singularly proud of what she had witnessed. ::My son. Growing up. He actually got between me and an unknown possible danger.:: And a grin started to spread across her eyes. She let anger twist it for Ardra's benefit.

"I believe you have the better of me, ambassador."  
the Ventaxian ex con artist said. "You know my name and it's a little awkward not being the other way around. Let's be friends, shall we?"

When K'Ehleyr didn't move, Ardra tossed over her special class datapadd keyed to a specific mode. "There's Starfleet's contact guidelines from the Ventaxians, showing my completed brig time,  
and beginning community service sentence, begun two years ago. You see? People CAN change."  
and she thrust out her hand vigorously. "Be an ambassador and pretend I'm that new face you've just met."

Ambassador K'Ehleyr scrolled down the information on the augmented padd until her expression turned into one of guarded acceptance. "You're gonna promise that there's no renegade ship of vagabonds in orbit overhead who can carry out your illusions." she said.  
It was not a question.

Ardra's slight smile was softened by her raising eyebrows and hands in mock surrender. "I assure you. I am quite alone. Sort of like our other displaced loner here. Nice to meet you Khan." and she shoved by K'Ehleyr when the ambassador didn't take the handshake she offered her.

Khan took Ardra's grip and gave her a bow of respect that he always reserved for beautiful women. "Perhaps you can teach me what it's like to live on a world where everyone despises you.." he said.

Janeway and the others looked away uncomfortably and let that subtle jibe pass.  
But then Chakotay spoke up in his quiet way.  
"Ardra. I thank you for veiling the ruins again but I must ask you to leave the control padd here if you're going to be traveling above ground with us. Only medtricorders are allowed in the Valley as their sole purpose is to heal."

"Quite right Commander. I'll just toss it into a window for later." and Ardra flung the datapadd at a fern,  
that surprised everyone by being holographic. It wavered as the padd sailed through it into a lit room they could see just beyond for a few seconds until the illusion resolidified back into rainforest plant.  
"Now, is anybody going to invite me to dinner. That native fish the boy is preparing smells wonderful.."

Chakotay said. "You're welcome as always Ardra into my people's forest." and he held out a hand showing her the red dirt path leading up the river bank. A distant rumble of thunder rolled over one of the water falls at the mouth of the Valley downriver and it caught his attention. "I'd say we have a few minutes before that downpour begins. Mr. Data ought to have erected the frond canopy over the camp for us by now. Ardra. This way."

------------------------------------------

Soon, everyone present was seated around the ample fire that Alexander was tending. The simple meal was already laid out on leaves and polished stone inside traditional bowls and woven dishes.  
Corn meal cakes and the fresh fruit the others had gathered. And the holograms River Tilapia. Those fish were the main course. A large basket full of greenery and nuts was reserved for Mr. Spock.

Janeway filled her plate. "There's nothing like real, unreplicated food. This smells wonderful,  
Alexander. You're a good cook."

The boy smiled crookedly, pleased as punch.  
"I'm sorry there's no coffee captain." he said.

"Don't worry about that." Janeway said with a look of disgust. "I've had my fill of it lately.  
Nothing like the Vidiian Phage to break you of a bad habit." and she winked.

Dr. McCoy hadn't yet filled his wooden platter for supper. He was towelling off the mama tribble after giving her a bath. "There, that's better.  
Somehow, I think the fish oil and other fluids took away just a bit of the cuddly factor." and he plunked it back onto a firewarmed rock to dry. He placed another dallop of corn meal next to her. She gave a satisfied chirp and began eating before shrugging off the spring water, like a dog, with a shake.  
Everyone leaned away, laughing at the unexpected free shower misting.

On cue, the heavy clouds in the clearing let loose their rain around them. The torrent made the hull of the newly carved long canoe now lying finished on the ground, up turned, sound like a rich, deep drum.

In the distance, towards the Sacred Valley, another drum sounded in response, tomorrow's welcoming party.

Janeway looked up with surprise, "I didn't know any others of your family were coming here Chakotay."

He too, was turned toward the sound of replying drumcalls barely distinct from the showering rain falling on their palm frond roof shelter over the fire.

Ardra spoke up in turn. "Those are not Chakotay's family, captain. Those are the remnants of the Aztec clans who tend the underground city with me. They come up from underground when it rains to celebrate. They must've heard the canoe echoing what sounded like another drum." And she picked up two hefty rocks from the edge of the fire and clacked them loudly together in a specific sequence.  
The drumming down river delivered a matching reply and then ceased. Ardra tipped her head when the silence return. "An all's well reply. I just told them I was here with you. They'll return to work now. They were curious when they heard the canoe hull echoing under the rainfall."

The EMH was intrigued. "So how extensive are the tunnels underground, where you do your preservation work?" he asked.

Ardra said, "Extensive enough. In order to leave the Sacred Valley intact above, Earth Archaeologists had to build their museum and research facilities well hidden. All are connected to each other, some even passing beneath the Amazon's course itself.  
There is an access to the underground complex whereever there's a ruin. It was designed that way. Chakotay's Tribe can have their pristine Valley and the scientists can have their ancient city." and she shrugged.

Janeway said. "Ah, I see. I've heard of that part of Earth's subterranean network. The tramway system at Starfleet that's underground has one or two tunnels that lead off into the Pacific heading South.  
And those come here?"

"Some of them. As you know, the civilian Tramway system's planet wide of course. It's been centuries since the old city subway days if you'll recall." Boothby said.

"Then I wonder if the USS Voyager museum leads into these tunnels.." Barclay started up with interest.  
"Oh, sorry.." he said with an apologetic look to Janeway and Chakotay and Seven of Nine.

Janeway said. "Lt., you don't have to worry about our sensitivities about Voyager. She's only on display for her exhibition at the museum for the rest of the summer.  
She's still on the duty rosters. I think it was a fine idea setting her to earth for the general public to visit. And this time is giving us ex Voyager crew some time to relax. These five years since we've come home have been rich ones with our families. We aren't missing the ship." and she cast eyes on Chakotay and rolled them. "Not much at any rate..."

"Speak for yourself.." piped up the EMH. "That sickbay is more familiar to me than my own simulated uniform."

Bones McCoy guffawed loudly. "For land sakes! A doctor, who's missing sickbay? Now I've heard it all."  
and he took a sip of spring water to wash down a bite of corn cake.

The EMH frowned at him. "It's been so long since you've been decommissioned off the Enterprise line, you've most likely forgotten the psychological effects doctor."

"Psychological effects?" said McCoy, in mild amazement.  
"Wow. Your self made evolutional program emotional capacity HAS come a long way. I would have never realized you understood crew/ship separation phenomena."

The holodoc swelled up proudly and Seven squeezed his hand. "I... like to think I've made some progress.."  
he said sheepishly.

McCoy asked him another question. "So, did you ever convince the admiralty to spring all the other Mach I series EMH's off those hazardous sanitation duty details?" he asked softly.

"I did." the EMH said. "All the other Mach I series EMH's are being fitted with independent program abilities just like myself tailored to fit their individual tastes. They are being asked what areas of interest they'd like to have to serve Starfleet. Just like what any other cadet might be asked."

"Doctor! That's terrific.." Janeway said. "I hadn't heard the news."

"You've been rather busy lecturing at Starfleet captain."  
he told her.

"Anything to pass the time until I get my ship back from its tour in the museum." she quipped.

Dr. McCoy turned the tribble so her other side of dripping fur would dry in the fireheat. "This is so nice. Camping outside. In the rain. Reminds me alot of home in Georgia.  
The only thing I'm missing here," and he hefted his dinner platter. "Is a mint julip."

"I've thought of that." said Chakotay. "Would mint tea do the trick? I sent Seven of Nine to find some wild mint earlier. There's no alcohol in it, but it would taste the same."  
and he held out one of the steaming clay pots from the fire.

"Pour it here, son.." he said, dumping out the spring water in his clay mug and holding it out towards the commander.  
"Say, how long do you think this rain will last? Will it effect our canoe trip downstream into the Valley's heart tomorrow morning?" he asked.

Chakotay smiled. "This is winter. It isn't the rainy season.  
I suspect this storm is just the usual short Amazon Rainforest sunshower. Those waterfalls often stir up their own thunderstorms."

"There's that many in the Valley?" Uhura asked, surprised.

Chakotay grinned, nodding. "Most people only think of Venezuela's Angel Falls when they think of the Amazon Basin. Just wait until you see the Creator's Tears.  
There are over a hundred, thousand meter cascades around the Amazon River down in our Tribal Valley. I can't wait for all of you to see them. They are what inspired the first vision quests from my ancestors in me so long ago."

Janeway smiled at learning something new about her close friend. "Looking forward to it."

Dr. McCoy "I'm not much for boats commander. But,  
I'll brave any river rapids to see it, if your Valley is anything like the Grand Canyon..."  
and he held out his mug of steaming mint tea for a toast.

"Think greener..." the commander chuckled.  
"And add parrots and monkeys every square inch of forest canopy."

Alexander spoke up "Don't forget the gators and anacondas!"

"Oh yes.. those too." the commander pursed his lips in amusement at the tiny Klingon boy.

"Sounds like Paradise." McCoy sighed.

"It is..." he smiled "Like your Garden of Eden itself.."

K'Ehleyr pushed aside her now empty plate and hauled up a very sleepy Alexander into her lap where she fussed with pulling dead leaf litter from her son's hair. He swatted her hands away."Well, it's getting late. And somebody here's already yawning."

Everyone chuckled as mother offset her child's protestations to stay up.

An hour later, as the last of evening's sunlight ended the rain, all the starship and Starfleet visitors lay stretched on their bedrolls,  
serenaded into sleep by the soft calls of the insects and nightbirds of the forest surrounding them.

And in their sleep, dreams came to visit some.

Of course, Janeway dreamed of taking a hot bath under the beauty of the stars.

-  
(attachments)

Image: McCoy wearing a Tshirt in a darkened cabin.

Image: K'Ehleyr, grinning from ear to ear in a close shot.

Gif : An intricate red and white bead Indian bracelet bar.

Image: Chakotay standing on a ferned balcony.

*Animated gif* A realistic full moon going through its monthly phases.

Gif: A fuzzy bunch of purple nebulas and stars.

Image: Janeway taking a night bath outside.

*animated movie* Voyager streaming through the stars.

*****************************************

From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : To the Wonders of Earth and Ships~~ Date : Wed, 07 Aug 2002 09:04:48 +0000

Captain Kirk was up before dawn. Didn't matter where he was. On a starship bridge, at his apartments at the Academy or on some far distant planet. His body simply got him up before the local sun did relative to local time.

He stepped lightly over the others sleeping still by the fire and headed off into the jungle towards the river bank.

He stepped carefully down the red clay path that he could barely see in the predawn blue towards the sound of the river and those tantilizing Amazonian waterfalls that he could barely see through their spreading veil of mist. ::This feels like my Farragut River, only warmer:  
A dewy vine he had not seen smacked into his face and he swept it aside in the near darkness with a grin.. ::...and weedier.  
Sometimes, traditional environmental intervention can be a bad thing. Me? Give me an axe to build a good log cabin and I'll....::

His thoughts were interrupted by a low flying macaw winging out over the rushing wide water flowing just ahead of him through the thick jungle.

He smiled when his heart settled down and he was assured once again that he was very alone in the forest. The camp, behind him,  
remained quiet. Morning's peace enveloped him like a balm and he felt his guard lowering into a rare moment of calmness.

Captain Kirk entered a clearing, the same one where the holograms had secured the fish dinner, and sat down on a mossy rock to do what he always did every morning. "Try to figure out a new solution to another no win scenario.." he grinned as he mumbled to himself. "This time,  
let's make it this situation," he said as he reached down to grab a smooth stone to skip over the smooth water racing by. It bounced ten times.

He spoke to the air, watching as daybreak broke the mist from the falls by inches.  
"..You're..mired in the Great Galactic Barrier with no warp power and only the ship's captain and the ship's engineer are left conscious on a Phoenix class starship. One Type G star and one asteroid field only in transporter and tactical range. Is there a way out of that one?" he asked himself.

A female voice startled him from his reverie.  
"Easy one. Lock a tractor onto any asteroid outside the Barrier larger than your vessel is and then hold position with the impulse engines until you can jettison all your unconscious crew in pods off ship to safety until it's just you and your engineer left on board. Then cut off all life support and all nonessentials, except for where you both are on the bridge, and reroute all power to the transporters and those tractors. Set a demat tap into the residual matter stream being sucked from that G Type star into the Great Barrier, and I assure you, any star that close to the Big Edge will be losing substance that way, and then send that captured energy back into your warp coils until a cold formula jump start revives the warp engines. Reinforce your reversing course out of the Barrier using asteroid anchoring points with your tractor beam to assist the pulling until Voila'! You are free. Then, fulfill a captain's first duty and rescue all the escape pods back on board ship so you can awaken your crew back to functionality at leisure. Ah, but do it behind a protective moon away from line of sight of the Barrier for relative safety so you aren't reensnared back into it again by a passing subspace eddy like the one that got you there in the first place. Because there's no way in h*ll I'd ever believe a starship under a captain's command would ever be caught inside the Edge without a d*mned good unsuspected phenomena like that doing the deed.. So, as I said before, easy one."

Kirk had long ago pinned the owner of the voice and had turned back to the river's course, his smile growing at the ingenuity unfolding in his ears.  
"Don't tell me. You puzzle no wins in the morning over a.m. coffee just as much as I do, Kathryn. Boothby peg you early on too? And offered that advice say,... week six or so along in your command school training?"

" brain games like that have bailed my butt on more than one occasion with my already having thought out the really bizarre ones ahead of time." Captain Janeway said. "But remind me to kick that wrinkled old prune in the rear next time I see him for instilling that annoying habit into my psyche, will you? I'd give anything to just sleep til noon like everybody else does."

"Get second in line for that butt kicking, Kathryn." Jim held out a hand and patted the accompanying boulder next to his own. "You can have him. But I claim first dibs."

"Oh yeah? What if there's another captain older than us who wants to do the same thing first? They say Boothby's been picking em for almost a century."

"In that case, I'm afraid we'd all have to just draw for it, for the privilege."

There was a brief pause and both Kathryn and Kirk fastdrew imaginery phasers on each other from the hip, rising onto their feet from their rocks.

"I beat you." Janeway said, as they froze in mock offensive phaser poses.

Kirk grinned dangerously.  
"Not a chance captain. I definitely had a bead line before you did. Your sleeve was still blurring in the growing light there in when I had my crosshairs already aimed at the heart. My retinas are still seeing the after image." he said, resuming his easy stare out towards the mist. "Have a seat." he gestured.

"Hmmph. Funny, I had a retinal after image of that exact same memory, but happening to you." she said. "We could solve the debate by having Mr. Data watch us next time." Kathryn quipped.  
"But, have it your way. All right, I'll be gentile,  
I'll grant your victory. Anything, because it's always been, AGE before beauty.." she said with a sidelong glance.  
Kathryn reached down and skipped a stone across the water and they both watched it until it ran out of inertia. It bounced eleven times. "Got you. One up from ten. Beat that.."she grinned a cock eyed grin.

Kirk was just reaching down for a throwing stone when an aroma halted him. "Wait a minute. It's just us up and about, right?"

"So I counted." Janeway said, her grin lessening a bit.

"Then why am I smelling black coffee? I thought your first officer didn't bring any because the we all have serious aversions to it from the time we spent drinking it in quarantine." Kirk added.

Janeway sniffed the light cool fog surrounding them.  
"You're right, and it seems to be coming from right over....."

And she tossed a pebble into the brush in the direction upwind of the roasting scent.  
Where her rock landed, a hole opened up;  
the turbolift Ardra had sealed which led into the research tunnels beneath the rainforest.

The bright man made light made both captains squint and cast arms up over their eyes.  
With unspoken consent, they got up from the bank and wandered to the edge of the subterranean lift. "Wonder who's up down there?"Janeway asked.

"Only one way to find out." and Kirk leaped onto it. He held out his hand for Janeway to join him.

The lift bleeped a few times and then started to descend into the lower level beneath the river and forest carrying them both with it.

Captain Kirk looked up briefly at the brightening square of sky above them glowing from the forest they had just left and saw a camouflage holofield reform over the opening.

Slowly, the shaft lights around them dimmed into blackness as they sank.

The lift paused before bulkheads at the bottom. They opened soundlessly.

The corridor immediately below the illuminated lift shaft was still cloaked in standby darkness except for some low level auto floor insets, making it hard to see.

There were no discernible sounds save those from the forest cloaked above.

"Hello?" Janeway's call echoed down the long straight hallway and died away into silence. Finally, she waved a hand at a nearby panel and spoke once more, "Computer.  
Display location of last known lift occupant prior to us."

A computer map bloomed brightly in the dark before their eyes on one wall, its earth and dirt illusion giving way to modern viewer display.

Kirk traced a map. "That someone's in the next room on the left..about thirty meters that way.." he said, pointing.

Janeway sniffed the air again, "Sounds about right. That coffee smells stronger that way." and she headed off, her woven grass sandals chuffing softly on the plasticrete.

The computer guide light followed them a pace, until the darkness started to give way to a curiously fluctuating rusty glow of dappled daylight.

They headed into that room and were absolutely stunned just two strides into it. "We're,...." Janeway said.

"...under the river.." Kirk finished in amazement as great as Kathryn's.

A figure who was silohuetted against the windows with all fingers splayed out against the observational windowed room's glass turned in startlement. "Oh, sirs.." Lt. Yar said. "Don't sneak up on me like that. Be glad I didn't have a phaser in my hand or I'd've shot first and asked questions later."

Kirk glanced ironically at Janeway as Yar lowered the hand that had drawn a nonexistent phaser. "Didn't think of that third possibility now did we,  
captain." he addressed Janeway.  
"What do you think, Kathryn? Who's faster? Security chiefs or captains?"

Janeway started laughing as Tasha's expression melted from surprise into puzzlement. Yar said, "I don't understand.."

Kirk wandered over next to where Lt. Yar stood in front of the underwater view that encased them in five directions in a cube.  
"Never mind. An inside joke from earlier."  
he glanced down and saw two empty coffee pots and several gray styro cups crushed and empty on the table. "Up all night, lieutenant?"

"Oh yes, sir. I've never seen such a view as this. We're a hundred feet beneath the Great Amazon River. " she sighed, and they all looked at the strangely clear, teastained water where myriads and myriads of fish swam by over white sand and tangles of jungle roots.  
"We had nothing like this in the colony where I grew up."

"Nothing like this in Indiana either.." Janeway quipped. She pointed as a curious river otter figured out its way past the holo camouflage at the sound of their voices just to check out the humans. It blew bubbles their way and followed Yar's fingers briefly in a game when she pressed them to the transparent aluminum, and traced spirally paths along it.

Yar smiled. "This little guy found me this morning by accident when a pink river porpoise chased a food fish his way. Been here all morning between breaths."

"Hey little fellow.." Janeway said and she tapped the glass. The giant river otter's whiskers worked as he tried to press his nose where she touched.

In the distance, a pod of pink dolphins played in the rusty sunlit water hundreds of meters away.

Captain Kirk touched a blinking light on the window and it immediately displayed a schematic identifying each fish and animal in view and how many there were. Arrows tracked where they were located and how they were moving on top of the transparent glass eerily.

Kirk said, "We should tell the holograms about this observation port. Might make their ichthyology study of the indigenous fish a little easier this way than using Regina's skirts or Chakotay's live trap."

Janeway looked back as the friendly creature left them for the surface and another breath of air. "What and spoil the native effect? Something peaceful about that kind of thing. I can see Chakotay's tribe avoiding these tunnels for good reason. Their traditional ways are for cultural separation. I don't see them "performing" for any subterranean museum network full of archaeological scientists, do you?"

"I suppose you're right. Ok, so it's just us then.  
Until the others awaken." James T. Kirk added. He plunked down into an abandoned researcher's chair and grabbed the last full pot of coffee resting on a desktop there.

Beneath his boots, river sand stirred and moved beneath the flooring."Now that's novel, this room's not being allowed to interfere with the river's current's at all. There's a passive deflector at work."

Janeway and Lt. Yar looked down and saw that it was true. "Nonintervention at its best. Gotta love it." Kathryn quipped.

Kirk poured himself a cup and leaned back on his chair's armrests for about two seconds.  
His coffee's rim paused inches from his mouth and he frowned.

"What's the matter captain?" Janeway asked him.

"This chair. It feels exactly like THE chair if you know what I mean." he said, a little discomforted.  
The reminders of his past starship days began to haunt him once again.

"You don't see me sitting, do you?" Janeway said. "I noticed their resemblance to center seats."

Lt. Yar was drawn into her superiors mood change and the underwater panorama no longer captivated her. She ignored it. "Hey. We're on vacation. No sulking. Big deal. So neither of you are actively serving a ship anymore. So what? This is the Worldwide Museum Tunnel Network remember?  
And I seem to recall that both the Enterprise and Voyager are in museums right now.. isn't that right..?" she tantilized.

"We're in South America and due to embark on a river canoe trip in about two hours, lieutenant. There's no way we can..." his voice trailed off when Yar bumped a hip into a section of the window next to her and the waterscene de holo'd into a transporter alcove.

Yar smiled. "You were saying...."

Janeway and Kirk's eyes got big when they saw a way open to their second halves, their ships.

Kirk gasped, "You demoness!" he teased the young security lieutenant.

"Weakling pawn." Tasha smiled. "Now go.. Recharge you two, and that's an order,... uh....sirs." and Yar gave a little salute to her two captains.

"Chakotay won't like us playing hooky like this.." Janeway said with a grin.

"So? We're...not quite inside the Sacred Valley, Kathryn. So his tribe's rules don't apply full blown to us yet. And technically, we're not in the forest anymore."

"That's right, captain. " Yar insisted eagerly to Janeway. "The WWMT network is international territory,  
for all. No one's cultural edicts apply down here."

Kirk and Kathryn began to smile at her broadly, until Kirk tapped Janeway on the arm,  
his mouth opening in a question.  
"Whose ship do we visit first?"

"Flip you for it.."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Just what in the world is this room?" Kirk sighed as Janeway, Lt. Yar and he stepped past a door from Voyager's bridge that wasn't leading into a turbolift.

Kathryn grinned. Pointing to a desk at the far side of the long room. "Have a seat.." she said, and spun the desktop computer around next to her usual flower coffee cup, that had been perfectly preserved by the museum curators, even down to the level of replicated java that she had last sipped when Voyager finally made it home.  
She was tempted to touch a finger to the tiny field holding it in stasis but resisted, going on with her surprise. "Captain Kirk, this..." she said expanding her hands regally around herself,  
"...is a ready room." she smiled, amused.  
"Something starship designers thought up about ten years after you retired from service. Here I was able to get away from the bridge, and my cabin,  
to just be anything else I needed to be, a researcher,  
a counselor, at times, but most of all, a refuge of privacy during crunch times and otherwise.. It's an office, reception room, parlor and living room all in one. Like it?"

Kirk stretched in the chair, reaching up and frowning at the cushy couch at one end of the room. "Didn't it take your edge off at the wrong times?" he said, eyeballing the pillows arranged there.

"Quite the opposite, having such a homey office made me feel, more focused and grounded.  
I could, let my hair down so to speak. I could met with senior officers, discipline the sloppy,  
or entertain the alien visitors at will away from the eyes of the general bridge if I felt like it.  
The ready room, a dream concept." Janeway smiled.

Just then the ready room doors flew open and both Kirk and Janeway looked up in surprise at who entered them. "Boothby!" she exclaimed in surprised, "What are you doing here? I thought you wanted to sleep in a little before getting into a "poor tree trunk derived" canoe?

"Heard the turbo holoscreen activate by the river and came investigating. Got an ear for those things ya know. Then the computer told me you had left the underriver observation lounge and came here.." he sighed grandly.  
"Nice ship. Although a bit too....cushy for my tastes.." the wizened Academy caretaker said.

"See..." Kirk teased Janeway.

Janeway rolled her eyes. "It's just a couch fellas.  
I was where you are captain, 99.9 % of the time. In that desk chair." she fired right back,  
pointing where Captain Kirk still sat in her ready room seat behind the computer desk.  
Feeling defensive, she fired right back at Boothby. "You know these ship designs forwards and backwards. Just whatever possessed you to come see us at Voyager's museum?"

"I decided I'd check out all my captains ships in person. To see where my invested captain's candidates ended up. Big difference seeing this in person as opposed to some dry ship's name on a padd next to my choice captain's cadets." Boothby snorted.

Kirk rose to his feet, admiring even the books on Kathryn's shelves. "Why didn't you take any of this with you when you all departed for Earth and disbanded?"

Janeway stretched out on the couch, kicking off her woven sandals and curled her feet up on the couch. She patted one hand at a place next to her for the obviously still sleepy Boothby. "Didn't seem right at the time.  
Having just freshly barged out of that Queen Borg transwarp conduit like that, all battle wired and stunned the journey was over. By the time it occurred to any of us to collect our personal belongings, Voyager had become a celebrity starship and everyone wanted to see her. And so the museum promised to stasis lock up everything for five years on tour, like this..to show her off to them." she said. "Checked with the front receptionist on our way into the museum, visitors to Voyager are still hundreds everyday. More than those who get the tour of Starfleet Academy." she quipped. "You'll notice the impromptu sign over every door." and she pointed to the exit bulkhead. A new status bar read every few seconds,  
"Join Starfleet and let the Journey Continue.."

Kirk's eyebrows rose. "Boothby.. I'll just bet that sign was your idea.." he admonished. "Shame on you.."

"What? It's been two years since I spotted a really good cadet captain. I had to widen the search somehow. Although captain.."  
he said thoughtfully eyeing Janeway, "Your Seven of Nine is quite the diligent crewman when it comes to pulling her weight at the Academy. She's top level in her cadet exams too."

"Seven?" Kathryn said. "I hadn't noticed. Student records are beyond my authority. I only lecture there." Then it dawned on Janeway. "Uh no.  
Don't tell me you've pegged HER as a special."

Boothby squinted his eyes in challenge, parking his aged bones onto the couch, "And if I did..."  
he said.

Janeway surprised him by staying motherly.  
Then her face melted into an amused embarrassment.  
"Don't make her study triple duty EVERY night.  
She should have SOME time for socialization off duty."

"Are you warning me not to go so heavy on her.  
What? Was I that way to you both back then?"

"Yes."  
"Yes." Kirk and Janeway said at the same time.

Boothby's face spread into a surprised look.  
"Is that why most of all you captains are still single?  
Because I didn't allow you guys to get the hang of dating during your cadet and command school days?"

Both Kathryn and Jim looked taken aback.  
"Well.. Homework was quite the stressed priority in my op--"

"Point taken.." Boothby cut in. "All right.  
Seven gets a night out on the town every Sunday. Satisfied?"

Janeway's mouth gaped in a rainbow of emotion. Boothby still managed to impact her enough to keep her unbalanced and off guard in that gruff unsettling way of his.  
Finally she said, "Uh..yeah. Sure. That's fine."  
Then she shook her head. "Wait a minute.  
You don't have to check with me about how you drill a command cadet potential. I'm not on the academics board."

"No but you are on the Borg Advisory Committee and that's Seven's forte. Your opinion means a lot to me.." Boothby said studying his calloused hands. He took off his straw hat and fiddled unnecessarily with its rim.  
"Besides, she's almost like a daughter to you.."

Janeway got up and moved next to her mentor and one time pain in the butt advisor. "That she is.. And you, are very much like that beloved uncle.. Boothby.  
Thanks for everything. Including telling me that Seven's under your watch as a command candidate. I'll not let you down on her studies from my end."

"Don't you dare start adding titles before my name Kathryn A Janeway. It's just plain Boothby. Got that?"

"Yes, sir.." she said. Then she grinned hugely and saluted him.

Kirk had regarded the warm exchange thoughtfully while leaning on the desk. "So,.. I'm still wrapping my mind around the date skill inferiority theory of yours. Is that why I was such a lady killer in my early days?" he joked.

Janeway teased him. "You were before my time captain. For me, it was Riker who turned my eye."

"Who?" Kirk said.

"Never mind. It's a long story.. A night that never was. A quarry trip won out instead."  
Janeway said, eyeing the artificial stars the museum computer was making out the windows.  
They were comfortingly the stars of home.  
Then she shook herself out of her reverie.  
"My I'm the horrible host.. It may be before official museum visiting hours, but I would be remiss if I didn't offer to be your tour guide gentlemen.. Who better than Voyager's old captain to do that?" she said, rising and showing them the door. "Follow me.  
Captain Kirk. You might want to call Spock for our first stop. It's Seven of Nine's old brainchild. She and one of my old junior officers Harry Kim built it. Another new starship room concept.. Ever heard of stellar cartography?  
Well you haven't seen anything until you see Borg ingenuity at work in there.."

And so the earliest morning hours passed by quickly for the four of them, seeing the legendary USS Voyager, and exactly what the ship meant to each was strictly in the realm of their own private thoughts.

Rest assured, none of those thoughts were unpleasant ones.

-  
(attachments) Image : Yar grinning.

Image: The Amazon jungle, at dawn.

Image: Kirk promo, smiling as Shatner dressed as Kirk.

Image: A giant river otter in close up looking at you.

Image: An underwater view of the river with fish.

Image: Pink river dolphin, close up, underwater.

*animated gif* The Great Galactic Barrier, and the Enterprise warping towards it.

Image: Janeway and Chakotay in the ready room of Voyager, drinking coffee on the couch.

*  
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2002 13:10:26 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: Individual Territory or Not?

Seven of Nine had finished packing the light gear that Chakotay told her to pack for the three hour canoe trip into the Sacred Valley. Seven wasn't surprised that several of the bed rolls around the cooking fire were empty. "Being inefficient on vacation with personal belongings must be an accepted norm. I wonder where they are?"

Ardra spoke from her end of the fire where she was tending the loaves of cornbread and the teapots Chakotay had placed there for the others when they returned from the river's edge. "No doubt, checking out the tunnels below. The museums in this area are simply fantastic. I've been serving my sentence with the Aztec ruins here long enough to know how captivating some of the subterranean exhibits can be down there."

Seven of Nine regarded the dark clad woman with mild curiosity. "Perhaps Starfleet should reassign your community service sentence if you are feeling that you aren't suffering much."

"Oh, believe me. I am. I am not free to do as I wish. But your planet Earth is a pleasant enough little world. And for once, I can be who I really am and not somebody's mythological devil. It's a refreshing change." the ex con woman stated.  
She poured herself a cup of tea and another for Seven, she pushed it out of the fire embers with a stick. "Have some. Chakotay says this particular blend will stave off aching muscles in those who aren't in shape for paddling later on."

Seven of Nine eyed the clay cup but refrained.  
"My borg enhancements will offset any physical degradations. Keep that for another." she said.

"That's right... Now I remember.. " Ardra said.  
"You're the one Janeway rescued from the Borg Queen's Collective Net. My, how I've forgotten my recent history. Tell me. How does it feel to be disjointed away from your other life with the Borg?"

Seven looked not at all discomforted by Ardra's remark. "How does it feel to no longer be living the life of a clandestine criminal, conning others out of their resources through the use of fear and intimidation?" she said right back. "Perhaps, there is your answer. "

Ardra did not take offense. "Hmm. I can't say that I miss it to any great degree. But the feeling of being in the limelight was the most incredible high.." she said, smiling. "There's something putting on an illusional guise, say,  
like the Devil, on fifteenth century Earth.  
People simply hang on every word you say.  
It's addicting, after a while.."

Seven frowned. " I wouldn't know. I can't say that I've ever had an alternate persona who's effected people that way."

"I can." said a new voice. It was Commander Data. "And it is a most unfortunate effect."  
he concluded. "My creator, Soong, once gave me dreams that caused an alter ego to emerge.  
I did not enjoy the experience."

Seven of Nine stood and said. "If you'll excuse me. I will assist Chakotay in carrying the long canoe down to the water's edge."

"I have already done so. " said Data.  
"Likewise, all of our personal belongings save these sleeping rolls are ready for travel." He frowned. "Captain Janeway,  
Captain Kirk and Lt. Yar, Boothby are absent?" he inquired.

"Yes. Most likely they went for a walk.  
Captain Janeway was frequently up at dawn as I recall from Voyager days." Seven said.

Suddenly Chakotay joined them from up the river trail. "All set? After breakfast, we can leave." Then he spotted the rumpled bedrolls still by the fire. "Oh. I amend that. After everyone gets done exploring the forest too."

Seven of Nine reached into her pack and got out a medical tricorder and handed it to Chakotay.

"What's this for?" he asked her.

"No doubt you'll want to note where the others went. By your own rules no one is wearing combadges."

Chakotay frowned ruefully and accepted the device. He scanned around until he had residual body heat and then a recent transporter trace with coordinates set for San Francisco, on a very familiar location. "They were in the tunnels. Now, they're visiting ..." he paused.  
"Old friends.." and he grinned. "Didn't think Kathryn would last a month not going there again."

"Going where? Is her old fiance or sister in San Francisco?" Seven asked.

"Think bigger Seven. Who's been with Captain Janeway for seven years and who's now apart from her captain?"  
he asked.

Ardra was faster at guessing. "Ah, her dear old Voyager. Now isn't that sweet.  
I'll just bet Kirk and she are comparing point for point the best features on their particular command vessels." then under her breath, "Even I'd do that."

Holozimm and Regina, Moriarty and the EMH fizzled into existence from inside Byte's holostore mainframe.

The doctor immediately saw Chakotay's med tricorder open in his hands, sensing.  
"Somebody in trouble medically?" he asked.

Data replied. "The commander is keeping tabs on the others. They have ditched us to pay a call to the Voyager and Enterprise museums."

Chakotay looked uncomfortable with Data being so forthwith and he rolled his eyes, quickly shutting the lid on his scanner and he tossed it back into Seven's pack.

The EMH smiled. "A little bent out of shape commander that they find their old bridges more captivating than the Valley at the moment?"

"Not at all, doctor.. I was just...."  
and he broke off, finally giving in,  
"I was just wondering when they'd come back that's all. The bread's getting cold."

Regina was quick on things.  
"Commander.. I wouldn't fuss over your friends. They do want to be here. We all do. I'm sure this wandering off was purely a whimsy.  
Oh, is that jasmine tea?" and she knelt in her skirts to smell the aroma from the clay pot on the embers.  
"Mr. Spocks' adjustments on our indepent functioning subroutines are simply marvelous!" she sighed.  
"I feel so connected with everything around me. The air, the scenery.."

Chakotay grinned. "Any rainforest instills that kind of connectedness Countess. It's the climate which does that. Maybe it effects holosystems the same way."

"No doubt.." Moriarty cut in.  
He was watching Data roll up the last of the bedrolls and he strode over to pick them up. "I'll help Data here with these. Come along, Byte.."  
he said, and Mr. Scott's ingenious silver probe sphere bleeped and followed him down to the river.

Commander Data and Moriarity left out of sight down the trail leading to the tethered canoe.

Holozimm sighed. "Ah,..independence is great. Doc, " he said to the EMH. "Don't ever let that holoemitter of yours get lost.  
I didn't know what I was missing until now.. "

"Speak for yourself. I'm still doing time."  
Ardra grumbled.

"Yeah, but what a pretty jail cell.." Holozimm replied, casting a hand out over the rainforest vista surrounding the camp.

"oo, don't talk about jail cells, Mort and I have seen more than enough of one to last an eternity.." the Lady Regina groaned.

Chakotay laughed. "Well, this is the point of this whole trip. To get away from it all. Away from work and duty, studies and sentences alike.  
And believe me, when we get there, the Sacred Valley has the power to make any person forget the outside world instantly. It's like nothing you've ever seen before. Or imagined.  
Nothing down there has changed in millenia.  
There's no sign of habitation, or modern civilizations of any kind. It's spectacularly wild."

"And occasionally dotted with a ruin or two."  
Ardra grinned. "I've been down in there.  
On the plateau. The main Aztec pyramid's one of those spots on my route."

Chakotay said, "But you've only looked out through holofields from the tunnels and ports in the ruins. It's something else being outside."

"Now I'll get my chance.." Ardra said.  
"Thanks for speaking with my warden and letting me accompany you all." she said to him.

"No problem." he replied.

Soon, Janeway and Boothby returned up the trail with Data and Moriarty.  
"Smells good.." Captain Janeway replied. She sat on the ground next to Chakotay and pulled a bread leaf over to herself and hefted a cooking blade. "A slice anyone?"

Soon everyone was eating.

Chakotay leaned over to Kathryn and asked. "Where's Kirk and Yar?"

"I left them at the Enterprise museum.  
Last I saw, they were going over the security upgrades in the computer system.  
No doubt they'll be along before we cast off. What is that? The fifth Enterprise starship down there?"

"Third. Picard's got the other two."

"And I crashed one of them." Deanna said sheepishly while she ate.

Chakotay chuckled. "I kept losing Voyager shuttles.. So, Kathryn. Did Kirk's eyes bug out over Voyager?"

"Somewhat.." Janeway said thoughtfully.  
"But then again. No ship can compare with a captain's own command. Brought you back something.." and she tossed a silver watch at Chakotay. "Remember giving me this in a time loop or two?  
I figured it was primitive enough to keep our bearings in the Valley once we get there."  
she winked. "Non computerized parts."

Seven eyed the clock hanging on its silver chain. "I don't recognize that time piece." she muttered.

"You won't." Janeway said.  
"Chakotay gave this to me during the Year of Hell, an event loop that was erased. I just remembered it and made this replica of it. A joke for Chakotay."

"I see." Seven said. She didn't.

"Don't knock the Valley or the no high tech restrictions until you've tried it."  
Chakotay said to everyone at large. "There's no better way to get in touch with the Great Creator than to be in a fully natural and wild place. And there's a side benefit of mental healing too and of the spirit.  
All stresses on you will melt away for days" he said reverently.

Boothby said, 'Can it make me forget my newly vulnerable flower transplants being unguarded on campus? There's a new session of cadet feet being late for class right about now." he said, peering at the silver pocket watch he had taken from Chakotay.

Everyone laughed.

Seven of Nine pulled out a simple paper book and began reading it when she thought no one was looking. Janeway noticed her pulling away from people contact again and made a point to sit by her side. "Feeling awkward socially again? I know casual talk's an unknown territory for you."

Seven looked up. "It is strange not discussing ship's business or Academy coursework. I ....find that I do not have much to say."

"I think that the doc wouldn't agree with you Seven.." Janeway said softly her eyes filled with understanding. Then an idea lit them up.  
"Why don't you use this time to catch up with him. Kirk may be gone for hours."

Seven regarded her old captain for a long moment, then smiled in agreement.  
"I think I'll do that." and she handed the book to Janeway and got to her feet.

Janeway watched Seven rejoin the EMH by the fire where he was chatting with Holozimm and the Lady Regina and Moriarty. She looked down at Seven's book binding in her hand, reading its title and began to smile. "....Little Women.. indeed."

Data was sitting by Khan, who was all alone sitting in a meditative stance. "Are you well this morning?  
I see you've not taken sustenance as the others did."

"The sun is well up Mr. Data. I can only nourish myself before dawn or after sunset on this day every week.  
It is my custom." Khan said.

"I did not realize." Data replied politely.

Ardra perked up when the exotic Khan spoke to the android, she said nothing and just watched the two talk. She could see Khan thought that Data was subservient being an artificial lifeform but his subtle body english to that effect was only lost on the commander and he continued to ask eager questions of Khan, one after the other.

Khan merely nodded or shook his head, never opening his eyes nor changing his yoga's stance where he sat facing east.

Ardra waited for the moment Data realized that Khan was actually ignoring him with a great anticipation.

------------------------

Seven of Nine knelt by the EMH, who was putting out the cooking fire with the fine sand on the ground. She helped him until the curls of smoked ceased. "Doctor, are you looking forward to this canoe trip? I know this might be an activity you've never done before."

"I'll learn quickly. " he said amicably. "Like you always say, "I'll adapt." "

'I'm sure you will.." she said.

And an awkward silence stretched between the two.

Finally, Seven said. "My aren't we verbally efficient.  
We can't even socialize normally together like the others do." she complained.

The EMH's face was consoling. "I've never regretted that Seven. We .  
were designed differently than they.  
We'll just have to muddle through until we get the hang of it. Dr. Pel and I did."

Denara Pel, who was caught in earshot,  
gave him a small smile and discreetly gave the two their distance, pretending to bounce the non fussy SchmolisDenaraPel infant in her arms.

"As I and Chakotay once did." Seven said.  
Then she met the EMH's eyes. "Can we really make a personal relationship work between the two of us? I would not like to fail in one again." she said finally looking away.

The EMH took one of Seven's hands and brushed the dirt off of it and held it tightly. "No one can predict the future, Seven. Well, perhaps just the Guardian of Forever." he joked. "But I seriously want ....to devote more time for us in the future.  
With our wild adventures lately, we haven't been given an opportunity to continue where we left off. Perhaps, here, now. We can do just that."

"Are you propositioning a change that's romantic for us doctor?" Seven said with a light grin of amusement.

"No.. no no.. Just an exploration of our deepening friendship that's all. Desire for physical loving has nothing to do with me at all. I'm not programmed to have such feelings.... yet.." he said ironically.  
"Pointless really, since I cannot procreate."

Seven reached up and hugged the EMH.  
"There's no opera houses here. There's no computer database for us to sing to. How shall we proceed in our endeavors?" she said, not exactly.... deadpan.

The EMH sighed and released Seven and her palm. "Let's just talk, about you. About your past. I want to know everything about how you've evolved since we rescued you from the Borg Collective. I briefly saw Annika Hansen but she was fleeting. I want to get to know just exactly who ...took her place.." he whispered. "But not as your doctor, but as a very good friend. Can we do that Seven?"

Seven of Nine felt sharp tears sting her eyes and she blinked them away before smiling.  
"I think I can adapt to that request,.. easily."  
and she kissed him on the mouth briefly,  
very chaste. Then she leaned backwards sitting indian style. And she began telling the EMH of her first perceptions she had, moments after being totally severed from the Borg.

"The moment Chakotay's cortical monitor kicked in from my alcove, I felt a hot stab of pain in my head and I toppled over the tactical console feeling the Borg chorus of voices silence instantly. I remember feeling overwhelming isolation. It ..it..it..cut into me most acutely.  
I felt I was going insane and then I felt fear for the first time since my childhood. I think I blacked out. Then some time after that, I opened my eyes. And there was you, peering down at me.. And I was no longer alone... I remember you saying. Take it easy.I am the emergency medical hologram. I'm here to treat your injuries so just relax and don't try to move. No matter what, I won't let you die.  
and then I looked again and saw Captain Janeway standing over me, holding my other hand just as tightly, echoing your sentiment. I was angry and still mostly Borg even then, but that was my first taste of humanity; in your words. However foreign. It was then I decided not to suicide.  
Because it was then that I first felt the power.."  
a single tear ran down Seven's face even though her expression was neutral on the outside.  
"....of your compassion. Perhaps, together, we can teach each other, what it is to be a part of humanity as fully realized individuals."

"We do have that much of an alienation to overcome." said the EMH. "Holo heebie jeebies,  
and borg bigotry from others. But we're very fortunate today Seven. We are with people who've accepted us for who we are completely.  
So let's share ourselves with that family and figure out a way to grow. Shall we?"

And he stood, offering Seven his arm and they walked to the overlook to observe the misty sun's rise over the stunning Amazon Basin, side by side.

Nearby, Janeway and Chakotay also linked hands, noticing the pogniant moment between two lifeforms who had been shaped by their guidance, and they too, smiled, leaning in to each other, in warm feelings, arms snugged around each other.

All four of them let time slip by unfettered.

Very soon, the trip downstream began..

-  
(attachments)

Image: Ardra conversing with Data near a yellow console.

Image: Seven and the EMH in a light moment.

Image: Janeway, linking hands with Chakotay,  
both moved deeply, emotionally.

********************************************

END WEEK NINETEEN 08-09-02

.com/voyagerliveaction Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Hub

WEEK TWENTY RECAP 08-10-02

************************************************

From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject: [voyagerliveaction] Nightmare in Paradise Date : Thu, 08 Aug 2002 13:55:20 +0400

Counselor Deanna Troi revelled in the beauty of the river around her.  
The carved canoe was fully twenty meters long and it held everyone's packs, the camping food and bedrolls.  
And the entire group comfortably.

She had taken a place in the middle of the canoe and dangled a hand into the cool tea stained but clear water below her.  
::What a beautiful place.:: she thought.  
::It reminds me of Betazed in the park where mother and I used to take Commander Riker for picnics.::

Chakotay was at the back of the canoe,  
standing on its prow with a long pole while Spock and Barclay were the ones this hour who paddled with wide carved blades at the front of the low floating boat. The current was swift with few obstacles save the vines that teased the eye,  
concealing their actual progress towards the mouth of the Valley down river. "Commander."  
Troi called over her shoulder. "Are we almost there, I don't see the opening inside yet."

Chakotay grinned, "Just listen a bit.  
Hear that? The waterfall entrance is just ahead, it is circulating into a cave in a giant whirlpool that passes any who travel down that branch, into the Valley."

"Is it dangerous?" Dr. Crusher asked from her seat in the canoe. Most of the others heard her but remained silent so her question might be heard clearly to the back.

"Not really. There aren't any vines in the cave to snag on anything in the boat,  
nor any rapids. It's only a short trip through and we're there. Hang on.." and he poled the canoe from where he stood deftly to the left fork so a swifter whitewater would capture them. "This is the way in.." he shouted.

A huge yawning whirlpool of rust torrent seemed to be eaten by a fern covered cliff and a smooth but swift drop swept the long canoe and her passengers deep into a long angle downwards into almost pitch blackness.

It was quiet save dripping from an unseen ceiling and the water was eerily lit from underneath even as the cave rose above them.

Direct sunlight was nonexistent and Chakotay had them all light torches so he could see the curve of the walls rushing by.

Chakotay's voice echoed. "My father showed me this route into the Valley when I was ten. It saves about two days overland using the Amazon to get there like this.  
And it's much easier."

Deanna looked into the water when they hit an unexpected calm spot and saw sunlight on the sandy bottom even as the darkness above from the cave they were in made it hard to see. Far below, pink dolphins played in the rushes and roots, chasing fish, every once in a while, they'd rise and nearly scrape the bottom of the canoe with their backs. Almost.  
She laughed. "We've an escort.."

Chakotay said, "It doesn't take much to get the watchers curious. Any strangers attract their attention and they come to investigate."

"Don't tell me they know everyone in the Tribe."  
Troi asked.

"Maybe it's the tattoo." Janeway joked. "Very distinguishing. "

Holozimm had a question about that. "How can porpoise radar see a different pigmentation?."

"It was a joke Holozimm." the EMH pointed out.  
The fire torches made his dark eyes sparkle in the darkness and the natural cave walls made echoes of his voice.

As one, the group hushed until the course of the hidden Amazon opened back up onto the outside.  
Everyone gasped in amazement on the other side. They had arrived at last.

Great towering cliffs dripping with jungle were stitched with waterfall after waterfall on both sides and on the right shoreline, a series of huts greeted them in the distance. Ahead was a high altitude rope bridge jutting out of the rainforest, partially misted by the biggest waterfall and leading into the cluster of dwellings on the river bank. Trees opened to the sky even more as the larger course of the Amazon rejoined its wandering sister from the cave. The porpoises rolled once in front of the canoe and then disappeared back into the coolness of the cavewaters.

Troi felt their emotions divert from curious to one of boredom once more and she laughed. And she looked down at a last tail glinting as it disappeared back into the dark cave mouth.

Dr. Crusher snuffed out her torch in the water and collected those from the others in the bright daylight.  
"Lost them already? That was fast."

"They're bored, we were a happy diversion. I get a sense they haven't seen people like us in a long time."  
Deanna answered back. "But now, we are leaving their territory."

The vacationing crew, all turned ahead after getting over their initial reaction to the stunning sight of a ring of waterfalls around them and faced forward to the high hung natural bridge just ahead of them.

The swift current was pulling them nearer and nearer to it. Dr. Crusher noticed something.  
"Hey, I think that bridge is moving. Chakotay does that bridgeway supposed to sway in the wind much?"

They could see the vine draped rope latticed bridge shudder and sag lower and lower as they got nearer.  
::Was it moving?:: Chakotay thought. ::I know depth perceptions are illusionary from light on water surfaces like heat mirages but is this that effect?::

Chakotay slowed his poling and he asked Spock and Barclay to let up a bit on paddling while he got a closer look from the bow. He ran with perfect balance,  
the length of the canoe jumping over his guests one by one until he was there.

The bridge was no longer moving in his better line of sight. He looked back at his companions.  
"Should be fine. It is breezy by the Creator's Tears base. Perhaps that's what we saw. We'll have to pass under it first to land on the beach but I think we still have clearance despite its low seeming overhead. Duck everyone."

The river swept the canoe closer to the bridge and just as they were passing under it, one side of the high bridge gave way in a rain of dust from its cliffside and it started falling ahead of them into the river with hideous sounds of vines snapping and rocks crumbling. "Chakotay! Look out!"  
Janeway shouted.

A tangled mass of rope bridge and boards crashed with a splash into the water only short meters ahead of them blocking the way.

Chakotay frantically tried to turn the canoe straight to hit the debris with just the front tip of the long craft but an eddy twisted the canoe lengthwise, and it collided heavily against the twisted wreckage, throwing everyone into the torrential straightwaters..

Everyone had the presence of mind to duck under water and dive far below to avoid getting pinned against the bridge while still upstream.

One by one heads popped up on the other side as all began to swim for the hut side of shore.

Chakotay began counting people.  
::Seven's there.. and....::

Janeway broke the surface, sodden but in control of herself and she too, swam out to the center of the river to watch for the others to make it up too. She saw that the laden canoe had tipped over but the current was rolling it in place right where it had dumped them.  
Their gear would be soaked but salvagable.

Byte, the silkie probe, had automatically switched the holograms off and back into itself the moment the canoe tipped and it was staying in the air over Mr. Spock's head as he swam in the current. "Is everyone all right?" the ambassador said.

Barclay was panicking, but Khan and K'Ehleyr held him both head and shoulders out of the water until he calmed down. Even Alexander had the frightened lieutenant by the hair.

Chakotay spun about in place in the water "Where's the others? "

Ardra, who was treading water near Janeway said.  
"Data's an android, he'll sink to the bottom and just walk out. Don't worry about him."

Captain Kirk suddenly appeared in a rapid from around the far side of the sinking bridge with Boothby, McCoy and Dr. Pel with her baby's basket on top of it.  
All four were hanging onto a fortuitous log.

Then Dr. Crusher shouted. "Deanna. I don't see Deanna anywhere..!"

"What?!"  
Chakotay, in a burst of strength, followed closely by Khan and Kirk, fought their way upstream back to the bridge tangle and they both clung to it, like bats, in the fast current, hanging on. "She might be still on the other side. If that current's pinned her between the bridge and the canoe!"  
Chakotay said.

Janeway said, "I'll get these others to shore.  
Go!" and she and Dr. Pel starting shoving the log buoying the elderly McCoy and Boothby and the baby to the safety of the river's bank.

K'Ehleyr, Seven and Alexander helped the floundering Reg drag himself onto a sand bar and there he collapsed, coughing.

Janeway, too, got on the bar, dragged herself to her feet and went running back towards the bend where the bridge had fallen to see if she could see anything. Dr. Crusher stumbled to Barclay to make sure he was fine medically.

Chakotay waved Kirk to head to the side of the bridge still hanging from its clifftop while he swam in the other direction. As one, they dove deep down, clinging to the ropes to see if they could see anything. Only a cloud of sand met his eyes as part of the bridge was dragged across the bottom of the riverbed as the current pulled it to one side of the channel.  
Then he saw a leg of black and grabbed it.

A white hand of equal strength gripped his shirt and he was suddenly face to face with a perfectly anchored Mr. Data standing on the bottom.

The android pointed up and Chakotay tore free a trailing rope anchored to the bridge which the much heavier Data could use to drag himself hand over back towards the top of the river's surface.

They both shouted as their head broke into the air. "Did you see Troi? She's missing!" Chakotay said over the roar of the waterfall just behind them.

"No. I did not!" Data replied.

Then a few seconds later, the powerful whitewater pounding around them almost drown out Kirk's shout. "She's over here! Hurry! I can't free her.."

"Where exactly?!" Khan said. "There's too much broken water to see."

On shore, Mr. Spock spoke a command to Byte which reactivated the four holograms and quickly, he told them what was happening. Holozimm and the EMH immediately winked out to a section of bridge still over the water.  
Gripping it vicariously, they began peering down in the water below.

The EMH frantically climbed down the loose ropes to near the water's surface.

It was only moments later when they both began to point straight down from where they were near Kirk's end of the tangled mass of bridge. " About five meters straight down! I don't think she's conscious anymore."

Kirk took a deep breath and dove down once more,  
back down to where he had seen the blue of Troi's tunic in the water. Data got to the spot and simply let go, letting his heavy mass carry him downward while he still hung onto the rope the commander had given him to use to escape the river. Chakotay grabbed his shoulder on the way down to take advantage of the fast sinking.

Soon, they were where Deanna lay still in the water.  
It looked like part of the collapsing bridge's suspension ropes had snared her about the neck and arms as she tried to dive down to avoid it. Her eyes were closed and she was limp in their arms.

Data quickly snapped each one until she floated free.  
Then Chakotay wrapped an arm about her and his second around Data and Data quickly hand crawled up the rope to the surface again.

Holozimm and the EMH were right there to grab the unconscious counselor from them until Data found firm footing on the bank and could finish carrying Troi to the sand bar where Reg and Dr. Crusher were located.

Janeway was still running to get there when they began efforts to revive Deanna.

The three doctors drained her lungs of water and only half a minute of assisted breathing was needed from the EMH to get her gasping at least, weakly.  
"Deanna Troi, do you hear me? You've got to try harder to breathe better."

Her face didn't lose its bluish cast.

The holodoc shifted around from her head and he then pushed out a lot of water manually from her filled stomach.

Soon the counselor vomited up more of the river onto the sand and it only took another few moments of mouth to mouth breathing from one of the other doctors to aid her until she was respiring normally once more on her own.

Troi began to fight them as consciousness returned."Easy,.. you're out. Just relax.. It's ok.." Dr. Pel encouraged. She had one eye on her baby's basket and the other on Troi.

Beverly spoke as she watched Deanna start to cough violently from where she sat checking Reg out. "You're going to be fine. Just stay on your side until you feel better Deanna. Dr. Pel. Is your baby--?"

"He's all right. Didn't even get wet. The collision threw his basket free." Bashir said.

Janeway knelt by them all just as Chakotay and Kirk got there too. She sighed in relief when she saw that Deanna was awake already.  
"She ok?"

"Yes." Dr. Crusher confirmed.

Janeway looked up. "Now that was d*mned peculiar. It was almost as if the d*mned bridge was TIMED to fall on us.. Tell me Chakotay. Don't your people inspect things once in a while to make sure things are safe?"

"They do. I can't explain what happened."

"I shall investigate..." Data said and he proceeded to climb the debris pile once more and back into the river's depths as he checked along it.

Mr. Barclay had gotten over his fright and he was now all helpful. "Deanna's going to be chilled.  
I'm going to go start a fire. I see Boothby and McCoy have already gotten the wood." and he left.

Deanna was trembling, despite the hot sun.

The holos and the men carried her seated to a warm rock out of the waterfall's mist and began to rub her arms and legs to warm them.

Moriarty had already gotten the anchor rope and dragged the canoe out of its marred place against the fallen bridge and he and Regina had secured it on the sand bar. He had dug around inside one sodden pack until he had found the medkit and medscanner from its front pocket. He had Regina bring them over to the doctors.

All four doctors snatched for it. But Beverly was fastest.

The countess saw that Deanna was shivering.  
"You're still cold, poor darling. I'm so sorry my skirts are holo or else I'd give you a layer or two of my petticoats for to you to change into.."

Troi tried to smile for Regina's benefit.

Chakotay had anticipated that. He had dashed to the huts just over the embankment and had found a warm woven blanket for her and a solid ankle length shift.

Dr. Crusher concluded her quick scan of her friend. "You've taken no permanent damage Deanna. This hypo will clear your chest further and ease that headache.  
Being without air for a bit is causing that.  
It'll only take a minute for us to treat you. Then we'll get you changed into these."  
she said, accepting the bundle of dry things from Chakotay.

"Okay.. *cough*" Troi sighed as the medication made the tickling pain in her chest ease and fade away. She didn't even see the others leave so the doctors could strip her out of her wet uniform and into the dry clothes. She felt the spicy scented blanket snuggle in around her and she felt suddenly sleepy. She suspected that Beverly had slipped something into the hypo to offset shock. She decided to close her eyes and rest. Sleep claimed her right away.

"Good. Shock won't come if she relaxes fully."  
Dr. Crusher said.

"Do we need to contact the outside and EVA her out to Starfleet Medical?" Janeway asked.

"She's been treated completely captain.  
In fact, it would be better if we don't move her far so she can recover more quickly from her ordeal." the holodoc specified. "Besides,  
why spoil the rest of her vacation with an unnecessary convalescence back at home? In a few hours, she'll be right as rain."

"The ceremonial huts are warm and very dry Captain. " Chakotay said. "There's food and beds and fresh water. I'm sure Ardra has a tunnel entrance nearby if we still need to evac Deanna out of here."

Janeway turned to Bev and Dr. Pel who both gave short statements that agreed with the holodoc's recommendation that all was well again. She nodded. "We'll stay here for the night."  
Then a nagging afterthought struck her. "Now where's Data. He's been down there a long time."  
A splash on the far side of the river attracted their attention and they could see Mr. Data walk up the far bank almost a quarter of a mile away from them and begin to climb up the snapped ropes still dangling on the cliffs there in the sunlight, still investigating the collapse. "Diligent. Isn't he?"

Beverly smiled broadly. "Back on the Enterprise D,  
Mr. Data was famous for being Sherlock Holmes on the holodeck. Drove Captain Picard crazy with his pipe obsession and mystery holoprograms for an entire month one year."

The captain knelt down by Deanna, grabbing an edge of her blanket. "Let's get her to some shelter.  
Her well being comes first. Then we'll dry out our packs and learn what Data has found out if he's discovered anything." Janeway ordered.

Six of the others each grabbed an edge and they got her to the fire McCoy and Boothby had going already inside one of the river lodges. Bones asked, "How's she doing?"

"One hundred percent cured doctor. She's just sedated now.." Dr. Pel said as they settled her into an immense plant woven hammock nearest the fire.

Bones snatched the medtricorder out of Bev's hands and did a reading of his own. "Give me that. Let me see for myself." At length he grunted.  
"Hmph...." and gave it back to them reluctantly.  
"Guess she IS fine after all. No EVA by the captains ordered?"

"Nope. The EMH convinced them otherwise."

This time Boothby grunted. "Hmph. Wild place you have here Mr. Chakotay. We could turn this Valley into an amusement park for kilos of credits.  
Dodge the Killer Bridge! Get ground to bits on the rocks from the Raging Waterfalls. If you make it,  
there's a free luau in the village on shore.."

"Very funny.." Chakotay said to Boothby, not amused.  
"I'd like to know what happened almost as bad as you do. It's not typical of the tribal custodians of this Valley to let anything built deteriorate into a dangerous condition."

Dr. Pel looked around "These huts are sound enough. Smells like the roof grasses were cut only a few days ago.."

"They were. Every three days, my father used to tell me.." Chakotay agreed.

"Well something has made a change for the worse around here and I want to know what it is.." Janeway replied.

No one had an answer for her.

--------------------

It was growing dark when Data returned with a flat board from one of those used to line the walkway on the bridge and a length of rope that had been shredded to such a narrow thickness that it was easy to see how the other suspension ropes had given way to cause that side of the bridge to collapse.  
He didn't have to say anything at all and simply held up the piece of board in the firelight for all to see.

Clear distinct, three furrowed marks marred the freshly cut teek. And a curiously stinking green slime covered the ropes.

Janeway blanched. "Oh, my god. Is that what I think it is?" she said as the smell coming from the chewed ropes burned her nose and made her want to gag.

Boothby grabbed the med scanner and scanned the debris in Data's grip. " Uh huh. I'm afraid so. I do not think that we're still alone in this Valley, captain. In fact, these markings show we had some very very big, uninvited guests nearby as recently as this afternoon when all our fun began. Their nonnucleated DNA are all over the pieces of this bridge."

Chakotay paled when he too recognized the territorial stench he was smelling. "But this is Earth.. What are they doing here?" he whispered in shock.

The Lady Regina blushed nervously and began waving herself with a holofan.. "Who, my dear friends, are they?"

"Let's just say our little bridge destroyers have four little numbers for their name and a big attitude to match."

"What?" the EMH startled in surprise, putting a very unpleasant two and two together.

Chakotay hissed, "Silence Boothby. That information's classified. No speculations to anyone is that clear?!" he ordered.

Right then, a huge roar filled the hut and the open side of the lodge leading out to the river and the rainforest filled with a shadow darker than the night. The holodoc nearly fell backwards as he looked up in horror at the sight.

In all their heads they heard it utter.  
##::The weak... shall perish.::##

-  
(attachments) :

Image: Boothby and Chakotay posing for a holopic.

Image: The Sacred Valley's huts in the Amazon rainforest.

Image: Denara Pel close serious.

Image: Dr. Crusher Riker and Data outside.

Image: Troi outside looking tense.

*animated gif* A colorful fish swimming back and forth.

Image : The holodoc being stalked by an 8472.

Image : Troi concerned, looking weepy.

Image: Crusher with long hair.

************************************************************* From: "Katherine Bird" .uk Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 23:19:21 +0100 (BST) Subject: [voyagerliveaction] Monster Bash- "Let's just say our little bridge destroyers have four little numbers for their name and a big attitude to match."

"What?" the EMH startled in surprise, putting a very unpleasant two and two together.

Chakotay hissed, "Silence Boothby. That information's classified. No speculations to anyone is that clear?!" he ordered.

Right then, a huge roar filled the hut and the open side of the lodge leading out to the river and the rainforest filled with a shadow darker than the night. The holodoc nearly fell backwards as he looked up in horror at the sight.

In all their heads they heard it utter.  
##::The weak... shall perish.::##

"Everybody away from the door!" Janeway shouted. ::I can't believe what I'm seeing:  
she thought. "Take Troi with you!" ::I don't believe this. No phasers. No commbadges. Just what are we expected to do here?.:: she thought angrily.

Next to him, Chakotay said, "Captain.  
Did you hear that? It spoke to us."

"I did." Captain Janeway held out her hands away from her body and so did everyone else, she glanced over her shoulder making minimal movements to make sure the others were safely putting space between themselves and their shocking visitor. "It's learned a few tricks. Wish the counselor were awake.  
We could use some choice impressions right about now."

"What is this species?" Data said,  
irrepressibly curious.

Boothby smiled lopsidedly, but even he was nervous. "Well I guess we can't hide it since its standing there in living 3D technicolor right in front of us.. That, my fine Enterprise android.... is an 8472.  
It eats the Borg for lunch."

Data took a step forward and the alien's head shot around to face him.

The 8472 crouched lower, eyeing the inside of the tribal hut, grumbling low in its throat, and flayed out displayed keep away talons at the holograms and android,  
halting them. But then it faced the flesh and blood individuals once more.

On their own volition, Holozimm, the EMH,  
Moriarty and Regina stood between the massive 8472 glaring at them from outside and the others.

Moriarty tried some Victorian bravado.  
"Back beast!"

The 8472 simply took a swipe at the hologram and Moriarty phased its hand right through himself. It did not try again.

"This one's intelligent.." Janeway said.  
"More advanced. But it's not attacking outright.  
Look at its talons and mouth. No scrapes or chipping. If this one was responsible for tipping that rope bridge on top of us I wouldn't believ--"

#The weak. Will perish!!# came the telepathic stab again into their minds. But then it looked out into the woods curiously away from those inside the hut and back again. It roared and then another roar from farther into the night rainforest, answered back that made the one they could see agitated and angry. But that anger swiftly softened once more when it turned back. The 8472 shifted its weight on its hind limbs and seemed to be waiting.

Chakotay had a strange feeling. "I think you're right about the lack of aggression Kathryn. Everybody, hold still and away from the fire. Make no hostile motions."

Slowly, all in the hut pressed against the back wall.  
Khan and K'Ehleyr held the unconscious Troi in their arms and they waited, keeping her warm.

Chakotay held out his hands wide from his body and slowly crouched to the earthen floor. He drew a finger in the sand there, drawing the shape of the hut, and pointed at the roof over themselves.  
Then he crafted an image of the 8472 and pointed at the visitor. Then he drew a wide circle around the hut and figure and a curving line coursing through it to represent the forest, and a broken angle to show the place of the fallen bridge in the river. Then he backed away from the tracing in the ground.

The 8472 seemed to have a hard time focusing and fighting its predatory instincts but its great head turned again and again downward as it tried to see the illustration Chakotay had made. It hissed and popped alarmingly, making Alexander cover his ears. It finally ducked the rest of the way into the hut nearer the fire to plant two forelimbs on either side of the sand picture. A yellow slimy tongue shot out and impacted a place far from the hut symbol and then a talon drew four more figures in the forest circle and connected them with the broken bridge image. Then it wiped the four new figures out with a palm and hissed loudly. Then it turned a head back to look outside.

#The weak shall ....# but its telepathic message was losing its effectiveness and more and more of the ominous growls and rumble and hisses grew ...and the rotten smell of its hide.

Alexander started to draw his boot knife but K'Ehleyr stopped him with a grip of her own.  
"Only to defend yourself..." she said quietly to him.

Chakotay looked at Khan from where he squatted,  
holding Deanna's shoulders. "Khan, did you bring my medicine bundle in here to dry? I'd like to try something."

Khan pointed to a basket near Chakotay's feet.

Slowly, without fast movement, the first officer retrieved and unwrapped the bundle of deer skin and he sat. He showed the 8472 each object in turn and then to his own forehead. When his hand hovered over the akoonah the 8472 suddenly hissed loudly and made a half lunge at Chakotay, gnashing its teeth and tail.

"All right. No sudden moves on my end." he said to it,  
and looking up at the 8472. "We're just trying to open the lines of communication again here. We seemed to have lost your version of it. This... is a trance inducer.." he said, pointing to the akoonah device lying in front of him. "With it, we both might reach some common ground." and he took a risk, slipping his fingers into the touch pads gently.

"Gotta hand it to the commander.." K'Ehleyr said.  
"I wouldn't have thought talking was the way to go here." she said cryptically.

The 8472 looked up at the Klingon human ambassador and hissed again, making another swipe, but there was no strength behind it this time. Its insectoid eyes were still on Chakotay.

"I'd take that as a hushing, ambassador.." McCoy whispered.

The 8472 settled when Chakotay closed his eyes.

"Want me to join in?" Janeway asked.

"No. One is enough. I'm not Betazoid but I do know my way around mental communication. I'm the best one to try this. For I'm sure our very large friend won't appreciate Mr. Spock's hands on, mind meld approach.."

"Just don't irritate it.." Barclay said, quivering.

"Unlikely, since we are all still alive lieutenant."  
Seven of Nine said to Reg.

At the sound of her voice the 8472 leaped backward and sniffed the air in Seven's direction. # A Souless One? Where is it? Give it to me...#

"Oh, no...." Janeway admonished. "Chakotay,  
do what you have to do before it finds out more about Seven's origins. Quickly."

Chakotay again closed his eyes and the akoonah hummed in the firelight.

The 8472 blinked almost painfully and swatted at its own face and head, as if swiping away an irritating noise. It shook its head and roared again, this time spinning around.. Its tail took out a hut pole and part of the roof caved in, opening the hut to the night sky. It gave a whistling challenge upwards when it saw the moon.  
Janeway had the distinct impression of a wolf howling at the moon, when Chakotay gasped. She shook his shoulder and he fell over, catching his balance.  
"I can't get into trance. Something's blocking me.."

"Give it up then. And move away. Its deciding to do some interior home decorating.." Janeway said.

Chakotay joined his captain with the others on the back wall.

Kirk spoke up. "I don't suppose you two know any other option to try... I'm only good with Alpha Quadrant species." he quipped trying to lighten the tense moment.

Then a very humanoid voice filled the night from outside and came through the door. "Down. Bad boy. Badddd... Get! Shoo! Get away and make room for me you oversized stinking insect. I'll let them know FOR you.."

Janeway's face filled with surprise when she recognized the feminine voice. "That's...."

A woman in a regular yellow Voyager uniform carrying a phaser rifle entered the hut.  
"Lt. B'Elanna Torres. " and she grinned, setting a hand on the weaving hissing 8472's leg as she shoved it outside and out of her way.  
"Reporting for ....er...well vacation, captain.  
Heard where you all went and decided to see Chuckles family home for myself. Nice valley Chakotay. Feels like one of my battle holosimm programs.."

The EMH said. "You mean. This monster isn't going to attack and kill us?"

Torres blinked, shutting off the power to her weapon and casually striding over to the fire to have a seat and to check out what food and tea was warming there. "Nope. Well. At least... not you guys. .Can't say the same for Seven though.." and she scratched her head at a miscreant mosquito bite. "It's really hard to fight native instincts, you know what I mean?  
But... Seven's mostly human now so if she keeps her distance and stays downwind of the big guy.  
She'll be fine.."

B'Elanna noticed Janeway's scowl at being left in the dark about how an 8472 got to be her traveling companion and Chakotay's tight grin for the same thing and her violating his tribal laws by bringing in high tech electronics into the Sacred Valley. "Sorry commander. But it's off now. I'll tell you why I needed the riflecannon.."

then Torres spied Counselor Troi, laying limp by Khan and K'Ehleyr.. "Oh, no.. the counselor.. Is she ok? The Big guy didn't hurt her, did he?"

The EMH said, "She was hurt this afternoon.  
Near drowning. Fully treated. A good rest and she'll be fine..Now, don't keep us in suspense..." he snapped.

Janeway started smiling, finally believing that any current dangers, weren't forthcoming.

"Ok, ok. " she said waving selfconsciously. "Maams,  
you're new." she said to the Countess Regina and Ardra,standing all frightened behind Moriarty's shoulder.  
"Hi.." and she turned back to her co- crew."It goes like this..."

"Perhaps I can explain better Lt....." said a friendly, warm timbre that the Voyager people knew very well."Uh, oh hi captain, Seven, Commander and the good doctor. Nice to see you." said Neelix.  
He looked just about the same as he had when he disembarked Voyager to stay on colony.  
"You see, it goes like this.. as Torres had started to say. I was minding my own business with the family, raising little tyke and tykette and the Missus. I should show you their holos, pictures are worth a thousand words... Want to see them?"

"Not now Neelix.." Janeway said. "You were saying..."  
she prompted when his ultra friendly grin seemed to fill him up into immobility.

"oh uh uh, yes. Quite right. Onto the reason why Lt. Torres and I were here.  
Well, uh first thing that came up was that I heard there was a Great Fire at Starfleet.. And you know how I feel about Plasma Cascade effects. So I came by to see if I could help. Didn't think the old Queen Borg Conduit would be so slow five years after you defeated it and shut down its power source. Congratulations on your getting home,  
by the way.. heh heh heh."  
"I'm getting to that, and I assure you. The reason for B'Elanna violating the historical valley weapons protocol is fully authorized by Starfleet. Eh.. See?"  
and Neelix handed Janeway a simple paper scroll with the facts outlining it. "..Sorry for the paper,  
but I didn't have to make matters worse by bringing a datapadd here into Chakotay's Valley too.  
It seems the short day while you've all been gone from Headquarters, Uhura and Chapel have been recalled. Seems without the Guardian of Forever's temporal grace that their being out of time was a no no once again."

Lt. Torres smiled. "So Tom volunteered to take the Delta Flier to Project Pathfinder and the Argus Array so the next available starship could take them on board to slingshot around a star to take them home again ASAP." she said matter of factly.

"Neelix..." Chakotay groaned. "Now why would Starfleet only send home some of our temporal guests from the Guardian.."

"uh,...well..." Neelix purred. "uh.. Perhaps because the others are really ....dead? Doesn't matter if they die now or later, does it?"

"That was tactful.." Holozimm said, Glancing at K'Ehleyr, Lt. Yar, Khan and Kirk. "About our alien friend here? He's a Delta Quadrant inhabitant if I've studied my holovids properly.."

"Tom wants to stay at home with Miral for at least a little while and I got the job of handling this little matter.." and she pointed to the grumbling growling 8472 pacing just outside the hut. It was so tall its head was seen through the hole it had made through the grass roof above them all.  
The moonlight did nothing to hide its sheer ugliness. "Which..." Torres continued.."I was ordered to dump on YOUR lap Mrs Federation Ambassador...." she said to K'Ehleyr. So.  
here's your problem in a nutshell."

"I'm all ears.." K'Ehleyr said.

"The big guy out there is actually a bounty hunter after four renegades of his own people who've still an axe to grind with the Federation for rousting out that covert secret shape shifting base of theirs. Remember that event Chakotay? That's when you actually kissed one of those things and didn't know who you were kissing.." she said straight faced. For about two seconds until she started to laugh. "Well those four Big Guy drew in the sand are the last four ones from that station who escaped just before Voyager blew it up. Those 8472 came to hide on Earth before launching a counter move to cause similar damage to the REAL Starfleet in revenge for the illusionary conditioning they had to suffer under their superiors when they could have been joining the greater war effort against the Borg.." B'Elanna rolled apologetic eyes to Seven. "Sorry Seven." then she turned back to the others. "Where else could 8472 "rebels" hide except in one of the most remote places on Earth.."

"My Valley.." Chakotay said with discovery.

"Yes, well, it seems that these rebel criminals of his.."  
Janeway said, brushing falling grass off of her head as another inadvertant tail swipe sent more roofing down on top of them. "...targetted us this afternoon by taking out a suspension bridge right in front of our canoe.."

B'Elanna paled. "I had no idea things were that bad. Starfleet told us that the four 8472 signatures were thus far staying away from rainforest population people. Resistance with negotiations with Chakotay's tribe of non intervention on Native Territory is the only thing keeping Starfleet from coming in here with a full fleet of starships.." She held up a hand offsetting any defensive comment from Chakotay about that." But... Starfleet did authorize him" and she pointed to the Big One.  
".. to come as a compromise.... to hunt down his own people.  
Tom simply dropped him off to meet me and we hiked in. The gun, was my idea.."  
she said. "So if you're going to press charges for violating local edict, Commander. I'm the only one to blame."

Neelix suddenly kicked into morale officer mode,  
feeling uncomfortable in the uneasy air surrounding everyone. "eh, now you all discuss this over tea... Uh, I'll make more... if that's ok to use your supplies Chakotay.."

He nodded, distractedly.

"....good. uh, I'll go shuffle our friend out here to the river.. " and he slipped outside with many abeasances as he left them inside the hut. They all heard Neelix's voice clearly over the night bugs. "Hey.. yes.. it's me.. Remember me? No, I'm down here, Under all four of your feet. Now don't eat me.  
I'm a not Borg. Yes, go ahead and sniff me. Now go to the river, over there. No, to your right. No, your other right.. Yes, let's go. You're upsetting my friends by knocking their house down. And there's an injured female sleeping in there. No don't go look for her.  
She's fine. You're here to help only the rebel 8472.  
No, the river's deep enough. Go for a swim out there and I guarantee it will feel just like Fluidic Space.  
Even more so in daylight. It'll be hot then. Now go. No eating the local dolphins. Just the fish.  
Another people rule. Got that? Good. Now I'm going back into the grass lump thing as you call it. Stay.  
stay.. Be a good boy.."

Neelix returned into the hut and when he had, almost everyone had a smile on their faces, or at least,  
relieved ones. Even Barclay managed to avoid a faint.  
Neelix was a bit sandy and one leg was wet, but he was otherwise, still unclawed. "Heh. I have a way with the 8472. I trade with them sometimes. Helps that Kes taught me a few mind talking tricks before she left. Commander," he said to Chakotay. "I'd advise you to avoid communing with the big fellow using a Spirit world trance next time? Nothing ticks off an 8472 more than someone imitating telepathic abilities when they don't actually have them. It's only because he's such a forgivable example of his species that you're off the hook for angering him."

Torres sighed when Janeway turned to her and demanded the Phaser rifle. She turned it in reluctantly. "Man, it's tough being surrounded by the enemy who can shapeshift into anyone without a good weapon nearby. Say, Chakotay,  
is it still in the rules for me to go out and carve myself a Bat'leth out of ironwood like you guys did that canoe out there?"

But before he could answer Torres, Neelix sputtered from around his tea cup and lost his sipped mouthful from where he sat by the fire.  
"Land sakes alive, I'm seeing double! Am I really seeing two of you doctor?"

Both the EMH and Holozimm looked at each other and sighed. It was going to be a very long night.

Outside, Big Guy began to roar, and in the distance,  
shiveringly, four echoes that weren't echoes...answered its challenge.

"Uh oh,..... does anyone around here have a very big leash handy?" B'Elanna said. "Tonight, we're gonna need one."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Janeway getting a headache while Neelix burns dinner while not getting around to the point of his conversation as usual.

Image: B'Elanna seriously talking with Chakotay.

Image: The great hulking bulk of an 8472 looking at you.

***********************************************

From :"Clairissa Fox" Subject :Cause its dark now outside Date : Mon, 12 Aug 2002 06:15:02 +0000

Outside, Big Guy began to roar, and in the distance,  
shiveringly, four echoes that weren't echoes...answered its challenge.

"Uh oh,..... does anyone around here have a very big leash handy?" B'Elanna said. "Tonight, we're gonna need one."

I started laughing and laughing and I looked at the big monster outside as his big feet got angrier and angrier that he wasnt being allowed to go after the bad monsters.  
So I said to Belanna. We have plenty of rope. We had that bridge fall on our canoe remember? Ill go get some.

And I ran outside before any of the grownups could stop me. I knew it was ok. Because mum knew I was good in jungles cause I fought in hollow ones all the time.  
I ran by and jumped on the monsters toes to make him stop looking out into the trees instead of minding Nelix.  
Hey. You overgrown rootball! A deals a deal. You cant go get the bad guys until everybody else does. Now behave. Be good or theyre gonna put a leash on you.  
I heard them talking about it.

The cop monster slobbered all over the ground and he roared real loud at my face when he saw that it was me who stomped on him. But I held my place.  
You dont scare me. Im just a child but Im a Klingon!  
And Klingons dont get scared. I know you are all bluffing because of the deal you made with Starfleet to be here on Earth. If you want any of my help with your problem later on youre going to have to keep minding my friend Mr Nelix. Or else!!

And I whipped out my boot knife and held it up against one of the monsters claws until a spark flew out. Anytime stinky. I said to his gnarly puss.  
The monster seemed to calm down after that and not seem so itchy to get after the other ones.  
He blinked at me a few times and then looked up at the door to the grass house where Nelix and the others were and then down at me. It snorted and then fell silent, turning around so it could lie down in the grass. Hey youre just like a Targ!  
I mean a nice one. One with brains and who could build a ship. You are a sheriff arent you? I remember them. My dad Worf and I played sheriff once on the hollow deck. And you are with us, and I pointed to the house again that was glowing by the fire, who are your posse. Got that? Ok. See you in the morning.  
First light partner.  
And I put away my knife and grabbed both hands onto its talon and shook it. Glad to have you on my side. Youre ok for being so stinky. And I left him outside.

Mum mum. Its ok. Belana wont need the lead to tie up the monster. I talked with him and told him how things were going to be I said running back into the hut.

I wasnt even tired. But Mr. Barkly was. He mustve been a scaredy cat again. Aw Reg. The monsters ok. Hes just doing an unfun job by coming here out of the pink space and working with us on Earth just to get the bad guy monsters back. He may even have to kill them!

Reginald regarded the tiny boy in front of him with one eye while the other one stayed on the bulk of the Species 8472 blocking the hut exit. "Uh, is he? is he?"

Yeah, hes lying down and going to sleep. I told him to. You should to. Then youll feel better like Deana Troy is doing.

I watched Mr Barkly say goodnight to the others and Captain Janeway and I glared at him until he phasebrushed his teeth first.  
Then I let him lie down. As soon as I knew Reg was napping I snuck down to Bootby.

Bootby! Bootby! We have to find those other bad guys! They can turn into anybody and wed never know it.

"Son. 8472 can change shape for only so long. A few hours at the most. Commander Chakotay said so in his report to Starfleet.  
And since we're all together in this hut, all where we can see each other, we know that none of us in this hut is a renegade 8472.  
Its been five hours since we all arrived in the hut with the counselor and 8472 persona shells can only hold three at best." the wise caretaker said.

Oh. ok. Just making sure. Im a warrior remember?  
I have to look out for my shipmates even if we are in the middle of the Amazon jungle.

"I know that boy. Carry on." said Boothby, saluting Alexander.

I will sir.

Next I went over to the hollow doctor and the dandy.  
Doctor! Morearty! Is Troy going to be ok? I know drowning is scary. I got some water in my chest once and I got real frightened. I coughed for two days!

"Alexander. The counselor is resting soundly. That diuretic hypospray we gave her is getting that extra liquid out of her lungs. She'll be fine by dawn."  
the EMH replied dispelling the tiny boy's frown.

Oh. Thats right. You got air in her real quick so not that much got in there.

Moriarty blinked in surprised at the memory of the event. "I've never seen anyone return from the dead after a submersion. Tell me doctor. It is because you are an independent hologram that you had such powers of healing to save her?"

The EMH smiled. "No. Anyone, er ..anyone and any constructed hologram or tactical android can resusitate someone in need of it.. Its a simple emergency medical technique. But I keep forgetting. You and the Countess Regina are fashioned on an eighteenth century cultural human template. You wouldnt know about such a thing. Well won't hurt to break at least some of your limitations for later. You're both going to be my first students in my first aid seminar at the Academy. Remind me to book you."

The Lady Regina just caught on to the subject. "You mean the doctor was causing a wind into her body with his mouth and they weren't kissing?"

I laughed at that. Cause she had it right.  
Thats what resus stuff looked like if you didnt know better. Mum slapped my arm for being human rude.

So I decided to make sure the fire was good and warm for Troy instead. When I was leaning over to get more logs on it I saw Ardra trying to get out of the door.  
Hey. You. Get back here. No one said you could leave. Sure the warden let you out for a while from the tunnels but that doesnt mean you can leave us while youre up here in the forest.

Ardra waved a hand shushing the boy but Moriarty noticed. "Ardra? Going someplace? Seems it's going to be nowhere fast." and he snapped his fingers until Yar looked up and he pointed to the dark dressed ex-con.

Ardra sighed when the whole room looked up. "I was just going to reliev--"

"Relieve yourself of annoying shaperones you mean.." Boothby said. "Nice work son.." he said to Alexander. "Keep that up and your father's going to be real proud when he gets the report of events unfolding here. Ardra. If its really your excuse, attend to it over there. You'll find a hole behind a curtain."

Grumbling, Ardra returned to her stool by the fire. Every so often she glared at Alexander.

I glared back. Real hard. Now that was odd.  
Why did the devil lady want to leave us?  
It would be breaking her jail rules. I saw that mum hadnt missed a thing. If anyone knew Ardra was up to funny business it would be her. I won the staring contest because Ardra looked down slapping at a toothed airbug.  
I stuck out my tongue at her and smiled.  
I won. I said to her without speaking. I knew she saw my words on my lips.

Then I had an idea. Uh oh. So I said it out loud so everybody could hear me. We arent ok with those four 8472 in the forest. They want to get to Starfleet to wreck it right?  
I saw Chakotys eyeline hair go up in surprise.  
"That's the theory Torres guesses anyway."

Well whats to keep them from going into Ardras tunnels and using a beam out to get there? All the bad monsters would have to do is find a groundlift.

I saw Captain Kirk look up from her stew. "The boy's right. We are thinking two dimensionally."

"A mistake I did once.." Khan said nodding in agreement.

Captain Janeway got up on her feet and glanced down reluctantly at the sleeping Troi. "Rest period's over. And it looks like the hunt can't wait."

"Us against them Kathryn? In the dark?"

"You know this valley Chakotay. The darkness might even be an advantage to us. Who knows how well 8472 do in minimal visible light conditions."

"Purely supposition." he countered. "In here, we're safe. Together."

"Oh really.. Just look at that ceiling and tell me that. Seems our very large friend had no trouble being the big bad wolf a bit ago."  
she countered.

Chakotay sighed, saying nothing.

I didnt mean to make the captains and everybody all worried. It just happened that way. Usually I dont get the good ideas and only the bad ones and then I get into trouble.

I know! I know! Let Mr Spock brain talk to Cop Monster out there. Then we can find out how the 8472 really are with their bodies on Earth. Maybe the trees are so stinky to them theyd never smell us coming. Were already so humanlike that they cant feel us coming inside their heads.

Neelix sighed. "Oh Big Guy can."

Thats only if hes trying to listen Nelix I told him. The rest of the time the only person he hears that way is you and thats only because Kess taught you how first.

"Smart boy.." Moriarty admitted. "Tell me Mr. Data. Are all Klingons this intelligent at so young an age?"

I heard mum grumble with pride. But then I added more. They wont be able to hear us coming because there are so many waterfalls out there dumping their water into the big river.

Boothby began ticking off points in his fingers. "Can't see us, Can't tele-sense us,  
Can't hear us, can't smell.... " he looked up very serious. "Bundle up the Counselor Data. It looks like we're all going recon."

Goody! We get to go into the forest and hunt those bad monsters down! And there wasnt much time to do it neither. A few hours and the sun would be up again.

I had to see if we could stop them all before they found the Underground Places. I had to see, I had to see for me.

-  
(attachments)  
Image: An 8472 medshot, in the dark.

Gif: A lcars display shuttle's system priority.

Image: Alexander with a knife.

Image: Holo Countess Regina Bartholemew.

Gif: Earthrise over water, seemingly floating.

*  
From :"Cory Anda" Subject : [voyagerliveaction ]The Violation .... Date : Tue, 13 Aug 2002 09:41:32 +0000

This is a tandem post between "Cory Anda"  
and "Jeff Seltun"  
via email tag writing over the course of twenty four hours.

MAIN characters involved

Data Seven of Nine Spock Barclay

FREEuse characters

Janeway Chakotay The EMH The good 8472 Holozimm Dr. Pel Ardra Boothby

Other MAINS used by the rules one sentence only, body language after that.

Boothby began ticking off points in his fingers. "Can't see us, Can't tele-sense us,  
Can't hear us, can't smell.... " he looked up very serious. "Bundle up the Counselor Data. It looks like we're all going recon."

"Wait just one minute here.." said the EMH.  
"Are you trying to tell me that not only are we not allowed to use that phaser cannon, we have to go after four renegade 8472 barehanded,  
and then face them off?"

Janeway walked up to the holodoc and admonished him, holding up a finger in his face.  
"No one's going to risk any lives here doctor. Get that straight. No captain here will allow ANYone to be jeopardized or to jeopardize themselves unnecessarily. But know what we're dealing with here. Those 8472 know Starfleet Headquarters inside and out perfectly. I know. I saw their recreations of it. They were perfect. Once in, then they'll be able to mimick anybody. Just picture what they could do with an opportunity like that. " she began to pace the hut while she waved Dr. Pel over to examine Troi once more to make sure she'd be all right to be carried by Data. "Oh no, doctor. We can't risk not handling it ourselves. If Chakotay's tribe is holding Starfleet heads at bay,  
we're going to have to respect that. And deal with this problem according to their rules of no high end valley is their sovereign territory. Only a Valley native can grant use of any."

Everyone looked at Chakotay when the holodoc asked. "Is this true?"

"Don't look at me.." he grinned. "I've been away from home for twenty years. It's not like I'm on the Tribal council to suddenly change the rules in the blink of an eye."

"That's all it'll take commander. " Said Seven of Nine. "A blink of an eye." and she stood from her place to watch the hunterscout 8472 shuffle in the dirt outside the hut. She made sure she did not get too near it. "Species 8472 is resourceful. And cunning. Their intelligence is not to be underestimated. Alexander is correct in thinking that these rebels are out of their natural element. Their being out of Fluidic Space is just as foreign to them as it is for us to be underwater with no air. But, if they find an advantage to launch an attack on Starfleet from the jungle,  
they will press it in moments. No hesitations despite any physical handicaps."

Janeway frowned at Neelix. "Neelix. Your big friend seems oriented enough to our atmospheric environment, how did he become acclimated so well?"

Neelix looked up from where Alexander was showing him the mother tribble from McCoy's satchel. "Oh, uh, he was one of the supervisory acclimators who helped the worker infiltrators get used to the conditions of the starbase fascimile." he said, the grin he wore for the boy's sake fading into one of attentive seriousness.

"So he's had experience baking in our sun and wallowing in our thin air. " Chakotay said.  
"Makes sense for the leaders of Fluidic Space to send in a faction head."

Ardra stood finally getting involved in the conversation. "If you're all through being suspicious of my motives above ground.  
Let me add my two credits worth." and she clacked her tongue indignantly.  
"Don't worry about them. Alien world,  
alien atmosphere and one thing that they'd never suspect. Solid ground. You can't tell me a being used to being surrounded by pulsing pink fluid is going to understand the concept of solid matter. Not by a long shot. YOU folks didn't even know about the tunnels until I made myself known to you." and she rolled her eyes up sarcastically.  
"So what makes you think that these things will learn about them any easier."

Seven of Nine turned to face Ardra.  
"They may not know about atmosphere/earth interfaces but they do know how to destroy whole planets. They have a phased energy star cluster web they use with their bioships to shatter them."

"So they're used to kicking a rock in the road. A lot different when you're just a tiny speck on the rock itself. Loosen up Seven. There are no bioships here, or the local security starships up there out of tribal territory would have already found them." Ardra concluded.

Data was watching Dr. Pel examine the sleeping Troi. He spoke softly as he gathered up Deanna into his arms for the hunt, to the others.  
so as not to disturb her."Be that as it may. Gravity is encouraging those 8472 to look and feel the pull downwards. They may find that fortuitous hole yet, Ardra. Then where would we be?"

"I'd hate to speculate.." Barclay said.

"Let's get going. Looks like vacation is over.  
Doctor.. Keep me posted on Deanna's biosigns.  
I want to know the moment she awakens."  
Janeway ordered.

"Aye captain.." the holodoc said.

The troubled group packed light, bringing only the essentials to navigate the dark rainforest.  
Food. Water. And a way to shed unexpected rain.

Holozimm helped Mr. Data wrap the blanket around Counselor Troi cradled in Data's arms.  
"Why don't you just take her down into a tunnel and have her beamed out captain?"

Chakotay replied. "Because 8472 are telepathic.  
I don't care how good the intentions of Neelix's scaley foxhound is. If he sees us access a tunnel,  
that impression may transmit to the other rebel 8472 even against his wishing it. So we can't take that risk. The doctor here says Troi's been fully treated so she's in no danger for moving." and he positioned himself looking out the door of the grass hut to see into the moonlit forest.

Lt. Barclay watched as Data took a position in the middle of the crew's line getting set to depart.  
He regarded the android with his burden.  
"If..if you get tired, Data. I'd ..I'll take care of her."

Data angled his head and gave an approximation of a gentle negative. "I am much stronger than you Reg.  
The counselor's light mass is no effort for me to carry." and he saw that Kirk and Khan were following the exVoyager command pair cautiously leaving the shelter of the hut. "Perhaps you could put out the campfire." the android added.

"Oh.. uh right. Mr. D- Data.. I'll do that."  
Barclay said as Data and Deanna left through the door.

His lost wistful expression caught Beverly's eye. "Reg, don't worry about Deanna because there's four doctors here to watch over her for you." and she gave him a brief hug from behind and kissed his cheek affectionately.

Barclay blushed and smiled and studied the dirt floor as both Enterprise doctors, the EMH and Bashir, exited.

He was the last to leave the lodge.

Soon, K'Ehleyr and Alexander were in the lead ahead of the rest of the Starfleet party, just behind the hunting 8472. Chakotay gave a silent hand signal to Spock and Kirk to take people and fan out into three groups to stalk silently parallel, while the 8472 tracked its rebel counterparts. One hologram remained with each group to serve as a target should any group be ambushed by a renegade 8472 leaping out of the foliage.

They were about two hours into the hunt when K'Ehleyr held up a hand as a coppery scent filled her nose from just ahead.

The giant 8472 hissed low in its throat and it lashed its tail in distress and agitation when he looked down into what it had strode into.

K'Ehleyr grabbed either side of Alexander's head in between her palms until she had her son's full attention. "Alexander, don't be afraid of what we're going to face in the next clearing for it will be hard to take."

"I am ready mother." Alexander said calmly.  
Then he gasped when the strange cloying scent caught in his nostrils too. He only slightly shivered.

The EMH still had out his medtricorder on passive scan, pointed at Deanna as par orders when it bleeped a new tone of query, and he aimed it away from her when he saw how the others were reacting.

Dr. Pel, next to him, studied the screen and made a daytime parrot noise out of place in the night chorus of insects and frogs and soon, Chakotay and the two captains with the others soon gathered at her prearranged signal.

"What is it?" Kirk asked the Vidiian doctor.

Dr. Pel replied. "I'm reading high levels of....nitrogenase compounds, curiously enough. In that clearing ahead." she said in puzzlement.

Then Ardra noted the tense stance of K'Ehleyr and Alexander. "Look over there at them,.. all.  
I've seen Klingons flare their nose like that before. Worf did it once. At something dead."

Reg's eyes got really big, and so did Alexander's.

But Janeway's face didn't register fear openly.  
"Report doctor.."

The EMH switched frequency to a longer distance scan and he swallowed hard in his throat.  
"I'm still getting details.. captain. A moment.." he whispered. Then he took the few metered strides forward until he was on a level with the distressed 8472. Then he looked down and gasped. He turned back to the others.  
"Hold still!" he warned them. "Don't come any nearer.."

"What's wrong?" Regina asked.

"Shhh,, pet, they'll tell us soon enough.."  
Moriarty said. "Steel yourself love. This doesn't sound pleasant."

The EMH said. "I've just put two and two together." he said, strain in his voice's modulation. He looked up at Janeway.  
"I remember protein signatures such as these a long time ago,... in Ensign Harry Kim. After he'd been bitten. By an 8472."

Janeway squinted at the holodoc in shivering association. "He was almost eaten alive by 8472 biocells. An infection."  
she said.

"Yes.." the EMH replied. "Look all around you.  
See what looks like orange mildew on all the foliage and on this path?"

The 8472 began to keen in mortification.  
And a bright spurt of telepathy reached all of them. ##Killed. All killed.##

Chakotay watched Kathryn growing pale,  
from where she stood away from it, not three steps away from the nearest edge of mush.

The holdoc continued, swallowing uncomfortably.  
"I'm reading the remnant biotraces of at least eighteen humans. All mostly consumed by 8472 infection. And those biocells are still actively looking for more human tissue to dissolve. Don't touch anything around us."

"I'm finding Aztec DNA.." Moriarty said,  
reading what Byte, the silkie probe was showing him in his link with it. He looked down at one lump and in his horror, the holoman accidently knocked it over.

The object the human slurry was covering,  
fell over with a hollow thud. It was a drum.

"My workers..." Ardra said in angry reaction.

"Ugh..h.." Barclay gasped. "We're stepping in people?" His face grew even paler than Janeway's.

McCoy grabbed his arm in a tight grip, holding him upright and he already had out a smelling salt under Reg's nose from his ample jacket pocket.. "Stay on your feet son and no fainting, for Data can only carry ONE at a time."

"That's not exactly true doctor.." Data amended.

"Shh." Dr. Pel said to him, sotto voce, "Don't you see McCoy's using pyschology to get the lieutenant to deal with his fright effectively?"

"Oh.." Data said. Then he whispered back to Denara.  
"Now I do. Perhaps I can learn more about that particular move from the counselor when she recovers consciousness."

Khan was aware of the smell of blood filling the air that surrounded him. It cause a flashback of the endless moments when he saw his crew fall about him on the Reliant. ::I was splattered with their blood.:: And of another more painful one, when the Ceti Eel finally crushed his beloved Marla's cerebellum and she began to bleed from her eyes and ears and nose and mouth all the while pleading with him to make her death come more swiftly... ::Hers too. All of them are... dead...Because of Kirk..:: while he tried in vain to stop it. He grimaced in disgust even as he hid his own reaction. "We must end this carnage I did not know these creatures acted without the honorable conducts of war."

"Well now you do.." B'Elanna said.

Dr. Bashir was studying the direction of the gory trails of remains. "These stains are in a circle around....around...over there.."  
and he pointed to a large decaying stump that was curiously clear of any fungus or mushrooms. The moon's glow glinted off a glowing metal edge in its heart.

"Oh, no.." Holozimm said.

The tracking 8472 by Neelix suddenly screeched in discovery when it, too found the stump, which suddenly holodissolved at the slightest touch of its claws..

"They've discovered the access portal into the tunnels."  
Ambassador Spock said.

At that, Janeway's cautious posturing fled.  
She strode over to the pack that Moriarty was carrying and pulled out the phaser cannon,  
and activated it. It's power indicator began to glow yellow and it began to emit a low pulsing hum.

"Stay where you are!! The rest of you can't cross this clearing! The bioinfection cells are everywhere." the EMH shouted.

"Are they impervious to heat?" Janeway asked without expression.

"Well, no.. but.."

"Stand aside... both of you.. " she warned the EMH and the morally conscienced, writhing 8472.

"Kathryn! You can't violate my Tribe's sovereignty.  
They won't allow it.."

"They aren't here.." she said. "And these were lives.  
Chakotay. Lives on Earth that were slaughtered like sheep. In a minute we will no longer be in your precious Valley, so it won't matter much if this phaser fires, or not.."

The 8472 had barely managed to leap aside of the stump illusion when Janeway let loose a rein of green fire that seared leaf and twig, two meters wide from where she stood to the edge of the metal lift where the stump had been. She kept the pure hot energy's beam on the lift until it began to glow orange in protest. Then she lifted her finger from the trigger. "There doctor.  
Sterilized enough for you?"

"Plenty. Just let me check to be sure." he said.

They had to wait a full half hour for the medtricorder to confirm that the biocells in the clearing were all destroyed. So too were the denuded corpses of the indigenous innocent Aztecs who had happened to come to the surface in the wrong place and at the wrong time. Their wait included time for the titanium to cool enough to not burn their feet when they stood finally, to descend, on the turbolift platform.

By then, the sun had risen through the mists of the surrounding waterfalls.  
::It's daybreak. My first Valley morning.  
And this was supposed to be a dawn spent in celebration with the Spirit Guides:  
The many falls illusion of peace made Chakotay's heart ache and he longed to be the way he was just one short night before;  
contented and at one with himself and where he stood in the world. ::Now.I am a Starfleet Commander again.  
And I am at war with a race I thought I had left sixty thousand light years behind.::

Janeway's mind was still in a fog, one nowhere near as beautiful as that coming from the rainforest around her when she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder. Janeway looked up. It was Boothby.  
"It's still not easy Miss Janeway, is it?"

"What isn't?" she said picking blades of grass with one hand and tossing them away,  
fidgetting impatiently. She was watching the soaring metal temperatures on the lift slowly drop to safety levels on the doctor's tricorder.  
The other hand was resting on the humming gun in her lap.  
"Getting there too late?" and she drily chuckled a humourless laugh.  
"Hmph. Believe me Boothby. I've been late like this far more than you realize.  
There's thirty seven crewman from my old crew who'll likely point fingers at me at St. Peter's Gate for doing just that. They died for me.." she said hollowly. "Because I let them down and betrayed them."

Boothby said nothing for a time, watching Janeway's eyes fill. Then he sat next to her and leaned in nose to nose with her.

"And there's that self destructive pity pit showing again. Chakotay said you fell into this then, something fierce, in the Void.  
Tell me ..captain.." he said passionlessly.  
"Did getting drunk and starving yourself alone in your cabin for that entire month back then ever make you feel better about your being the one responsible for stranding yourself and your crew in the Delta Quadrant?"

That remark made Kathryn's mouth thin and the phaser rifle lift, slightly, from her lap. With visible effort, Janeway relaxed her grip and expression little by little. "Let me tell you this once and this once only. I am far from that self righteous conceited little plebe you once shaped, tested, poked and punished into someone who was fit to wear these four shiny pips on this collar." she met Boothby's eyes evenly and without malice. But her hand did grip Boothby's shirt. "I...will not ..be prodded that way anymore. I am a seasoned ...veteran captain who knows full well the weight of the responsibilities resting on my shoulders.. So back...off."

Boothby grinned toothily and held up two hands in surrender, smiling. "Oops.  
Seems I forgot how quickly you humans mature. Your thirty years seems like just a week in my book." he grunted. "All right. Have it your way. I'll stop trying to knock you off that high and mighty got-to-save-the-world mentality or hurt-myself-if-I-can't, bent. Lords knows I failed in keeping Kirk from wearing thin in that flaw too."

Kirk looked up at that but he managed to smile to ease the flaring tension he was witnessing. "I'm still here Boothby."

"Yeah? Just wait until the next dire emergency to hit the galaxy, then we'll see who has the last word Mr. Kirk." Boothby said. "I've seen it ruin even the best ones no matter how hard I tried to weed it out!"

Kathryn released her old mentor's shirt.  
"Not a flaw..Boothby.. A strength. It makes me not want to see Death visit an innocent group of jungle natives like this. It makes me sharper. Not weaker.. and I'm sure my fellow captain will agree with me. So in that way, even for all your centuries of wisdom, you are sorely mistaken.."

Seven of Nine was nearby. She felt she had to defend her Voyager leader.  
"I have learned compassion of that degree is a rare occurrence, Boothby. Captain Janeway has saved more lives than she has lost."

Boothby regarded both his old special cadet, growing gray, and his new one,  
still young and green with all the promise in the world, with both eyes for long seconds. Then he blinked and got to his feet, striding over to a dark leaved bush, full of bright red blooms.  
He, to everyone's surprise, took one into his hand and tore it free from its branch. He held it out to Janeway and Chakotay and said, "Shall we honor the spirit of those who died here? If I remember correctly, Chakotay,  
your valley customs are quite clear that any freshly angered warriors should honor their fallen dead before any battle begins to earn back a clear mind."

He nodded a yes and so did Khan,  
which reminded them both yet again of their blood ties.

"Well then.. " he said. "Let an old man start it off right. And let me give this first bloom of the morning to the first warrior I saw to deeply mourn the loss of the lives who perished here a few hours ago." and he held out the soft scarlet flower to Janeway.

Captain Janeway accepted the bloom and she breathed in its sweet fragance which washed away the stench of char. Then, she let Chakotay teach her a new litany of his people, a prayer of benediction to the spirit world, to honor those who were killed so brutally. Then together with clasped hands over the flower, they tossed the prayer filled bloom to land on a stone in the center of the scorched clearing.

Its petals glowed almost surrealistically neon against the ash and made Janeway's eyes swim in tears with its pure beauty against the fresh, sterile grayness. Then she pushed all that aside and said. "Let's go everyone.  
Doctor, save that genetic scan of those who died safely in your tricorder for later. Someone has to tell their families and relatives what happened, even if we don't know the real reason why they died."

--------------------------------------------

Beneath, in the first tunnel junction.  
They found a coded armory that answered Ambassador Spock's security codes.  
Soon, they were all armed to the hilt.

Holozimm said. "While I was training myself and growing at the academy, I encountered maps of these subterranean tunnels. I know every one."

"Good, Now take us to the nearest transporter hub alcove." Chakotay said, worried.

"That way.." Holozimm pointed, to a tunnel entrance three to the left of the reception chamber they were within.

Even the tracker 8472 needed no encouragement.  
It crawled into that tunnel even before Holozimm indicated it.

"He's scented them." Spock said.."And it seems to be coming from..."

The group rounded the bend from the run they had begun. They all screeched to a halt at a dead end where one set of bulkheads were torn wide open. The metal surrounding them was criss crossed with massive clawmarks. Inside that room, a green slime was on the transporter pad.

At that moment, Deanna Troi, who was still being supported in Data's arms, roused a bit in her sleep. Her eyes were still closed but her lips started moving. "Stop them.  
Stop them or they'll use it for their own ..own attac--" she moaned and then began to toss her head in empathic throes.

Dr. Crusher dug out a hypospray and injected it at the base of Deanna's throat to fully awaken her.

Data said. "Counselor... Counselor! Please repeat what you have just said."

Chakotay had already strode up onto the room's tiny transporter pad and to the portable control station, still glowing there.  
Another pile of orange slurry ran down the controller's seat and he kicked the stool aside to get close enough to the touch pads safely.

Ardra had joined him, being more familiar with the civilian, non ship design than he and she tapped a display of glowing numbers there. "I don't think I like the looks of that.. Does anybody recognize these activated transporter coordinates?"

Kirk stepped up and his eyes got wide in shock.

But it was Janeway who gave the final pronouncement. "Those coordinates lead to Voyager, at her museum.."  
she gasped.

"ohmygod, Kathryn.. Was the ship flight ready when you and Captain Kirk visited her yesterday morning."

"She was as she had to be Chakotay,  
according to standard procedure.  
she was fully enabled. All they'll have to do is rip free the building roof's moorings."

And the image of that in her head, completed the picture of her absolute worst, living nightmare.  
::My ship, invaded by 8472, possibly taken over.::

---------------------------------

(attachments)

Gif: Data's eyes.  
Image: Seven of Nine standing outside.

Image: Boothby giving Janeway a memorial red rose by a pool of water.

Image: Janeway getting teary over the memorial rose,  
trying to smile.

Image: An 8472, in the dark, crawling up Voyager's port nacelle.

*animated gif* A red alert warning, flashing.

Image: Janeway with a phaser rifle.

Image: An 8472 charging right at you from inside a ship's room.

From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Wolves in Sheep's Clothing~~ Date : Wed, 14 Aug 2002 21:04:36 +0000

But it was Janeway who gave the final pronouncement. "Those coordinates lead to Voyager, at her museum.."  
she gasped.

"ohmygod, Kathryn.. Was the ship flight ready when you and Captain Kirk visited her yesterday morning."

"She was as she had to be Chakotay,  
according to standard procedure.  
she was fully enabled. All they'll have to do is rip free the building roof's moorings."

"But that's impossible.." Lt. Yar blurted out.  
"There's only four of them. And how can an 8472 know how to fly a...fly a.. Federation Starship. Captain, " she said to Janeway.  
"I thought you said that these renegade aliens were on a Terrasphere mockup of Starfleet Headquarters only. You never mentioned anything about them using recreations of space going vessels beyond atmospheric shuttlecraft."

Kirk held up a hand as he checked the time index on the console of how long ago transportation had taken place. "Easy lieutenant. Things are still fresh here. You'll get your chance to get a crack at these guys. We ALL will." and he waved a hand at everyone in the room, including Big Guy. "Him especially. It's his kind that have taken it upon themselves to convert to a terrorist frame of mind.  
And that is never pleasant when it may be friends of yours who might have done so." he said quietly.

Chakotay studied the ground. He fully could recall Seska and her ultimate betrayal of him. "It's why the hunter's here despite all the difficulties it is facing physically being in air like this. No doubt if Earth had a vacuum around it, we wouldn't have had this renegade 8472 problem. He would have captured them by now."

The good 8472 next to them gave a quavering wail of impatience and a heart rendering moan of agreement.

But Yar was thinking of the city dome that had been erected over Starfleet to be sure the plasma contamination in Building Five was fully extinguished. "Sir, what a good idea.  
Why don't we do that. Create a pocket of it around the Voyager museum. Then,  
Big Guy could board the ship and clean up."  
she grinned.

Janeway said, "It may be easier for him.  
But that would make it easier also for the renegades. They may be able to take over the ship much more quickly that way. And our guidance is needed. He is as unfamiliar with the ship and its systems as they are.  
We are the ones who'll have to press our advantage for knowing our own starship.  
And we can't do that if we've no air to breathe, and locked inside survival suits."

Lt. Yar frowned in disappointment at herself,  
for yet again not thinking through all angles first.

Kirk noticed her discomforture. "Don't beat yourself to bits, lieutenant. It's taken years for us in higher rank to be able to think globally like this. But keep giving out those options. Your .." and he grinned at admitting to a captain's flaw...."..superiors may be in such a knot over the fact that a starship is in jeopardy,  
that soon WE may be the ones not thinking clearly.  
An uncontained starship is any commander's Achille's heel."

Janeway spoke to Seven of Nine. "This may sound drastic. But do you still have the ability to synthesize those biodegrading Borg nanoprobes of yours to disintegrate them?"

Seven looked uncomfortably at the 8472 before she spoke. "No. That configuration works only on 8472 and 8472 bioships inside Fluidic Space. They drew their power to destroy from the living plasma itself captain."

Big Guy didn't audibly react at learning that it was Seven of Nine who had originated the ability of the humans to turn the tide of the 8472 offensive attacking mode. But his head did whirl around at the sound of her voice and its nostril slits flared.

Biocells began to drip from its talons.

Kirk noticed Seven's uneasiness. So he clarified a few things. He faced the 8472.  
"No need to get nervous Big Guy." he grinned at the hunter. "You heard it from the lady herself.  
She no longer has the ability of genocide."

Janeway continued.  
"And the keyword he is using here IS...lady. Seven may have the waste products of Borg in her system but she must be considered as one of us and fully human. Is that clear...?" she said. " The arrangement my people struck with the Boothby morphed 8472 must be honored."

The 8472's eyes glowed for a bit but then its exudated talons retreated once more into its forepaw pads.

Boothby sputtered in surprise. "Boothby? What do you mean Boothby? Uh, you mean one of them made itself into ....me...over there in the Delta Quadrant? Janeway you never mentioned that in your final long distance monthly report about the Terrasphere over the Hirogen Communications Array, and I'll tell you Barclay and I had a very close eye at all material exiting the ports at Project Pathfinder so I know I didn't .."miss" one en route."

Janeway turned to her old mentor. "I didn't think the "clothes" that they all were wearing was an important finding. They were just shells. The over lying importance was the fact that those 8472 were learning about Starfleet and its Headquarters by recreating it."

"hmpph...Suppose you're right."" he grunted. And then he glared at Big Guy. "I don't want to see you looking like any of us or I'll kick your scaley rear so hard your teeth will end up back in Fluidic space light years before the rest of you.." he said.

Kirk and Lt. Yar both looked at each other with a horrified realization and Kirk tapped his combadge. =^=Kirk to the Civilian Port Authority. Respond..=^=

While he was waiting for a reply from that San Franciscan Office, he leaned towards the others.  
"How many personnel were in that museum structure around Voyager? Any of them in the ship itself?"

"Six. And no. Only the access ramps to Voyager needed security on hand. You saw so yourself Captain when you went there." Chakotay said. "Are you calling to see if any of those combadges set off bioflag alerts?"

"yes.." Kirk said. "If those renegades used their biocells, that illness, before it killed a victim, would have alerted the Starfleet computer network."

=^=Civilian Port Authority here. Captain Kirk?  
What can I do for you today sir?"

Boothby mouthed silent words to Kirk.  
"Keep it classified..." his lips said.

"Uh,.. is the Voyager Museum's routine running the same today as it always does?" he asked.

The civvie could be heard pushing a few con buttons at his station.  
=^=Yeah, it's open. I'm reading it as fully staffed even though its a Sunday sir. Can I do anything else for you?=^=

"No son, that's all right. Just checking ahead on the vacation itinerary, Kirk out."

When the channel had closed. Yar spoke up. "So which is it sir? Did they board the ship like we all think they did or did they leave the museum,  
morphed as cadets to get into Starfleet Headquarters?"

"Only one way to find out." Janeway said. "Since 8472 don't show up on scans very well." and she ran a few coordinate calibrations over the console in front of them. "Trying to rig a site to site to the captain's ready room. Usually a pathway left involatile to any ship and her former captains, from anywhere on the planet." and she crossed her fingers.  
A rasping, negative warble met her attempt. "D*mn. Well, that answers that.  
At least one ...made it on board."

Kirk tapped his combadge to Starfleet's command area. =^=Starfleet Command. This is Kirk.  
A situation has arisen. Lockdown this communication to Class One cleared personnel only. Implement immediately.=^=

##Channels diverted to Class One as specified.## said the tunnel computer.

Boothby was nodding. "Good. Good."

Soon only those who needed to know were updated to the newly dead in the Amazon and in the tunnel transporter room and the risk to the moored Voyager and Headquarters.

A high admiral on duty in the situation room snapped out an order. "Captains. We're now on alert out here. Secure that ship and safeguard the subterranean tunnel leading from that bluff!"

"We've been locked out our end, admiral.  
Voyager's not answering to any of my priority transporting codes. " Janeway said.

A shimmer of something small on the console answered her statement. A pile of combadges enough for all present and the hunter 8472 materialized in sparkles.

The admiral barked. "Get your party visible captain. We'll beam you to outside of Voyager's building with a full security team. We'll handle the possible intruders to Headquarter's grounds. Stand by.."

Janeway left the med tricorder with the scans of those killed on the console and she quickly set combadges on everyone's shoulders. "I'm leaving details of the attack in the jungle, here.." she said to the air.

Kirk had just jammed a badge in between the chest scales of the 8472 when beaming began. The whole group disappeared,  
exchanging their place in the room with an investigative med team.

The first crewman off the pad grabbed Janeway's tricorder from the panel and handed it off to his superior in charge.  
No one was in the dark about what the flesh colored pool around the chair had been. All were cleared with the knowledge of all details surrounding Species 8472.

Their grisly discovery around the stump only upset the high admiral even more.  
He mumbled under his breath as he watched Kirk's group appear one by one in San Francisco onto the high bluff overlooking the bay that housed the Voyager museum. "Pull that rabbit out of your hat captains. And make it fast.." he said to his tactical screen set to their coordinates.

----------------------------------------------------

The receptionist at the front desk looked up in surprise as the whole group from the Amazon descended into the museum from the front entrance, armed to the max with weapons and scanners, totally out of uniform. She rose at the sight of Troi,  
still groggy in Data's arms.  
She recognized only Janeway and those from Voyager's old crew. "Captain.. Do you need assistance here?" she asked Janeway, rising to hit the allcall button on the wall.

Kirk held up a hand. "Already done. Everyone proper has been notified. Get yourself and your staff, out of here. Now. Move.." he said to her.. "Go.."

Then Janeway said. "Wait a minute. How many visitors did you see boarding Voyager since the museum opened.."

The flustered young civilian sputtered. "uh,, uh,  
I don't know how many.. Uh, you can always check my terminal. It stores how many tickets sold captain.." she said, then fled as Janeway waved her on to evacuate her staff out of the building.  
Both captains strode behind the desk and looked at the terminal there but then started to scratch their heads. They didn't know how to operate such an everyday nonship machine. Holozimm said, "Here...Let me.  
I know everything about anything Starfleet and associated with it, remember?" and he toggled the answer for the command crew.

"There's our answer.. The 8472 may have gone by the checkpoints undetected in their disguises but they couldn't prevent this detail. Four tickets are absent in the rosters."

The holodoc sighed in a huge breath,  
"Well that's a relief..."

Everyone's puzzled glare at him made him amend his comment. "I...I..meant that to say I'm relieved that none of the renegades released any of their biocell infections on the populace on campus."

"Good." snapped McCoy. "I don't think I could have stomached another quarantine plague. Having one on a starship was bad enough."

Lt. Yar had already snatched Byte, the hologram's probe out of the air. She toggled its switch until it was invisibly camoflaged and released it. "Sir.. the probe's ready.." she said.

Kirk looked at her askance as he checked his weapon for the state of its charging level.  
"hmm? What's ready. We can't go storming in before the other security detail arrives here from Starfleet, lieutenant."

"No, not for a retake attempt. To recon the holograms sir into Voyager. They could demat inside of it and then its small size could get them onboard. The holograms could materialize themselves and then go to a outer bulkhead control to manually let us in."

Janeway and Kirk looked at each other ironically. "You were saying about captains getting brain tied over worrying for their ships?  
Well that's one option even we didn't even hit upon captain.." Janeway said to Kirk. "Make it so,  
lieutenant.." she grinned at Yar.

The EMH gave one last order to Dr. Crusher,  
McCoy and Dr. Pel before he winked out.  
"Troi will be awake from that stim hypo in about a minute more. Make sure she drinks a lot of water to offset hypovolemic shortag--"  
and he transferred into Byte along with Moriarty and the Lady Regina with a hum.

Kirk told Holozimm, "You know how to operate a ship's airlock son?"

Holozimm replied as he slowly disappeared.  
"Of course..I know everything associated with...Starfl.--..."

Everyone in the museum lobby heard the invisible silkie probe containing the four holos rise in the air and then up the tall flank of Voyager that was snugged up against the building. Its sound vanished into a small discharge vent above the red roped rampway entrance that led to one of her landing strut turbolifts.

A minute later, the airlock was swung open right in front of the group and Holozimm stuck his head outside, "All clear... nothing's leaping out to claw us to death. Guess they're elsewhere on board."

"Good work.." Kirk said, he waved the dozen security team personnel the admiral had sent,  
on ahead of him and the others. "Fan out. Four intruders," he told them, "They can mimick any humanoid shape. Normally,  
they look like this fellow here who's wearing a combadge.." he grinned. "Don't let them touch you or you'll get infected enough to die a very miserable death.."  
he said his smile fading away. The team nodded and ran inside.

Kirk heard a groan behind him, and saw the doctors giving Troi a glass of water from the reception counter.  
She drank only enough to wet her throat. "I'm fine.. captain.." she called out from the chair Data had placed her in. "They're still confused... I don't think they've progressed very far understanding how to run the ship. I'm sensing anger,  
frustration. And.. I'm getting the distinct impression..of..."I'm hungry".."

Lt. Yar looked up as she let K'Ehleyr,  
Khan and the best fighters in the group on first after the recon team. "Does anyone know what these things like to eat? Could clue us as to where they might be heading soon."

Janeway and Chakotay looked surprised.  
"You know.. that's one thing we never found out. Seven?"

But the blond woman shook her head.

Chakotay grinned. "Guess that's a species trait the Borg don't typical catalogue along with other specie distinctions."

"It behooves us to find out.." Kirk said. "So,, think it'll be the messhall or the engine room?"

Lt. Yar said. "With all due respect sirs. But isn't the bridge the best spot we should head regardless?  
It's the most tactically sensitive area."

"You're right yet again. Splitting up isn't sound reasoning. We gain control of Voyager, cold start and then jettison the warp core if we have to. No phasers nor propulsion will be possible then."  
Janeway said stepping into her violated ship.

Kirk said in a whisper to B'Elanna.  
"You can jettison your warp core?"

She smiled. "And put it back in again in a few hours."

"Scotty would love to be here right about now I'm sure.." he replied.

Torres hefted up her rifle and went into the darkened airlock of Voyager. And one by one, so did the boy, the doctors, Neelix,  
Ardra, Spock, Barclay and the counselor.

Kirk was the last to board.

And so the long stressful stalking trip to the bridge, began.

----------------------------------

They decided not to use any turbos as the group was afraid that any vibrations would tip the 8472 rebels off that they weren't alone anymore on the ship.

A soft hush of relocating air was the only sound on the dark bridge and for a moment, everyone was blinded from the lack of light. Then Janeway manually called up the mainviewer on view through glass mode only from Tuvok's old tactical station.

The stunning site of San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge there nearly took their breath away with its sunfilled panoramic beauty.

Kirk watched Chakotay and Janeway first check the patency of the self destruct modual to vocal commands to make sure it would answer ONLY to them,  
and then as they powered up the entire bridge, locking down the other critical systems to their individual specialized command codes. "What about gassing them?" Jim asked them.

"Won't work. 8472 don't need to breathe for days at a time if necessary. I had one clinging to my spaced outer hull more than once in my day."

The hunter 8472 seemed to rumble in affirmation.

Kirk looked up at the 8472 hunter who seemed to be mesmorized with the real vision of the Bay he had only seen in simulation. "Well, what about him?  
Think his presence is sensed by the others yet?

"Most likely.." Ambassador Spock said,  
"That they have been aware of him ever since he left Fluidic Space to go try and capture them."

"Well, they can't move through forcefields easier or they wouldn't have had to go masquerading through a museum to get on board Voyager.." Bashir mentioned.

"Then that will be our first task." Janeway said. "Find a way to locate them enough to slap a level ten around each and every one before they find a way to yank Voyager back away from us. She's ours.."  
Janeway said as she easily took her old command seat. "But for how long, is anybody's guess.."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Kirk with a rifle.

Image: Yar with a weapon.

Image: Starfleet officers on the bridge of Voyager, overlooking the Bay of San Francisco via Main viewer.

*

From : "patti keiper" Subject :[voyagerliveaction] The Lady Deep Date :Thu, 15 Aug 2002 20:37:02 +0000

"Then that will be our first task." Janeway said. "Find a way to locate them enough to slap a level ten around each and every one before they find a way to yank Voyager back away from us. She's ours.."  
Janeway said as she easily took her old command seat. "But for how long, is anybody's guess.."

Ambassador K'Ehleyr slowly stepped around the bridge. She was no longer the calm, cool eyed dignitary she had been in the Amazon.  
Now, she was all instinct. "I never thought I'd find myself back on the bridge of a starship.  
Brings back a lot of memories. Worf. What might have been...." she said absently.

Chakotay in his chair, smiled. "Funny about the effect a place like this can have on you.  
I was just thinking about the same thing.  
Only I was thinking about Seska."

"Only bad memories I hope." Janeway said to him under her breath as she scanned power readings and the lifesigns of the security detail moving meter by meter through the ship.

"Who was Seska?" K'Ehleyr wanted to know.  
"I thought I knew everything about everyone you two met on the journey home."

The EMH spoke up. "Seska was no Delta Quadrant native. She.." and he broke off being mindful of Chakotay's still unpleasant association with the dead woman. "was a pretender, first, she was a Maquis as a Bajoran, then as a Federation crewman,  
and lastly as a Cardassian spy."

Chakotay's face pinched. "She, ..caused a lot of damage Ambassador. Not only to this ship but to her crew."

Janeway set a hand on the arm of his chair as she worked but said nothing.

"Ah,,.. one of those..." McCoy said,  
rubbing his hands and teasing Kirk at the same time with an amused look.  
"A femme fatal..Both Spock and Jim have seen people like her." And he looked over to the tactical station to where they were working to see if either of them rose to the bait.  
He saw Spock raise an eyebrow but that was all. "hmph.." he grunted, smiling.

K'Ehleyr came to a halt in front of the command chairs, watching security shuttles swarm around Voyager like a bunch of persistent bees that flitted on the main viewer."Sounds like she may have been another Duras. Well, at least her threat has ended."

"It didn't." Janeway said. "Not right away.  
Seska was relentless in getting her revenge over members of this crew. She embedded a holoprogram that nearly claimed all of us."

At that, K'Ehleyr tilted her head. "Captain.  
Just how conversant are the 8472 about our technology? I am familiar with the events you and your ship encountered with the Terrasphere and with the shapechanging mimicry they were practicing. "

Chakotay spoke aloud, "Visually, they were perfect. Right down to the last campus lamp post. But now that I think about it, all they didn't understand with great confusion, was the fact that we humans, are diurnal. They seemed obsessed with the idea that day and night intervals, were the driving factor stabilizing our well being. I remember they didn't quite have it right.  
They thought "day" was an instantaneous state that turned on with the flick of a switch."

"Wasn't that because the Terrasphere was in the middle of a darkened sector of space?"  
the Klingon ambassador asked.

"No. They really thought it was a technological facet we humans incorporated into Starfleet.  
Their "admiral" was crafted to give the order for those two conditions of the dome. Day and Night. " Chakotay said.

"Well, from a species that comes from a region of space that HAS no stars, dawn and dusk does seem like crucial elements to any planet dweller. Just think how foreign a concept like that would be to an 8472."  
K'Ehleyr mentioned.

McCoy had out his bioprobe and was circling Big Guy, with his tricorder. "Hmm. No photo sensitive dermal pigmentation, no pineal gland, no dopamine, .. amazing..." and he read his findings. "These fellas not only aren't able to get a tan, they can't sleep either,  
it's not written into their genetic vocabulary.."  
he sighed. "I can see why day and night was such a mystery to them." He scanned further,  
making the big 8472 hunter raise a forepaw or two at the tricorder sticking in its face in half worry. "Easy son, this is just "nose".;  
A human, electronic one. Hold still. If you want to sniff me back feel free, but mind those claws of yours. I like my tannable skin to remain intact around my body if you know what I mean. Say, can you give me a sample of those biocells of yours? I wonder if they're anything like the bacterial soup Komodo dragons have in their saliva."

Janeway smiled a bit when she heard the doctor sound like he was curbing an anxious dog in a science laboratory. ::I'd be nervous too if I were in his place.::

Bones gave up trying to milk one of the 8472's claws into a test tube and wandered over to the captains again. "Are you sure waiting around like this is such a good idea?"

Kirk said, "We're not exactly idle, doctor.  
There's dozens of security below doing the hard part for us."

"That's not the point Jim and you know it!  
I mean. All phaser power and no negotiation is a horrid recipe in my book. Someone's going to get killed here." McCoy said.

Janeway and Chakotay raised their eyebrows at the doctor's insuboordinate tone but seeing Kirk's smile made them stay in their seats.

Spock said. "You must calm yourself doctor.  
The delegation of any starship duty must be shared. This is simply a time where it has been delegated."

"I don't have to like it.. Say.. Mrs Torres.." and Dr. McCoy rounded on B'Elanna firing up her bridge engineering console. "Got anything an old country doctor can help you with?"

"Feel like making coffee?" she asked without looking up.

"I will.." Neelix piped up. "I feel as ansy as the good doctor here." and he disappeared into the ready room to get some.

Boothby grabbed McCoy by the shoulder when he was about to go pester Dr. Crusher and Troi who were monitoring the biosigns of the security teams along with Janeway and Chakotay.  
"Hang on a minute. Let's talk shop, doctor.."

"Oh, it's you again.." McCoy grumbled folding his arms.

"Now what's that supposed to mean?" Boothby shot back. "Don't be too sure about me. I just may be one of THEM and you'd never know it for sure.." he spat right back after pointing to the hunter 8472 who was standing under a bridge light, looking with wonder at its soft glow.

McCoy frowned and almost lifted his scanner to check Boothby's biosignature. Then his face turned red. "Do you always shock people like this?"

"No, but I like keeping people off balance once in while. It's good for honing their command skills." Boothby snapped. "And I've never seen anyone with such a shoddy sense of knowing your place as you do."

"Oh, come off it Boothby, Jim Spock and me,  
we go way back. We always square off like that verbally. It's a way of shedding built up tensions."

"Who's tensions.. Theirs? Or yours?"  
Boothby concluded, unconsciously crossing his arms to match McCoy.

"Oh, you're impossible!" Bones said,  
moving away to try and put some meters between himself and his source of misery.

"Not entirely, but enough to get people to be the best they CAN be. You've got the distinction of being the only Starfleet medical cadet who didn't bloom under my tutelage Leonard H McCoy.." Boothby added.

"Because you could never rankle my independent streak, you decided to hound my every visit to Starfleet just to try and crack my shell. You're doing it now! "

"No, I'm keeping you away from the others so they can get their work done." Boothby said, all trace of anger melting away from his face and shoulders. And he grinned toothily. "Got you, doctor. Hook, line and sinker.." And he started to laugh uproariously at his own joke. "That's one for you Spock." and he drew a finger in the air, keeping score.

Even K'Ehleyr had to grin at Boothby's more than jaded tactics. ::But you have to admit. Boothby's got style and he gets his goals accomplished.:: "That was slick.."  
she said, to Boothby.

"Thanks.. Bone's wall is a tough one to crack."

McCoy sputtered for a few more seconds before he realized that he had been out McCoy-ed at his own game. Then he started chuckling. "Heh heh heh. You just imitated me,  
now didn't you..?" he asked the Academy groundskeeper.

"Yep. Remember that. Always think like your enemy.." and he walked away,  
his smile levelling off into a scowl.

Dr. McCoy laughed a few more times when Boothby's parting remark sank in. His grin faded into uncertainty and he glanced back at Boothby. ::Enemy?::

But then the old man whirled in his boots and fired a gotcha finger right back at Leonard, his infectious grin big as ever.

"Ah..! That's twice now..!" Bones grumbled.  
Then he smiled too, turning back to his restless pacing with a good heart.

Ambassador K'Ehleyr was watching the sequences Janeway and Chakotay were running with B'Elanna on the ship's sensors. She had directed her son to watch the turbolift to keep him out of mischief. She asked at one particular series. "Going to bank on 8472 ignorance of the details of Starfleet technology by untilizing the holodeck?"

"Yes. They are so serious minded about the importance of appearances concerning us humans. So Chakotay and I figured that we would capitalize on that weakness."  
Janeway said, spinning her commchair console around so K'Ehleyr could see what was keyed up there. "Your questions about Seska got us thinking. Perhaps a holoprogram betrayal might work against our unwelcome guests. We've fashioned all the holodecks to look like the metaphasic conduit banks in the messhall. If they're hungry for either energy or plant and animal matter, the program should draw them in.."

"A baited trap." K'Ehleyr grinned. "It's so simply transparent. That it may work.."

"Like a hairpin on an electronic lock."  
Janeway smiled back.

The three of them settled in to watch for a fluctuation if any of the holodeck doors opened on their scans.

Soon, one did. On deck six.  
And it opened and shut four times.

::One for every rebel 8472. Gotcha:  
"Let's go.." Janeway said, rising.  
"Chakotay, you have the conn.  
But, if anyone else would like to follow. Be careful." and she tapped her combadge. =^=Janeway to all security teams. We've a positive sighting Holodeck Three, Deck Six.=^=

--------------------------------------------------

K'Ehleyr, of course couldn't miss this development. And neither could Boothby and McCoy. Janeway had been the first to the holodeck touchpanel and she checked the reading. "Yep. This bulkhead opened for something FROM this corridor four times. No exit cycles yet logged.  
They're still in there."

The tall ambassador raised her eyebrows.  
"Just what kind of environment did you program for them to lure them inside?"

Janeway grinned. "Oh, we kept it open ended. It will be whatever an 8472 wants to see the most. Their minds are controlling the holoemitters. The only condition we set ourselves is that the safeties are still on. That way we don't have to worry about the surroundings once we get in there."

A smattering of many boots on the carpetting alerted the four of them that the calvary has arrived.

"So that's it? We rush in. Bag the scaleys and we're through?" Boothby asked.

"Not quite. These 8472 for all their floundering in our alien environment, are very intelligent creatures. Remember what Seven told us.  
They'll adapt. But I don't think they truly know the art of hand to hand fighting. They're so used to pilotting their bioships while fighting the Borg."

"That's a BIG gamble captain.." Boothby frowned.

"Call it an educated hunch Boothby. I have nothing else to go on." Janeway said,  
fiddling with the controls. "Ah, there.  
They don't even know they're in a holodeck.  
Whatever they want to see will happen.  
We'll just wait out here in the corridor until the others--"

A huge buffetting rocked Voyager's deck and staggered Janeway and the others against the wall. "What the h*ll was that?"

Barclay's frantic voice sounded over the comm overhead and in all their chest insignia. "Explosive decompression.  
Engineering! Subspace fluctuations off the scale.!"

K'Ehleyr grunted. "What? But we're blue landed. On the ground sitting on a bluff over looking San Francisco Bay,  
How can we have a concussive hull brea--"

Janeway shushed her while McCoy studied his tricorder readings from the scanner he had whipped out and aimed at the deck. "What th?  
I'm reading living biomatter. A lot of it..."

Janeway's face tightened when she recognized the traces glowing there.  
"It's Fluidic Space. I don't know how those rebels did it, but they must have rigged a phased converter on autocommit before we isolated them.  
That's a pocket of it filling main engineering!"

"Illusion or real?" McCoy asked.

"Oh, its quite real, and I wouldn't be surprised if Voyager's bioneural gel packs start to overhe--" and her voice trailed off. "Oh, my. They wanted to do this." she whispered in shock..

"Of course they did.." Boothby snapped.  
"They want a door for their invasion group and a way into our space here on Earth.."

"No. That's not it.." Janeway said. The hole I'm reading flooding in Fluidic Space is too small to emit an 8472."

Chakotay's voice came over quickly.  
=^=Captain! I think I figured out what they've done..!!=^=

"So have I commander. So have I.." she replied. "They're giving Voyager a fever.  
They're not trying to gain control of the ship using her computer panels. Remember how the bioneural gelpacks are susceptible to certain kinds of neural energies at high internal temperatures? Heat accelerates their synaptic interfaces, increasing their receptivity and efficiency. That's how we broke them out of sleep in the Delta Quadrant in the Void Chakotay. Increased susceptivity now when they're awake means.."

McCoy snorted. "My God. They're trying to mind meld with the gelpacks. Spock get down here! These telepathic monsters are linking with Voyager. They're going to try and take control of the ship using their thoughts!!"

"When..?" K'Ehleyr asked.

Janeway already felt heat beginning to build through her uniform. "The biogels start to show enhanced function when the ambient air temperature reaches 84 C."

"That's killing heat.." Janeway muttered.

Boothby said. "They don't have to suffocate us with any lack of air. They just have to bake us out!"

"Let's go back to the bridge. The rebels at least, physically, aren't going anywhere."  
Janeway ordered. "I'll have someone else from our party head down here to go into that holodeck to see what they're up to."

-----------------------------------------------

Soon, everyone was back on the bridge.  
Already, everyone had shed their uniform tops in the rising heat.

Chakotay looked up from B'Elanna's environmental controls. "Torres can't keep up with the cooling vents. That flood of Fluidic space into engineering is too infrared radiant."

"Would it help if we fired Voyager's fore and aft docking thrusters enough to send her into the Bay?" Janeway said.

"It would help." Chakotay nodded.

"Then do it. Ditch Voyager." Janeway said.

Starfleet was soon aware of the situation and cleared a path in the sky for Voyager to lift off. It tore free of her moorings linking it to the science building and she coasted just enough for it to get out over the deep waters of the Bay. Then the heat from Fluidic Space caused a cutoff and the airborne starship suddenly lost her manuevering lift and pummetted the rest of the way into the ocean.

Sensing shuttles hovered over the area where the steaming hull of Voyager had sunk beneath the waves. Bubbles of air followed but then soon disappeared.

Surface watercraft sped out to where Voyager went down.

------------------------------------------------------

Down underneath, the main viewer of the bridge was filled with only the deep blue of underwater. Bulkheads groaned around them as the pressure of air gave way to that of saltwater.

"How are we doing?" Janeway asked.

"Just fine..." Chakotay said. "No hull breaches. No airlock red lights. We're settled about eighty meters on the bottom.  
Firm sand beneath."

"How's our ambient temperature in engineering?"  
the captain asked as she began to feel the coolness of the ocean coming through the outer walls of the bridge.

"Levelling off." Seven of Nine said,  
actually smiling. "That maneuver bought us some time captain."

"Good. Now let's get back down to Deck Six and see how badly Engineering's been mired. Some of you. Go to the holodeck. Get in there and do what you can.  
Chakotay. Keep an eye on the outer hull integrity.. Voyager's been landbound for five years attached to that museum. There's bound to be a few loose bolts in her plating when we tore free from that building."

"Aye captain.. So far so good. No readings of seawater anywhere but outside."

"Now... " Janeway said, turning to the others.. "Any suggestions on where we proceed from here?"

(attachments)

Image : Chakotay and Janeway fight to stabilize ship.

Image: K'Ehleyr close brown grin

Image: 8472 terrasphere

Image: McCoy Kirk and Spock in a turbolift.

***********************************************

From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : Protocol Priority Date : Mon, 19 Aug 2002 12:35:16 +0400

"Aye captain.. So far so good. No readings of seawater anywhere but outside."

"Now... " Janeway said, turning to the others.. "Any suggestions on where we proceed from here?"

"I have one suggestion Captain." the EMH began.

"Go ahead.." Janeway voiced.

"This isn't about draining our superheated Fluidic Space filled Engineering, its about battling for neural synaptic connectivity."

"I'm afraid I don't follow you, doctor. "  
Chakotay frowned, rubbing his chin.

The EMH stepped down until he was standing before Voyager's command chairs.  
His blue uniform top blended in with the eerie blue light coming from the deep water emanating from the view screen behind him. "All humanoid nerve cells work in only one way. They sense a message and then they pass it on.  
Then they receive the brain's answer to the message and send it back down the line to carry out the specified action."

"I'm quite versed on the definition of neuro synapses methodology doctor." Janeway said.

"Hear me out, captain. This may be an important fact for us to work with." The EMH paused and curious, Moriarty, the Countess Regina and Holozimm looked up from what they were doing on the bridge and stood facing the holodoc as he made his point. The doc's seriousness and the sense of urgency in his voice made them listen. "Nerves can only sense and send messages about four kinds of information. Heat, Cold, Pain and Pressure.  
What's significant is that if nerves in, say hypothetically, in someone's arm, were burned and frozen in the same place, the nerves receiving that damage stimulus could only communicate to the brain, only one of those sensations at a time. Heat or cold. Pain is simply the effect of any nerve being over loaded with any of those four kinds of stimuli. Now Voyager's biogel packs work very much like humanoid neural cells. They are limited by being able to send only one message at a time or receiving only one "command" from a computer core or, as we've just learned, an 8472 mind.  
All we'd have to do is interrupt any such signals by overriding them with stronger negative stimulus directed into the ship's bioneural control net. Say, sending in pain, for instance."

Janeway's eyes narrowed. "Are you saying we "torture" the ship so it won't listen to the rebel 8472's mental instructions?"

Dr. Crusher felt the need to step forward. "No captain. Voyager isn't alive. The holodoc is suggesting we just, put cotton in her ears.."  
she said with a smile. "The stimulus that will work the best with the gelpacks from what I know of them, is what he's suggesting,  
pain. Cold and Heat aren't options we can use because of the number of people we have on board. Pain, is something that can be conducted locally into them without involving atmospheric transmission through the air, we can do that by other means... umm...through electricity, through neural toxins, reptile venoms, hormonal imbalances.. No real harm will be done to your biogel network for all will be only phantom pain."

Moriarty had been thinking. "Or, you could always turn our gentled 8472 beast's own defenses loose. Just tell our allied creature here to slash all the critical engine and propulsion and weapons gels. His natural contagion should work just as well on them as I've seen it effect you humans.."

"We'd be lobotomizing ourselves if we actually destroyed the gel packs Professor." Chakotay stated. "There'd be no way for us to resurface Voyager if we did that. It would take days for Starfleet to work enough drone bees into place to lift Voyager out of the ocean and into a space dock for repairs, assuming they can even do that at all."

B'Elanna agreed with him, nodding vigorously.  
"There's been no recorded attempt of recovering a starship from the sea bottom through tractors."

Barclay piped in.."Uh huh... Gravity simply proves to be too much for them to handle with that much titanium tonnage uh, involved."

"That last is something I won't even consider gentlemen. No one is going to destroy Starfleet property unnecessarily. Now that I think of it, we don't even have the privilege of even POSSibly using the self destruct mechanism to stop those rebel 8472,  
we're too close to the heavily populated coastline, Starfleet Headquarters included."

Chakotay shifted in his seat calling up a new commscreen on his board. "Ambassador Spock.  
You seem to be up on Voyager's specs.  
Disable the arming device, completely. And make sure that no biogel/8472 telepathic impulses can get it going again."

"Understood Commander.." Spock said, rising from a place he had taken at Voyager's science station. "A wise precaution."

Counselor Troi was shaking her head, and Beverly noticed. The red haired doctor left the area in front of the command chairs where the EMH and everyone was discussing the stituation. She touched Deanna on the arm.  
"Still dizzy from your diuretic?"

"No. It's just my empathic sense is getting a little fuzzy. Seems that Fluidic Space and its super heated biomatter is partially living. Its natural background "feelings" are drowning out what I'm getting from either the crew below or the rebel 8472 on the holodeck." Troi admitted.  
"As the amount of it fills engineering more and more,  
the "snowy" effect gets worse."

"Can you handle the "white noise" from it counselor?"  
Kirk wanted to know.

"Yes." Deanna replied. "I'll just erect my personal shields up if it gets too invasive."

The EMH looked up at that. "Never thought of that.  
Fluidic Space's half life signs will mask those of the security teams below on ship's sensors. We'd no longer have any way of automonitoring anybody."

"Yes we would, doctor." Janeway said. "We can always use the combadges, to check in on them verbally. We can correspond every few seconds if we have to in a pinch."

Then Seven spoke up. "Since all the rebels are confined to the holodeck on Deck six, the rest of us can move freely about Voyager without risk."

"Good inferrence Seven." the EMH smiled. "I think I'll head to sickbay to see what I can do about coming up with a way to slow down the gelpack susceptibility from this building heat we're suffering.." he said, mock wiping non existent sweat from his forehead. "I can try to inhibit them as you suggested, captain.  
Chemically."

"I'll join you." Beverly said. "That's if we have permission to leave the bridge.."

Janeway looked up from her screen where she was following the Ambassador's work from his station as he carried out her orders. "Hm? Oh. Permission granted. Keep me informed."

Dr. Crusher waved a hand at the others, "If anyone would like to come along with us.  
Especially you Deanna. Sickbay's reinforced sound and energy shielding might cut down on that empathic wash effect you're dealing with."

Troi nodded. "You read my mind, Beverly.  
Then she winced at the irony of her comment.  
"Oo, sorry for that. Yes. I think I'll join you.."

And some of the crewman on the bridge left with Deanna, the EMH and Dr. Crusher to accompany them to Voyager's sickbay.

=====================================

The EMH wasted no time in lifting all the museum stasis fields the curators had in place over his old equipment with a few choice commands to the computer. "There, almost feels like home again. The only thing missing, is a patient or two.."

Dr. Crusher stopped her gaped jawed admiration of the advanced sickbay she was oggling. "Don't tempt fate, doctor. I for one, am praying for just the opposite." then she looked at the EMH and again at Deanna. "Doctor, can you control the energy shield around Sickbay with the same fine adjustments as you can with the illumination in here?"

"I can." the EMH said.

"All right. Why don't you play around with the metaphasic harmonics until Deanna's Fluidic Space white noise is countered the best." Beverly asked.

"Yes, then I'll be able to keep a tap on what the 8472 are feeling with a bit more focus than what I have right now." Deanna agreed.

The EMH walked across sickbay and activated a panel nearest his office alcove doorway and played holofingers over the controls. "Now, counselor.. Just say ..."When.." " he quipped.

About twenty seconds into his fiddling, Deanna's empathy abruptly connected with all the crew and the 8472 again. "Oooh, there, doctor. Lock it off. I can sense almost one hundred percent again."

"Can you do that ship wide so Deanna can move around Voyager freely to aid the others?"  
Beverly asked the holodoc.

"I'm afraid not. Only sickbay has such a shield capability." he replied.

"Oh, too bad." Deanna said. "I could have been quite an advantage to the others heading into the Holodeck after the rebel 8472."

"The away party in there, whoever they're going to be, already has an 8472 emotional barometer, Deanna, in "Big Guy". " Beverly said.

"Yes, but he's not very talkative now is he?"  
Deanna quipped and then laughed.

Then she blinked in a curious way and then hit her combadge. =^=Troi to the bridge.  
Respond please.=^=

"Chakotay here.." came the quick reply.  
"What can we do for you , counselor?"

=^=Are you quite sure that all four rebels are inside the holodeck?=^= Troi asked him.

"Yes." Chakotay said. "Captain Janeway triple checked the holodeck access portal herself. "Four entries, no exits."

"Then I think we have another very very serious problem on our hands, because I'm not reading emotions from just the five 8472 on board with us. I'm reading... dozens from all directions, they're faint but very very clearly, ...8472 in origin."

"What?!" K'Ehleyr said.

Janeway shouted. "Check the diameter of the breaching dimensional shunt inflooding engineering. Is it any larger than previously?"

"No captain, its still only twelve centimeters by eight wide and long, holding firm at those dimensions." Chakotay replied.

Boothby triple checked the bioreadings on 8472,  
and read his panel as the results of his query slowly came into being through the white noise interference from the Fluidic Space occupying all of engineering. "I don't see anything amiss, Miss Troi. I still read only fiv-- Wait a minute, there's pervasive ghosting afterimages in the theta band on the sensors. Is this what you're sensing?"

"I don't know all the technical terms,  
Boothby. But your answer is yes."

"Then what exactly are your impressions counselor?" Data asked.

Deanna closed her eyes, focusing carefully,  
and yet, she was visible frustrated at the same time. "I get,, the feeling of many from.  
from.. everywhere, all around me. And they're ...growing. And she pointed into several directions, walking slowly about sickbay.  
"There's even one right here.." she said,  
placing her hands on the wall. Then she pulled it away quickly, blowing on her palm and shaking it, "Ow.. that's hot.."

Holozimm strode over to the wall and removed a section of it to reveal a whole bunch of circuitry and....a single, heating bioneural gel pack.

Dr. Crusher came over to his side to scan the area but then something inside the cubbyhole caught her eye.  
"What is that?!" she sighed, partly in fear.

"Report doctor.." came Janeway's voice over the comm line.

The EMH, Deanna, Beverly, Holozimm all leaned inside the panel space until their eyes adjusted to the blue glow there. Inside the slowly heating bioneural gel pack, were tiny bits of green. The EMH looked closer and then had the sickbay overhead view cam zero in on the blue sac until the tiny shapes were enlarged through a visual tie in.

Deanna gasped. "Why those bits look like look like... seahorses. or something."

The EMH consulted his med tricorder with astonishment. "Those aren't the Earth animals these are.. ohmygod....fetal 8472! Captain..!" he whirled about.  
"The rebels don't have send 8472 through the spatial rift in engineering. They're already here! Being grown inside every bioneural gel pack on the ship!"

----

On Voyager's bridge, Janeway rose out of her command seat, "Oh, no."

----

"Now that does put a spanner in the works."  
Boothby said from his place in sickbay. He thoughtfully tapped a finger against the soft blue glowing plastiform of the gel and instantly all eight fetal 8472 swam up to the place where he had touched and immediately started clawing in fury at the spot. Only their tiny immature size and growth prevented them from puncturing their "culture womb's" wall.  
"The rebel 8472 don't want Voyager to use as a weapon against Starfleet, they want to use her as an incubator for an invasion force! And the Prime Directive expressedly forbids harming the unborn. We won't be able to mess with the gel packs to stop any telepathic impulses now. "

"First do no harm..." the EMH whispered.  
"I'm afraid this effectively counts me out on solving our resident pest problem captain. I'm not programmed to harm any sentient lifeforms, for these are unmistakably baby 8472. These nymphae appear to have been multiplied from their parent by asexual budding, very much like what our Mother Tribble did with her kits. The Rebel 8472 must have implanted their young into the biogel packs long before we even came on board. We just simply caught them turning up the heat so to speak."

----

On the bridge, the Hunter 8472 started weaving his great insectoid head around.

Deanna caught a fierce impression from him and relayed what she caught from his mind to the others.

##To call new life in the Outside is forbidden!  
The wrongdoers have profaned Our Way and Path.## it screamed inside her head.

Dimly Troi felt her lips speak the same words without the intense disgust and fury tinging the message.

"Can we program all the gelpacks to abort them in any way?" Janeway asked.

Dr. Crusher tightened her lips.  
"Our Hippocratic Oath effectively ties all of our hands, captain." she said, glancing around sickbay at McCoy, Dr. Pel, Bashir and the holodoc near her.." I'm like the EMH captain. I won't be able to kill anyone's infant embryos. It goes against everything I believe in. " she said to the bridge over the open comm line.

"Even if it means the difference between life and death for this crew and possibly even the whole of Starfleet on shore?"

"Don't ask us to go against ourselves,  
captain." Dr. Pel said softly. "For we'd rather die than take any life intentionally. We're doctors, first and foremost. Don't ask us to become infant murderers."

"Would you say the same if these fetal buds were Borg, doctor?"

"That is an entirely different situation doctor. Any Borg drone is fully grown and self realized. It has the power of choice. These young, as yet, do not."  
Dr. Pel said.

"Just what are we supposed to do now doctor!..." Chakotay said, clearly and highly disturbed by the ethical implications of Voyager's current plight.  
And their own.

"I don't know, Commander.." Denara said levelly. "Isn't that why you command grade officers are wearing those pips and those maroon uniforms? It's up to you higher ranks to make the hard call when sticky situations arise.  
Or,.. try to dump it on YOUR superiors if you can't stomach reality."

Suddenly Boothby tapped his combadge interceding over all the others in a special code sequence, toning a silencing attention chitter at everyone on the commline.  
"Silence. Every one of you. I'm issuing a Code One Alpha. Authorization sequence A One B Two B, C... Nine.... Theta. Confirm.."

##That authorization override is accepted.  
Recognizing Boothby as highest officer's command rank on board the USS Voyager. Transferring all command codes to Boothby of Starfleet Headquarters.  
Mark..## said the computer.

"Boothby.. Just what the h*ll-- !" Janeway shouted over the open channel.

"Doing what I have to do Captain." he shouted, interrupting her outburst just as vehemently. "Just like you had to do when you found evidence of the Omega particle in the Delta Quadrant. There are ultimate protocol to follow even above the captain's eyes only level. Dr. Crusher, holodoc, and Counselor Troi, you wanted to know my true rank in a bet not too long ago as I recall. Well, now you'll have your answer. Computer, who am I?"

##Boothby. El Aurien. Confidence Level Nine. Member of Starfleet Command Eschelon Special Division Grade One.  
Rank: Second only to the President of the Federation of Paris, Earth.##

Stunned silence held the tongues of all in earshot of the commbadge computer tie in.

Even Spock looked surprised.

Boothby didn't smile. In fact, he looked far from the mild mannered but crusty old gardener that everyone thought he was. "It isn't an accident that I've been choosing captain's candidates for nearly a century around these parts. I also sent Guinan, my aide, to the Enterprise D to help watch for the beginnings of a peril such as the one we're unfortunately teetering with over the preverbial precipice. I'm not taking over your ship Ms. Kathryn so don't start feeling put out before you've heard the entire reason why I'm doing this." Boothby snapped,  
waving a gnarled finger into the air as if she could see him through the commline. "I'm just here to keep for D*mn sure that no slackheaded ship command grade does anything truly dumb during this incident. So there'll be no ship's photons or phasers fired, no site to sites, no offensive ship's action taken, without my approval and the direct approval of the President himself. If this situation gets outta hand and we find ourselves in the middle of an 8472/Federation conflict. God forbid.. Then innocent blood will be on the hands elected to be responsible for it. Is that clear?"

Janeway activated her forward viewer to link with sickbay's and she toggled a camera that gave Boothby and herself a direct visual connection.  
"Perfectly. But don't mind if I check out all of this nonsense with high command personally."

"Don't bother, captain. The moment the computer transferred deferrence to me, there's been an instant audio and visual line to the President.  
Live. He's listening in right now." Boothby said.

Sure enough. The screen split and the white maned, orange skinned face of the Fed elect came online. =^=Every word, captain, is true. Know this.....Boothby is now a direct extension of myself on board your ship.  
What he says, goes. I will review all he's sent me and I will be monitoring your whole vessel on visual and full scan most carefully. Obey the chain of command as it lies,  
Captain. There are just some situations that calls for something higher than the "top brass." Avalonii out.=^=

McCoy said it all once the heavy silence was fullest as everyone tried to absorb the enormity of the bizarre change that had taken place. "Land Sakes alive, Boothby, just how many pips DO you wear on your dress uniform??"

-  
(attachments)

Audio: Klaxon noise.. ##Shuttle Bay Two Forcefield, activated#  
Klaxon noise...

Image: Troi by shuttle

Image: Boothby on viewer

Image: Beverly Crusher-n-tricorder

Image: Starfleet headquarters situation room

Image: Janeway standing full bridge.

Image: An 8472 eye.

Image: Green lit crew from the comscreen's perspective.

******************************

From : "Roxy Dee" .  
Subject: [voyagerliveaction] One's Myth is Another's Fact~~ Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2002 23:05:42 +0000

McCoy said it all once the heavy silence was fullest as everyone tried to absorb the enormity of the bizarre change that had taken place. "Land Sakes alive, Boothby, just how many pips DO you wear on your dress uniform??"

Captain Kirk had been quietly absorbing the scene while he thought of his best approach.  
::I'm very much the maverick. Used to thinking on my feet while and being responsible for a ship and crew all alone in deep space. And here, this is all Earth politics. Boothby.  
my old friend... some....superrank I haven't even heard of. I must be getting old. I do feel like I'm watching a Federation Senate Proceeding blow right by me.:: " Bones. Now's not the time.."  
he said holding up a hand. "Mr. Boothby.  
I assume.. you are still that to us..." Kirk said magnamiously to the old caretaker standing before him in sickbay. It didn't seem to matter that the old El Aurien was still dressed in safari garb and still dusty with river soil. He acted every inch, the man with the ultimate authority.

"I am. Mr. Kirk. You heard my position on the matter.  
I am just making you captains ask first before you use your starship toys. Everything else is still your in your ballpark." Boothby replied easily. But still,  
he wasn't smiling. And that, most of all told Kirk just how bad it was concerning the 8472.

::He's scared. These fetal neonates... must be a facet of this Species that Starfleet knew nothing about and that's the reason for the call to Code One Alpha, the protocol to investigate a threat to National Earthwide Security.:: Kirk surmised. "Surely you're overreacting.."  
Kirk smiled compromisingly at Boothby. "We're.  
experienced captains.. Both of us... If it's just a matter of trust--"

"Trust? Nothing of the sort Mr. Kirk.." Boothby snorted.  
"It's just I know how you humans react in new situations.  
It may be buried a few centuries behind civility but that aggressive instinct is still there. You shoot first and ask questions later. And the possible fallout from that still makes it too near Starfleet and the whole western seaboard for me to feel comfortable!  
Remember Commanders,.. The President and I aren't human. We know your inherent natural tendencies.. But don't feel offended. We're only looking out for your best interests while in new territory."

"You sound like the Vulcans.." Lt. Yar spat.

She had entered sickbay privately since there was no longer anything left for her to do for the moment. The band of security she was with had learned Janeway and Chakotay's trick which had lured all four rebel 8472 into the holodeck on Deck Six.  
"No offense Ambassador Spock.." she shot a look at him when his graying brow rose at the statement. Then the enfuriated young blond lieutenant turned to her real source of ire.  
"Boothby. I'm surprised at you! Perhaps you and your highers ups are cowards. You let starship captains, like Kirk and Janeway here, take all the risks defending the Federation's interests out there in faraway space with full discretional power over their ships no questions asked, but then something like this comes along on home soil and what happens? That trust is so much space dust out the bussard collectors. Do you think that our commanders would be stupid enough to call for a risky decision with that same technology on Earth? That's a double standard.. And it stinks.."

"Don't get sassy with me, missy. I've explained my reasons. They.."  
and he pointed at Chakotay and Janeway on the main viewer,  
Kirk in front of him,..."can do whatever they want, so long as it is run by me and the head of their precious Federation President first.. Now that isn't so hard to take, is it? Avalonii was the Individual chosen for the job. Good thing too. He has a natural unbiaseness with regard to human and Federation affairs since he isn't an Earth native. Nice call. I like the man you folks chose this decade's term.. Now Miss Yar.  
Let me show you MY perspective since you have so dramatically shown me yours." and he seemed to grow five centimeters in height, a new look of weighty knowledge seemed to fill him in every pore. His eyes glinted with pride.  
" I love this Federation, I love the good solid command cadets it produces, on occasion, and I love even your patriotic militaristic starship designs. They're quaint. But know this one thing. The Federation pretty much formed around me.  
I was there since the beginning. Who do you think kicked the Vulcans rears to start sending observers to Earth while you folks struggled over the edge from Pre to Post warp technology? I did. Who do you think gave your founders the idea to HAVE a United Federation of Planets. I was on that advisory committee. But I beseech you, I know precisely and most unerringly, when to back off while that Federation might and wisdom is employed. Especially in the Starship Captain's realm. H*ll, they're my specialty! So stop worrying about me and Avalonii while we observe you, and start worrying about those fetal neonates crawling about this ship's joints! They are the ones who're going to hurt you if they learn how from their parents, not your fellow man!!"  
Boothby's face had gotten very red during his tirade and it took him effort to calm down. Finally, he wiped his face with a dusty handkerchief and he glanced to the air. "Sorry Avalonii for getting on my soapbox again, but you know how stubborn and territorial these homo sapiens get whenever someone else reins them in."

=^=How well I know that...=^= came the Fed elect's reply over the open commline. =^=That's why I trust you to find the smartest, most openminded and malleable ones to fly the starships. Nice choice for this quarter's cadet.  
I like this Seven of Nine. Keep me informed of her progress.=^=

Boothby harumphed loud in his throat and pointed to the ceiling in a there you go gesture while he paced back and forth in front of the others in indignation.

=^=My advice to you Voyager....Pretend I'm not even here, pretend that I'm still some obscure, far off paperpadd pusher sitting in front of a black ebony desk in Paris sipping latte.I'm just that quiet power who commissioned you all to your careers so many years ago if that eases your consciences...=^= and the com to the President, delivering his voice to the ship, clicked off.

Janeway was silent for a bit and all could see her walk slowly in front of her command chair and she glanced up at the main viewscreen, filled with the sapphire colored heart of a very familiar Earth's ocean. She studied the grey carpetting and how her solid boots stepped while having their sound fully absorbed by the thick compact material.

Then she leaned on the upper rail above her seat and all the while, the bridge pickups followed her. "All right Boothby. I'm a team player. Let's do this your way, Misters Gardener slash Referee and Honorable Fed Elect. Just watch one of your star teams hit a few base hits once again." and then she grinned a trademark cocked eyed hellbent grin which, in sickbay, Kirk echoed in like mind.

Then her face fell into the seriousness of a captain who's ship was being jeopardized. "Captain Kirk. Take Yar and the holograms to Holodeck Three, Deck Six. I wanna know what those egg layers are up to. Remember the holodeck safeties are on, but the surroundings you'll see are what the 8472 are crafting. Watch yourselves in there. I don't want them finding out that we've trapped them. They may have some telepathic fast grow command to give the fetal young in the biogels to hurry it up. I don't want to tip them off. Just go in there and ...spy a little..." and she eyed the sickbay screen once more. "Sort of like Boothby here does..." she teased her old mentor.

"Kathyrn...!" he glared.

She just smiled at Boothby's fidgetting on her viewer.

"I shall. Anyone else going in?" Kirk asked.

Janeway pointed to the viewer before sitting down again and taking a datapadd from Chakotay next to her on the bridge. "Any of you can form a second collective party or go afterwards in groups of two to do the same thing. Act independently, or together, whatever suits you. Just get me the pieces of the puzzle we don't know yet.." she said firmly. "I want to know if these things growing inside my ship's nerve centers can harm us past being gruesome carnival attractions. But I'm not so sure about Seven going in. "Big guy" here seems unnaturally aware of her partial Borg makeup. Don't want her to be that lighthouse lamp's flash in the fog in there."

"Understood." Kirk said. "We'll keep an open comm to the bridge and to Paris, France every step of the way."

"Good. Then do it.." Janeway told him.

----------------------------------------------------------

Kirk and the holograms and those who chose to come to Deck Six paused while he toggled the main holodeck hatch of Holoroom Three. Boothby and Avalonii had allowed them repulsors shields to wear to keep off the rebels claws should they be attacked. Phasers were pointless so they were left behind. But not the EMH and his ample medkit.  
::Drugs are wonderful things..:: Kirk smiled at the thought.  
::Perhaps we can use them..::

##Holodeck Adaptative Program is still running. Activated by Janeway Kathryn, A. on Stardate...##

"Computer belay that report and allow entry.. Kirk Epsilon Three Five Alpha.."

##Authorization accepted..## the computer replied.

The massive holodeck doors before the small group opened..

"What th--?" Lt Yar said as the sight before her amazed the senses.

It seemed to be an Earth normal day. Sunny with bright fluffy clouds drifting over hot New Mexican desert. All squinted as they looked into the distance.

"Isn't that...." Tasha stated, pointing to a low rise of twenty first century buildings nestled behind thick barbed wire fencing.

"It appears so..." Kirk said. "If memories serves me correctly on our ancient history... That's....that's..."

Holozimm finished the two Enterprise officers thoughts.  
"...Area 51, circa early 1950's earth.."

"Just what are they doing here?" Yar asked. "I thought these rebel 8472 HATE simulations of anything Earth related. I thought that that was the reason WHY they came to Earth in the first place. To harm the real Starfleet Headquarters to soothe their minds of a bad memory their superiors had inflicted upon them in the Terrasphere.."

A hot blast of air made immediate skins of sweat soak Kirk and Yar. Moriarty, Holozimm the EMH and the Lady Regina were immune to the air. The boiling wind almost took Yar's breath away and she staggered against the holodoc. "I thought Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay created this "They-think-of-it" program with the safeties on? I can barely breathe...*gasp*"

The EMH shrugged, peering about the bright daylight that was trying its best to be a giant sauna to the humans.  
"The ambient air temperature's only 120 F. Not fatal yet,  
lieutenant. And I'm afraid the holodeck isn't recreating this heat. It is backwash coming from the Fluidic Space flooding Engineering. It's only nine decks away. I'm sure that the ocean water surrounding Voyager will cool things down a bit in an hour or so. We've only just landed on the bay's floor." Then he noticed how Yar was coughing.  
"I can give you a triox to help you compensate for the dramatic environmental change. Triox B perhaps.."

Kirk piped up. "That stuff works. Why I once had a neckful of Triox battling Spock on his wed--- uh, never mind.."

Tasha was too busy turning up her repulsor belt's energy field after the doc gave her a hypo. "Setting nine should block out some of this heat.." she panted.. Soon her features relaxed as the shot and energy field glowing around her started doing their work.

Holozimm was like an eager puppy. He popped his head up over the desert hill they were on almost as tall as the saguaro cactuses rising around him. "I wonder what they're doing in there??" he asked eagerly.

Kirk and Moriarty both hauled him down by his holopants under cover. "Get down...! We wait until nightfall. Then we'll move closer to have a better look around."

Lt. Yar frowned. "But that might be hours away."

Kirk started to smile.  
"These rebel 8472 are controlling the holodeck surroundings remember? They didn't quite have the dynamics of an Earth day and night cycle down pat, now did they?"

Lady Regina pushed down her petticoats in the back where they were puffing up behind her as she stretched belly length behind the sand dune like the others.  
"That's right.. The poor things Boothby spoke of from the Terrasphere were deluded into thinking that you could simply shut off the sun like a light sw---"

A loud standard military army hooter went off in a trinary and the desert landscape before them blinked into a pitch black dead of night..

Lady Regina giggled as all of them rose to their feet back into view of the barricaded secret base below them. "They only know what was taught to them.."

The simu sky above the away team looked starred studded and peaceful, but still the oppressive heat remained, licking into their repulsor belt's fields.

"Let's go. Our time in here is limited because of the heat.." Kirk said, and he motioned for the others to follow him as he zigzagged from cactus to yucca clump, slowly working the five kilometers or so distance to the first of the barb wire's defenses surrounding the historical complex. ::I used to dream of coming here as a little boy.  
To learn just what species the military back then DID find and concealed here behind Area 51. It certainly wasn't a pair of Ferengi.:: he mused.

Then he stopped, a horrid thought coming to mind as he let Moriarty and Holozimm force up the holobarbed wire blocking their way from the dim dusty ancient aircraft field behind it. ::Ohmygod. What if it was an 8472 craft which crash landed on Earth then? It would explain why Janeway's Delta Terrasphere 8472 decided to invest an interest in humans and how we tick. They must have had a rekindled interest when she showed up offering an alliance with them against the Borg. It must have been a second meeting of 8472 with the human species if Area 51 here was the first.  
But why would four disgruntled so trained 8472 rebels go back to this time period? Surely it isn't to gain technological intelligence. Starfleet's now many light year's ahead of Area 51's era technology..::

Kirk spoke aloud as the last of them slipped under the holotorn fencing and he watched them curve the thick wires back into place. "I have a nasty hunch people. Come read this sign..."

And the holos and Lt. Yar came near enough so the glow of their repulsors lit up the hand painted sign hanging on two posts just past the fence.

[Recreation of historical Area 51. Stop number 3476 on ]  
[the world wide museum subterranean tunnel network. [Exhibit's creator : Reginald Barclay of Project Pathfinder]

Kirk felt the heat coming from the holo sign through the energy field surrounding his hand. "They think they've moved from the real Voyager into another Museum exhibit. Isn't this place holodesigned off the next stop after San Francisco and the Voyager museum along the tunnel routes?"

Holozimm nodded. "Yes. It is. How ironic. Our holodeck has fooled them into thinking they are still free running around on Earth visiting her museums.."

Kirk motioned them forward and all of them skittered across the silent steaming nighttime runway to plaster themselves against the hanger's holo-aluminum in a line, avoiding the light's swath coming from a barred glass window. Kirk summoned enough courage to look inside. His heart started beating faster when yet again, another wild hunch had proven to be entirely founded in truth. "And I think I know what they're researching.  
Janeway's crew weren't the first humans to lay eyes on an 8472."  
And he told them to take a peek into the huge hanger behind them through the window.

A dead 8472 lay stretched on an examine table while holoscientists performed a post mortem. Behind their plastic tent, a single 8472 bioship hovered above the concrete flooring. It was surrounded by simu soldiers and machine guns. Two more scientist types in biohazard suits were trying to blow torch their way into the side of the living bioship with a flame thrower to no avail. And over this whole scene. the four 8472 rebels watched it all from the shadows just beyond the lights,  
inside the hanger.

Lt. Yar sank back down outside. "Sir.. This is impossible.."  
She rubbed her face and sighed in frustration when her energy field's protective nimbus prevented her from wiping the sweat trickling in her eyes. "This whole thing has been created by... by.. by.... Reg.. You remember him.. He's Ambassador Spock's personal ettege'. He's got a history of over dramatizing all things Voyager. He most likely made the mythical aliens of Area 51 into 8472 like this.."

Kirk shook his head. "No. I don't believe so.  
You're forgetting one thing Lt. This holoprogram's parameters are being run by the rebel 8472 themselves. They may have overwritten what was already here according to Barclay's vision, mentally."

Holozimm's face began to blanche. "8472 cannot lie. What they know and teach and show others of their kind can only be the truth. So the military types examinating the 8472 scene we are seeing is a holoprogram within a holoprogram ..."

The EMH shuddered as Kirk's point suddenly became very clear.  
"...that can only be what has happened in reality almost four hundred years ago in the ninteen fifties.."

"But that predates the Vulcans.. Predates Boothby way before his Al Aurien Observer practices ever got started. This is even before we even knew others existed for sure in space.." Yar said.

"Yes. " Kirk said. "I wish Spock were here. He'd raise both eyebrows at all this. Now. Why would any 8472 come to Earth,  
to see that planet's own museums and have to kill its citizens just to get there to view THIS place? And why implant embryos and grow them inside Voyager's gelpacks? Somehow, I think Boothby's supposition that those young are part of a larger invasion force isn't true. It doesn't make sense..! They could have just superheated the gelpacks to gain telepathic cohesion with the ship, fly it in to attack Starfleet with phasers and photons blazing, and be done with it. There must be something else happening here that we aren't seeing yet. Something... with deeper meaning than just a endeavour to carry out some petty revenge." then his forehead furrowed ironically. "That is a human and Klingon trait."

"I don't know.." Lt. Yar said. "This is all too weird."

"You think its weird for you?" Regina said, boggle eyed.  
"Try seeing the mystery from my angle. I still have trouble accepting the idea that the only thing real in this desert I'm experiencing is the heat!"

"Don't forget those four huge creatures inside that artificial army structure pet." Moriarty said.

"oh yes. Them too." she blinked vacantly and she drew out a fan to "cool" herself.

Kirk sighed about the same time Lt. Yar did.

"So what do we do now?" Tasha asked him.

Kirk thought about it and then began to smile.  
"Let's drag a certain high ranking officer from sickbay right into the middle of this and see what he makes of it. After all, we'll only be relegating a problem up to a higher superior.."

Lt. Yar began to smile right back and soon after,  
Holozimm, the EMH and Moriarty as they caught on to the captain's line of logic. Tasha muttered "He's gonna need some really thick flower bed cover to hide and peek through this time..."

Regina piped up, Victorian innocent to the last.  
"Flowers? Here? I don't see any. This is the high desert, artificially created. If my senses are deceiving me, please show me the right ones.." she said,  
face blanking in puzzlement.

(attachments)

Image: Kirk hiding behind some rocks talking into his communicator.

Image: An 8472 inside a cave tunnel.

Image: Tasha Yar, standing at a bridge station,  
nervous.

**************************************************

END WEEK TWENTY RECAP 8-22-02

.org Netherlands Host Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Hub.

WEEK TWENTY ONE RECAP 8-22-02

*  
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2002 12:01:34 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: [voyagerliveaction] The Forced Hand

Seven of Nine looked at Commander Data and then again at Captain Janeway from where she sat on Voyager's center seat. She had overheard the entire exchange in sickbay concerning Boothby's rise into the incident. She watched the others still in sickbay as they kept tabs on Captain Kirk, Lt. Yar and the four holograms's progress looking in on holodeck three.

:: It would be better if I arrange an interface for the bridge and sickbay from the away team. That way,  
everyone can see what's going on.:: "Captain?" Seven said.

Chakotay and Janeway looked up from their scans of the biogel packs and their tiny fetal infestations.  
"Yes, Seven?" she asked.

"I could link a computer tie in with the holodeck so we can see what is going on as well as continue to monitor Captain Kirk's progress inside the holodeck."

"Never thought of that. Go ahead, Seven."  
Chakotay said.

"The image will appear irratic and.. staticky. That is because I'm keeping the signal on gain low, to keep the 8472 from learning that they are on a holodeck."

Data said. "I can assist Seven of Nine in building the interface."

"Do it.."

Data walked over to Tuvok's old station and his hands played out over the controls until the deep blue water on the viewer changed to a night scene. It was shot through with snow and the picture flickered out into wormy bands,  
but the connection to all of their commbadges audibly, never lessened. The image returned into a very solid one of Kirk, the EMH, Holozimm,  
Moriarty and Lady Regina pinned to the side of an old style military aircraft hanger. While Holozimm watched through the window inside,  
he asked a question. "Holozimm to the bridge,  
are you able to discern the holoenvironment around us?"

Chakotay spoke aloud, "Yes. We've just established a passive interface. It isn't very clear but we get the gist of what's going on."

"Very well, go to parameter 9B, coordinates 56: 6. You'll see something interesting." the hologram reported .

Janeway keyed in the change into the internal sensors and was shocked. "Is this what I think it is?"

She was nose to nose with a team of holoscientists performing a post mortem on a figure she couldn't see. They were wearing old style white lab coats from two hundred years ago. The hovering shadow of a indistinct ship that was tethered to the floor also had a team of scientists circling it with slates and cameras.  
Kathryn sighed. "Looks like the Area 51 Historical HoloMuseum." The only thing different was that four silent 8472 stood quietly watching it all .  
"And there's our four perpetrators. They seem absorbed in ....learning,... something.."

"That's what we surmise captain.." the EMH said.  
"But we've been very careful. They don't know we're here."

"Good work. Let's see how this plays out."  
Chakotay said. "There's no easy way for us to find out what those rebels plan for Voyager unless we let them show us."

"Isn't it obvious?" the holodoc said.  
"They are comparing events they must've learned through their oral history with how it really happened."

Janeway was confused. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"You mean, you don't see what the holohumans are working on?" Holozimm kept talking and all on the bridge could see him still looking into the windows. "Perhaps I gave you bad the computer about what the scientists are working on.."

Janeway did so..

##The non human holo character elements in this program are 8472 in origin.##

"What?!" she exclaimed. "Are you telling me that the rebels remember this event and it involved some of their own descendents?"

"Recalled the oral history on it, yes.." the holodoc said.  
"Enough to "go" to the "museum" and see how it was. So far so good for us, captain. They still don't realize they are on a holodeck. They create a reality a lot better than people do. Their own brain power is fooling them completely."

Seven of Nine tipped her head as she regarded the scene. "I knew the 8472 had no need for recording devices or written language as information and experiences shared between 8472 individuals translates telepathically without distortions. But I did not know that they exhibited a concern for the past. They are typically very present and future driven. This behavior is abnormal."

"So is spawning young "on the Outside" as our large friend here said. " Chakotay added.

The hunter 8472 had gone over to a bridge console where the base had been pulled apart to show an impregnated biogel. It was sniffing the pack and the young inside were fleeing in terror to the opposite side of their watery womb. Big Guy squealed in challenge.

"Would you look at that.." Janeway said turning around at the sound. "They are afraid of the hunter."

"Maybe the rebels are already telepathically linked to the embryos and they are telling them who to avoid." Chakotay guessed.

"But they aren't fully developed. How could they even understand that kind of communication yet?" she asked. "I don't know of one species who can talk with their unborn young."

Seven spoke. "The captain's right. It may only be a reflexive response to stimuli."

Data asked a question. "Would it help to study some of the fetal 8472 in sickbay?"

Seven said, "I don't know how that feat could be managed. The embryos are tied to Voyager through the heating gelpack's impulses."  
Chakotay glanced at Janeway who had fallen silent at the discussion of the baby 8472 infesting her ship. He added. "I agree with Seven, Data.  
These are innocent lifeforms as yet and so we shouldn't be risking them."

Janeway was again quiet, but in her mind she was hearing. ##They're leeching off your ship,  
Their parents are murderers of humankind..##

Kathryn shook her head, unaware that it was Big Guy inside her head. A headache began to form right behind her eyes and she shivered.

Seven of Nine was puzzled by the captain's refusal to enter the discussion. She let Data and the EMH go on with their theories and possible ways of dealing with the embryos while she watched Kathryn.

"Captain?" she asked..

Captain Janeway heard Seven of Nine as if through a long tunnel.

"Captain? Cappptt-tain- n- n- n- n.......?"

------------------------

Janeway was out of her body. Her mind was locked tight inside another's. One that was very angry and determined.

##You FEEL as I do Leader woman. These four runners are lives that have profaned the gifting of it. The Outsiders do not deserve to return to the Home Seas. Their offshoots are defective, for they do not know the Minds of all of Us. The good and the bad are not known in balance inside the tiny ones souls. They will be chaotic and imbalanced forever more.## ...Big Guy told her. ##This is a Permanent Flaw and so we must cull the tiny Rebel Life. You and I...##

Then a fierce mental pressure began to suddenly bear weight. Janeway grunted with effort and sweat beyond what the heat was bringing out sprang into beads on her face. She started shaking and she watched in horror as the hunter 8472 forced her hand to the armchair controls, to the transporter pad there, but it was a very small movement, very small, so that even Chakotay next to her didn't notice.

But Seven did. "Captain! No!! Data, we must stop her!!"

Seven of Nine leaped over the rail to tackle Janeway and bring her to the deck but not before the ship wide sequence to completely biodecontam transporter sweep the biogel packs came about.

On the main Viewer, Boothby, in sickbay whirled about.  
"Bridge, that d*mned Lizard was just in my head. He's got the command codes!!"

An inarticulate cry forced out of Janeway's mouth as the pad command committed. "aaggghhhhH."

Data too, leaped. He struck Janeway's hand off the arm pad, in the process, accidently snapped her wrist just as Seven finished her tackling move to get the captain away from the beaming controls.

Seven and Janeway landed on the floor hard.

Seven rose immediately to her knees but Janeway didn't move. She also, didn't seem to feel her broken arm. "What happened to her? Did that transporter command go through?! It was set on the biogel packs.."

All heads looked up at the Hunter and where he stood. ##Yesssss.....## it hissed in their minds.  
And it pointed a claw at the gelpack in the console by where it crouched. ##The defective ones have been dealt with..##

A tiny shimmer just the size of the exposed bridge gel by Big Guy blossomed and the swimming embryos inside abruptly salt and peppered and vanished.

"Data! Get them back!!" Chakotay shouted, kneeling by Kathryn where she was trembling.  
He watched her slip into a violent convulsion. "Hey....!" Then he tapped his combadge,  
=^=Bridge to sickbay, medical emergency.  
Get a doctor up here!=^=

Then Seven of Nine knew what had happened.  
She helped Chakotay keep the captain from hurting herself further in her throes. "Chakotay.  
The Hunter did this. Not the captain..He manipulated her hand using telepathy.."

"What?"

On the viewer Boothby glared. "It must be true.  
I felt him worm his way into my skull just before it happened. It's the only explanation, for Kathryn didn't know my command codes to give that pad command!"

Chakotay lifted Janeway's head onto his lap cushioning it while K'Ehleyr got out a medkit to splint her broken arm to keep it from being damaged further. "Data,  
did you track them? Where did she, I mean he,.. beam them to?"

Data said nothing for long moments as he called up the information. Then he looked up. "Ahead viewer, sir.."

The bridge main switched from the holodeck back to the deep ocean waters surrounding the ship. A new, large contained sphere of searing pink Fluidic Space hung in the water in front of the ship and inside, hundreds of fetal 8472 that had been in the biogels, appeared there,  
in shimmer into the writhing liquid inside the other dimensional bubble.

"Ohmy god. They'll freeze out there. The water surrounding them's too cold.." Barclay said.

"Tractor them in! Direct a mesionic beam over the bubble, that should create some heat for them."  
Chakotay said. "Those young can't die!"

"I'm on it.." Reg replied.

Soon, the sensors were reading that the 8472 embryos were back to the high temperature they had been at before when they were embedded inside Voyager's biogel packs.

## My intent was not to be their End. Only the High ones can kill defectives. I have only culled them from your metal shell home and packaged them to take back once I have captured the Outsiderssss#  
Big Guy said.

"You could have told us that this was what you wanted to do!" Chakotay said. "Now Release the captain's mind.!"

##That will take time human. The bond created took hours to form.##

"Take much less severing it. Seizuring like this harmful to her!" Seven snapped.

The Hunter hissed at Seven of Nine.  
##Be glad you are more Fleshed than Souless or I would Cull you too, woman.  
The stench of Borg is strong on you!##

"Cull, meaning, isolating.. in 8472 idiom."  
Holozimm said from the split viewer.

"Easy Kathryn. Help's on it way.." Chakotay told her.

On the screen from the holodeck, the EMH frowned with worry. "Commander let me beam to the bridge.. I can-"

"Stay there doctor.." Chakotay ordered "Your dematerializing might give away your presence to the rebels."

"But--"

"No..! And that's an order.."

The turbodoors parted and Dr. Pel rushed in a few seconds later. She quickly scanned the captain and gave her a muscle relaxant. A few seconds later, the convulsions died away and her labored breaths tapered off into even ones.  
Then she noticed the captain's fractured wrist. "What happened here?"

"You don't want to know. Just tend to her.." Chakotay said.

Then Dr. Pel looked up and noticed all the fetal young floating in a bubble of Fluidic Space, barely held together by one of Voyager's tractors slicing through the water. She could see the energy beam keeping them warm was weak at best.  
"Oh, no..." And her instinct of being a new mother made her heart leap in sympathy for the innocents out there, now in danger of freezing to death. "Are they ok?"

"For the moment." Seven replied.  
"The temperature of that fluid is the same as it was before they were moved."

Dr. Pel checked the captain's vitals once more and how K'Ehleyr had splinted the broken arm. But then her scans showed abnormal brainwaves. "Don't tell me,  
our bounty hunter did that through her. His brain patterns are showing up overlaying Captain Janeway's."

"Unfortunately.. How is she?"

"Besides the broken wrist? She's stable. The bond between her and the hunter doesn't seem to be harming her ...physically.. at any rate." and Denara shot a look of disgust and displeasure at Big Guy. "Her mental and emotional status when she awakens will be another thing."

##She is not damaged##

"Her arm is broken!!" Chakotay shouted.

##Your yellow artificial man did that..##

Chakotay bit down his anger and helped Denara treat Kathryn and get her set for antigraving down to sickbay.

"I'll stay with her.." Dr. Pel said, as she and a med team bore Janeway on a floating stretcher into the turbolift.  
"Don't worry, I'll keep a cam feed on her so you can keep an eye out.."  
she smiled to Chakotay. "I know how you feel about her.." Then she winked and the doors closed.

Chakotay cleared his throat self consciously as he made his way back to the center seat and sat down. He pointed to Data to take over his commander's spot on the tactical console. Then he glared at Big Guy. "Want us to isolate the rebels out there too?" he said sarcastically.

##Do not touch them. We must seek the purpose behind their crimesssss...##

Seven of Nine rolled her eyes and said.  
"Continuing to keep open holoties with the away team.."

It took a long minute for Chakotay to calm down. Then he said. "Maintain that open channel. I want no more surprises.."

Boothby on the sickbay monitor, snorted. "Likewise on my end too. Hey. Mr. Bug!! No more insinuating yourself into my brain like that. And if you come in here to get the rest of the command codes,  
I'll have the Organians come and kick your butt off the Human/8472 Treaty Board so fast,  
your scales will rattle!!"

-  
(attachments)

Image: Data's eyes in a bar gif.

Image: Janeway and Seven discussing matters in one of Voyager's corridors.

Image: Voyager, surrounded by pink Fluidic Space.

*

From : Katherine Bird .uk Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Truth and Consequences Date : Sat, 24 Aug 2002 21:46:21 +0100 (BST)

Boothby on the sickbay monitor, snorted. "Likewise on my end too. Hey. Mr. Bug!! No more insinuating yourself into my brain like that. And if you come in here to get the rest of the command codes,  
I'll have the Organians come and kick your butt off the Human/8472 Treaty Board so fast,  
your scales will rattle!!"

::Lisewise on my end.:: B'Elanna thought.  
::It was a nice thought translocating those neonates out of the bioneural gel packs but now they're all deficient in the nutrients the babies took with them:  
"Commander Chakotay.." Torres said from her engineering console. "The bioneural relay system's still intact. I don't know how Big Guy managed to move the 8472 young out without the packs losing any power, but the only marked change is that they'll need a wide spectrum nutrient boost. I'll fix some nitrogen from Voyager's air supply to route through them to rebalance their internal chemistry."

"And the breach in engineering?" he asked her.

Torres rechecked those sensors. "It's still there.  
But all that liquid biomatter that had come from Fluidic Space, is now out there.." B'Elanna said,  
pointing to the blob of bubble and babies on the main viewer. The rift itself now seems to be.....wow, crusted over... and Voyager's auto life support system is returning atmosphere into that section. The warp and impulse engines are still offline. It's going to take a while to cool the temperature down in engineering enough to allow anyone going in there to check things over."

Chakotay wiped the sweat from his forehead.  
"Any way you can turn up the air conditioning?"

"Fraid not. The vents are full capacity as it is.  
With the effects of being submersed and with Fluidic Space now off the ship,.. I guess we'll be back to normal in about three hours." said Torres.

"Keep me posted.." Chakotay said. "Make it a priority to keep power on Holodeck three uninterrupted and keep the holograms in there online through Mr. Scott's probe. Don't want to give the away team's presence to the renegade 8472 in there."

"Yes sir.." she replied. "Already on it."

Just then Neelix came out of the readyroom with a full tray of coffee. He noticed that everyone was tense and worried. Then he saw the center seat.  
"Something happen? The captain's gone.."  
Then he noticed the main viewer and the pink orb floating in the sea full of angry 8472 nymphae.  
"Oh my.. You've done it.. Congratulations. I'm sure Voyager will feel a lot better with those embryos out of her systems. heh." He presented a cup of coffee to each on the bridge in turn,  
stopping by B'Elanna's station first.

Torres reached for a cup and sniffed it. "Coffee?"

"Yes. I figured the current emergency cured the crew of their adversions to it fairly quickly."  
he grinned. Then he leaned into the engineer.  
"eh.. uh, is everything all right, lieutenant?"

"The hunter pressed an uncalled for advantage and sent the embryos off ship using its telepathy through Captain Janeway." Torres said.

"ooo,.. a forced meld. Is she all right?"

"Data accidently broke her arm getting her away from her chair controls. And it's going to take some time for Big Guy to withdraw his link with her but she's stable in sickbay. " Torres said. "Dr. Pel is staying with her until she wakes up."

Neelix nodded his thanks and then saw the images coming from the Holodeck on the split viewer.  
"And the situation there?" he pointed, still keeping his voice lowered so Chakotay and the others could work without interruption.

"That." B'Elanna smiled. "Is still a mystery.  
But I'll put it in a nutshell for you. The 8472 rebels think they are off ship and at the next Museum tunnel stop after Voyager's. The captain and commander rigged the holodeck so that it would create what they wanted most in their minds and sent in an away team to spy on them to learn more. This, is one of the exhibits Reg Barclay made of a place called Area 51."

"Ooh, I've heard of that historical place.  
Wasn't that a secret military base that had found an alien wreck in the desert during Earth's ninteen fifties?"

"It was. But no one really knows for sure if the event really happen. Some say it was a military coverup. Others, a rumor.  
All anyone really knows is that in 1997 the US government relocated Area 51 to another secret location and the public lost all track of its whereabouts."

Neelix crossed his fingers together, thinking.  
"Well, what about the aliens? What did people say they found back then?"

Torres grinned. "No one really knows.  
There were photos of alien autopsies for years on the media but most proved to be elaborate hoaxes. I've gotten a chance to see a metal alloy supposedly from the crash at that museum. It's soft,  
and can have wrinkles smoothed out by hand yet once unmarred, it becomes harder than titanium but is still feather light. Odd stuff.."  
she sighed.

"Did Starfleet finally identify the metal?"

"They never did.. It defies conventional scans."

Neelix launched into a tirade of questions about Area 51 but B'Elanna had to gently dissuade him from them. "Neelix, really I'd like to stay on the job here. We're not out of the woods yet. Engineering is still hotter than I'd like it to be and there's only a finger in the dike keeping Fluidic Space from reflooding engineering again. "

That made Neelix blink. "Huh?"

"Go check with the computer. It'll answer all your questions if you're bored. Maybe Mr. Barclay will share with you whom he thought the aliens at Area 51 were.."

"What a novel idea, B'Elanna. I think I'll just do that.. eh, is one cup enough for you?" he said, hefting up his beverage tray again.

"I'm fine with just one. I'm no Captain Janeway.  
But thanks." and she turned back to her work.

Neelix asked one other question of her.  
"B'Elanna. If that screen is showing the Area 51 exhibit according to what the 8472 rebels are dreaming up. Who did they find for the aliens.?"

"Themselves... Neelix.."

That effectively shrivelled the freckled Talaxian and his natural cheerfulness balked into a chill. "oh.." and he moved away to his next stop before a crewman with his tray.

Soon, Chakotay was the last to receive a cup and the commander swept off the last one from Neelix's server.  
He put on a grin for Neelix's benefit seeing the worried seriousness filling his face. "Want an update on things? I could tell you what's going on if it'll ease your mind."

"I've heard quite enough commander.  
Just,, just get down to the heart of matters on the holodeck would you?  
I've got a funny feeling about all this."  
Neelix replied.

"Oh? " the commander said from his seat. "Care to share your instincts?"

"I can't quite pin them down, but this feeling started when I learned from B'Elanna just who the rebels found for test subjects on the holodeck. I can't quite shake the feeling that our 8472 bounty hunter friend is hiding something. But it must be big, if he endangered the captain just to move those embryos off the ship." He said.

"Well, I don't know if he meant to do that. Species 8472 is fairly honorable." Chakotay said, and they both watched the 8472 watching the embryos and the holodeck vids on the main screen. "And yes, there's a lot we don't know about his Species.  
The tentative alliance Captain Janeway struck up with the Terrasphere heads in the Delta Quadrant seems solid enough. That branch is working with Starfleet. And they've agreed to not ever shapechange into humans again without telling us first."

"Good thing too.." Boothby piped up from the sickbay monitor Chakotay had up on his chair's screen. "I personally don't want to see myself walking around like I've read from the official reports.."

"Why not? The 8472 who impersonated you wasn't so bad, Boothby. He even gave Kathryn a rose as a goodwill gesture before we left their part of space."

"Hhmm. " grumbled the older man. "That's just it. It is TOO much like what I would've done in the same situation.."

Chakotay's face fell out of the brief humor he had crafted for the moment, "How's Kathryn doing?" he asked Boothby.

"Still unconscious. Dr. Pel and Dr. Bashir are with her now. Her arm's been fully healed and the Feinburger scans are showing that the Hunter's presence in her mind is lessening.  
Seems our hunter friend's living up to his agreement to back off."  
"But now he's parroting us!" Boothby said.  
"I've felt him in my head going over English words over and over again like some d*mned record."

Bug Guy, on the other side of the bridge,  
boomed a loud uncanny imitation of human laughter at that. And it spoke aloud in a beebuzz shiver that sent chills down everyone's spines. "D*mmnnnnd recrdddd-DDhh."

"He's here to help us.." Chakotay shrugged.  
"And if learning our language is what it takes,  
I have no problems with that. Seems telepathy with humanoids is too difficult and melds impossible for long periods without odd effects. It seemed Kathryn had seizures during hers and despite how frightening it appeared,  
the convulsions weren't physically harming her."

"Her losing awareness and consciousness isn't harm commander?" Boothby said.

"Not in my book. Her vital signs never wavered from normal according to Doctor Pel." Chakotay said to him.

Neelix parked his tray under an arm and said.  
"Well, I'll let you two debate this issue and I'll go take coffee to those in sickbay.." and he excused himself from the bridge.

Big Guy crooned, "CCofffyytosikkkbaaeeeyyy.  
I comeetoooo."

And it jammed itself into the turbolift with Neelix.

Sandwiched tightly and cheek against the wall, Neelix's nose was assaulted with the fishy mold smell coming from the Hunter and he gave a brave wave at Chakotay before the doors shut between them.

It was a long trip to sickbay and Neelix was glad the 8472 read his mind to hit the right button to get the lift to stop on the right deck. Big Guy slither stepped out of the lift and caught Neelix with his tail to steady him until Neelix recovered his balance.

"Uh,, thanks. Sickbay is.." Neelix indicated.

"Tthiiiisssswaeeyyyyyy" the 8472 completed.

Neelix hurried on ahead, almost at a run,  
with Big Guy eerily human chuckling all the while.

The Talaxian burst through sickbay's door backwards, almost in a panic and bumped into Dr. Pel to the point of making her hug him to keep him and herself from falling.

"Hey now, take it easy.. Mr. Neelix.." Denara said. "What's the problem..?"  
she said, still hanging onto to him.

Neelix came to his senses and his eyes tore finally from the door.. "Uh,, uh.  
OH, sorry Dr. Pel.. I- I- I didn't see you."  
and he sprang away from her smoothing down his lapels and hers absently in embarrassement.

"What are you running from? If you're scared of the fetal implants don't be, They've been beamed off the ship." Denara grinned.

"No, uh, see I'm not frightened I'm just-"

Then the doors from the corridor opened and Big Guy heaved his huge bulk through them and inside.

"Oh," Denara grinned. "I see. Welcome to sickbay hunter 8472." she greeted him.  
"I'm afraid the only area you'll be able to stand fully upright within is the exact center of sickbay's ward by the dome."

Big Guy said. "Sspppaaceesss smmaalllll innn tthiiissss shipppPH."

"Yes. well. Go over there and don't disturb either my baby or the captain, all right?" Dr. Pel said. "And mind your claws.. And if you wanna keep tabs on your runners, the viewer into the holodeck is on that wall by your head."

"Theyyyy ruunnnnn.."

"Yes I know.. But we've got them trapped. And you need to see what they're up to so uh,  
watch them and leave the rest up to us.  
We'll get the information you need before too long." Denara said. "Starfleet away teams are especially good at covert operations.."

Neelix walked a wide berth around the 8472 as it once again grew rapt with watching the holodeck scene that was unfolding before its eyes. His hissing died away until only the hunter's tail still twitched.

Then Dr. Pel put both hands on her hips as she regarded Neelix, who was trying to hide his trembling. "Honestly, Neelix. 8472 are not Hirogens come to hunt prey. This one is here only to capture criminals. I forgot how fearful your kind is to predator like appearing races. Do you need a calming agent? I can give you one."

"NO, uh, I'll be fine. I just won't....be drinking any coffee. Uh,, want me to replicate some for you and the counselor and the other doctors? That's the reason why I uh,, came down here."

"How thoughtful, Neelix. Yes, that'd be fine.." Dr. Pel smiled.

"Uh, what about your baby?"

"BabyPelSchmolis? Oh, don't worry. She's already had a body wafer. I'm just making another for her when she wakes up." and Denara pointed to a squarish sized lump forming on her forearm.

"Wow, " Neelix said, some of his fear falling away into curiosity. "I didn't know Vidiian mothers grow their children's food." he came nearer to look at the golden crackerlike plate slowly getting bigger under the pouch skin there.

"We do. Body wafers are so much more efficient than forming a liquid nutrient.  
My baby can make her own water so there's no need for nursing." and she shrugged.

Soon, Neelix was finished handing out refreshments to Boothby, Dr. Bashir,  
Counselor Troi, Dr. Crusher, and Dr. McCoy.

Just about then, the sickbay doors opened once again, admitting B'Elanna Torres.

Neelix smiled in surprise at Torres,  
"Lieutenant.. What are you doing here?"  
he asked pleasantly. All trace of his earlier unease had gone simply because Neelix was once again doing for others.

"The commander sent me down here to take down the metaphasic shields in here for the counselor. Now that all the Fluidic Space material is outside, Deanna doesn't need the filter on any more. That empathic and ship's sensor interference is gone." Then she noticed Dr. Pel's little one. "Ohh, there she is.."  
she melted. "May I hold her?" she asked Denara. "I've been dying to come see her."

"Sure.. Don't worry about waking her.  
Nothing short of a warp core breach could do that once a Vidiian child decides to sleep. Go ahead. Just hold her like you did Miral when she was little." Dr. Pel said, looking up from her desk where she was monitoring Captain Janeway's brain waves. "She might stiffen a little but that's just so she won't lose her place in her dreams."

B'Elanna soon had the youngster in her arms.. "She's already so big.  
She looks almost like a three month old."

"She'll be walking in a week." Dr. Pel said proudly. "The Doctor engineered a fast development for her knowing my career had me traveling all the time."

"The EMH made her for you?"

"Yes.." Dr. Pel sighed. "He cares so much for people. I had no idea that he'd give this gift of a baby, genetically constructed, to me."

"Well, you two are good friends. I remember that from Voyager days." B'Elanna said,  
returning BabyPelSchmolis back into her metal cradle. "The EMH couldn't stop talking about you even after the attempt to give you a holobody failed."

"And then the Thinktank found a cure for my people from the Phage and I signed up as a liaison to the Federation. A happy ending for us all." Dr. Pel grinned.

But then the two women noticed Neelix standing over Captain Janeway's biobed where she lay with her eyes closed and then went to his side.

"Neelix.." Torres said. "Everything's fine here. Don't you remember what I told you on the bridge?"

"I do.." Neelix said studying Janeway's face and hanging onto the biobed console.  
"I mean, she's not even in a patient gown and-  
and she's been left her in her uniform so that in itself means that she's not seriously hurt. I know.." he said. "It's just that.."

"Just what, Neelix.?" Torres asked.

Neelix pointed over at Big Guy in the middle of sickbay. "He's still linked with her..." he said in disgust. "Who knows what he's pulling from her mind, or what he's even telling her in there..."

Boothby said. "Can't be much beyond language lessons Neelix. That's what he's doing to me."

"Yeah, but, you aren't unconscious. Mr. Boothby.  
And that's the difference.." Neelix insisted.

"Your point Talaxian..." Boothby said, crossing his arms..

"I don't HAVE a point really.. It's just that.  
it's just that.. something....doesn't feel right. and and has me worried.." and he lowered his eyes to study the captain's face again.

B'Elanna raised her eyebrows. "You're really serious about all this aren't you..?"

Neelix set a hand on Janeway's shoulder and looked up. "You bet I am. I'm creeped out a lot past just the usual willies my race is always accused of.."

"All right.. if it will make you feel better. "  
Torres said, "I'll speak with Big Guy and see for myself what he's up to.. Sound fair enough??"

"Just be careful.." Neelix said and he grabbed B'Elanna's hand briefly before letting it go.

B'Elanna frowned in puzzlement as she watched Neelix settle down onto a stool to continue his watch over the captain.  
He didn't let go of her hand nor look away from her face even as Torres walked away. ::Now that's odd behavior even for Neelix. He's as protective over her right now as he used to be for Kes whenever something was seriously wrong with her.::

Then Torres had an idea. "Dr. Pel.  
Do me a favor. Put me on a cerebral scan and see what happens. I'm going to go have a "talk" with Big Guy over there. Neelix seems to think something's up with the captain still."

Dr. Pel pursed her lips thoughtfully and with curiosity. "Huh.. All right."  
and she tapped her combadge.  
"Computer. Tie in a medical scan on B'Elanna Torres and link a live vitals and brain scan to the sickbay terminals for the next fifteen minutes.  
Visual only.." Then she regarded Torres.  
"You mean something like that..?"

"Yeah.. I guess.." and she moved off to stand before Big Guy.

"Hello there.." she said, looking up at him. "May I have a moment with you? Won't take long. Then you can go back to watching the holomonitor and I won't disturb you further.."

The 8472 seemed to shudder as it called its mental attentions away from somewhere else and it looked down at the tiny humanoid woman before him.  
B'Elanna felt a vague unease as the glowing yellow predator eyes focused on her own and she felt small as she saw her own reflection in their cross shaped pupils. It spoke in her head even as it tapped into her language memories at the same time. ::Here's that lesson tap Boothby told me about..:: but soon that link cut off. ##You have another talking way in there. I cannot use you to learn/speak Human.## he sent mentally.

"Sorry about that. I'm half Klingon. I was raised with two I didn't come to offer you my english language experience.  
I want to know what you're up to beyond recapturing those runaways from your society."

##How do you mean halvedwoman? I give your healers an oath that I release the leaderwoman from the bond link as fast as it can be done.## he replied.

B'Elanna caught a glimmer of mental hesitation. "Ah, ha. I felt that. You can't hide it from me. You've an alterior motive past just capturing the rebels and it involves Captain Janeway doesn't it?"

## I no understand. Your peoples and I are treatied. I by my laws and yours cannot create deceit beyond my duty to return wrongdoers to my people's realm for punishment.##

Torres let her imagination run wild. "Yes, but what a perfect plant you are.  
You can go anywhere now inside our heads.  
At will. And we can never know what you're learning mentally because none of us are telepathic. Are you perhaps, spying on us as the away team is now spying on your criminals on the holodeck?"

##You speak unsolid surmises, halfwoman,  
that I think you craft as an attack on my honor.##

"Oh?" Torres said, crossing her arms over each other and letting her defensiveness show. "I think not. You'll forgive my wild guesses here. Let me shoot some of them your way for you to mull over. Is that all right with you?"

## It is acceptable. A new source of human talk for me to study.##

"Fine.." and Torres let loose.  
"Seven years ago, this ship and her crew ran into the heart of Borg territory and survived the initial encounter. That surely must have gotten your people's curiosity up. I mean,  
how can a simple ship built by a physically weak race of bipeds stand up to the might of the Borg. And then Captain Janeway came along with a new angle of thinking, inadvertantly,  
getting involved with your war with the Borg when your military's front lines attacked Voyager and she was forced to ally with them to save herself and her crew from your kind. She was just one woman.  
And yet she and her tiny ship did so much damage to your old military's invasion fleet. Am I getting close?"

B'Elanna "listened" carefully to her instincts for any mental reaction from Big Guy as he absorbed all she was telling him.  
::There!:: she thought.. There's another hesitation:  
Then she flung home the real question. "Aren't you really here to analyze the woman who brought down your military's might for the first time in your people's history instead of just the organization responsible for training her?"

There was one second of clarity before a storm of mental images and pure rage swept down on Torres in a crushing wave. B'Elanna grunted once and she vaguely heard the sickbay life monitor on herself begin to wail alarms.  
She fell to her knees and then onto her face and then..and then...her mind was in another place...

--------------------------------------------------

B'Elanna Torres opened her eyes to a bright coral lit space. A brillant peach fire glowed in the area her mind called the sky and she felt a familiar presence near her.  
::Captain Janeway!!::

Torres saw Janeway turn to her, her face was full of a serious worry and then the captain pointed to a patch of fire that was a little brighter than the rest.

B'Elanna squinted and she seemed to see three truly huge 8472, one of them albino,  
seated at high podiums ringing the two women.

A big mental voice boomed inside her head.  
##Your ship leader stands accused of interference with the progression of 8472 in their natural evolutionary process. This is a violation of not only our Way but your own laws. Ship Propulsion Master, you do not stand accused.  
Why do you come to us?##

B'Elanna winced as a heavy mental weight almost paralyzed her voice. "I ...did not choose to come. The one you sent after the runaways ....ugh!!!" And a new wave of pain hammered behind her eyes.

## He is our representative, Sent to seek the ones who impeded the Way and brought the End to Many in an act without honor.  
Your Captain Janeway is one identified with doing this evil.##

Captain Janeway shouted up to the judging 8472 and directly at the Albino, knowing him to be the ultimate accuser. "I was only protecting Voyager. Even in nature, prey has defenses against predators. Why am I accused simply because my defense worked against those threatening my crew?"

The Albino stood, and seemed to grow larger in the pink fire curling about its insectoid head.  
##Because you reacted in a force far greater than that plied to you. A billion fell against your healer and mostly fleshed borg woman's deceits!  
Is that a balanced reaction in the eyes of nature?  
NOOO!## it roared and the other judges near it echoed in the sentiment.  
##Even now, we learn your mouth speak talk to tell your Federation leaders we take Captain Janeway as a captive accused. By our Way she is a criminal of the highest order and we will have justice for those billion who met the Final Black out of turn because of her..##

B'Elanna quailed, getting a really bad feeling about the whole experience mentally unfolding inside her head. ::Captain Janeway did do many many questionable things in order to get us home. Have they finally caught up with her?::

B'Elanna knew with certainty that her hands were tied, now that she knew the nature of the situation surrounding the captain.  
"This is now an issue of the judgement of the law rulers between our peoples. I am not the one who can have a say on this matter. But I can bring you one who does.  
His name is Boothby."

Then she shouted to the air. "We have an ancient law, one that was signed into the treaty between the 8472 of the Terrasphere and Voyager on behalf of the Federation before we left that region of space. It is called the Geneva Convention .." and she felt an inexplicable sadness begin to fill her as the portent of the crime being weighed against Kathryn Janeway sank in.  
"That no prisoner of war shall ...be harmed or treated inhumanely until a judgement of trial is carried out.  
I expect you people to honor that as we will for the rebels who've killed the humans in the rain forest. They are now confined on Voyager's holodeck."

##That is a different matter. Those teen 8472 are exiles living their own Way outside 8472 society. Deal with them as you must. They are no concern for us. The hunter who accompanies your vessel has a dual purpose, one, too End the exiles activities, and, second, to bring the woman who slayed a whole generation to us. And his second purpose he....has....done...We will use him as the 8472 Way respresentative to your people's law givers. He is the one to speak for us in this matter of moral wrongdoing done by the Voyager captain to us.. Now go..Leave us.. We have much information to gather to show the proof of her crimes.##

A great rush of Fluidic Space seemed to rise and tug Torres backwards and away from the strange room of high judges. Even the albino 8472 had disappeared.

B'Elanna flung a hand out to Captain Janeway and they grabbed hands.  
"Captain.! Hang on to me.. maybe I can drag you back to consciousness with me..!" she shouted over the rush of fluid roaring about her.

But Captain Janeway gripped B'Elanna's fingers one by one until she had peeled them free. "No B'Elanna. Just tell the others what's happened. I've already agreed to stay mentally in Fluidic Space until the matter is settled. It's my duty to stay. You know that.  
If I'm to be accused for my past actions then I will stand to face the consequences for them.  
Perhaps this is my cost for wanting to get you all home so badly."

"No,..." and B'Elanna clung to her in a huge hug and tears flowed down her face. "This isn't fair. You were just saving our lives,  
like any leader should. We were not the agressors then!"

"I know, B'Elanna. That is something that's going to have to be proved in court."  
Janeway said. "Now go back to Voyager.  
I'll be fine. They haven't harmed me. And now you've refreshed their memories about the Geneva convention, that'll doubly assure my continued safety and well being until trial.  
Shhh, go. Tell them about everything!" she choked in emotion. B'Elanna felt the captain tighten her grip about her but then the currents came between them and forced them apart. Torres saw Janeway wash away down a funnel of peach fire towards the direction of the albino's podium.

Then she was awake and choking on vomit,  
lying on sickbay's floor with the loud med alarms on her own biosigns screaming into her ears.

B'Elanna let the doctors clear her mouth with desperate swipes and then she herself spit out bile that had surged from her stomach. Soon she was fully awake and aware, back from the shocking abrupt mental shifting she had endured. "I'm fine.. *cough* I'm fine.  
Let me up!!"

Dr. Pel gripped Torres by the shoulders and said.  
"Not until the nausea has past. Let us be sure you are fully awake again and in full control of your muscles. I don't know what happened but something made you slip into convulsions just like what happened to Captain Janeway. Only yours made you sick."

"That's because I fought them trying to make me leave.." Torres said.

"What?" Dr. Pel asked.

B'Elanna sat up, letting Dr. Crusher support her shoulders, she weakly tapped her combadge until she got the bridge and only cracked open her eyes long enough to make sure both the Hunter and Boothby were watching her.  
=^=Torres to the bridge. We've got serious problems.. The 8472 are putting Captain Janeway on trial for genocide!!=^=

-  
(attachments)

Image: Neelix watching Janeway on the bridge.

Image: B'Elanna cry hugging Janeway.

Image: A baleful 8472 head looking at you.

*  
From : "Cory Anda" Subject : The Thousandth Man-- Date : Sun, 25 Aug 2002 08:56:25 +0000

Reginald Barclay saw that Voyager's bridge was now nearly empty. Neelix had departed for sickbay and was followed by the 8472. And then it was Torres who left to attend "Something about a shield"  
in sickbay. He glanced around the ocean waters blue lit bridge, and saw Chakotay,  
now in the command chair, sitting with K'Ehleyr in his normal seat. They were keeping the fluid globe full of 8472 young outside in the currents, warm and contained inside a tractor beam. Khan was still standing by the science station along with Ardra and they both looked severely out of their element.

And Mr. Spock and Data with Seven of Nine were hard at work analyzing Voyager's internal sensor reports which were outlining the small failures of ODN conduits blown out because of the heat rise that had come from engineering. K'Ehleyr and Alexander were studying the away team on the holodeck projecting from the main viewscreen.

Of everyone, Reginald Barclay felt he himself was doing the least to help in either monitoring or trying to fix their present immobilized two hundred feet under the ocean's surface predicament. It was embarrassing. And once again he felt grateful to have made himself useful when it counted the most, in bringing Voyager home. ::Even though that was five years ago..:: he thought. ::Still..::

But then a burst of communication came from sickbay. And the visual pickups on Janeway's biobed suddenly oriented on the person delivering the priority intraship's hail to the bridge..

=^=Torres to the bridge. We've got serious problems.. The 8472 are putting Captain Janeway on trial for genocide!!=^=

"What?!" Chakotay said slapping his chest insignia in startled shock.

There was a mad scramble of sound as three doctors urgently told Torres to not get up and there followed sounds of a struggle.

For about fifteen seconds, muted fast talking that was indistinct came between Boothby and the doctors and Torres and a new voice,  
deep and threatening, that Chakotay knew was the Hunter. All warbled indistinctly over the frequency.

Finally, he could wait no longer. "Sickbay this is the bridge. Status report! What's going on down there?!" he said rocketting to his feet.  
"Respond.. I am supposedly still the second highest officer commanding this ship. So someone answer me! Immediately!!" he ordered.

Boothby came online. "Sorry about that commander.  
But a new patient was trying to go against medical orders and tried to leave sickbay. I suppose you heard that last bombshell?"

"How could I miss it?" Chakotay shouted angrily.  
"An 8472 trial? Against Kathryn?"

"Yes, unfortunately. Once Lt. Torres was fully coherent, I got out her whole account." Boothby said. "It now seems the Hunter 8472 is the lawyer for the Entire Realm of Species 8472,  
and they are pressing the charge of Genocide against Captain Janeway. Her consciousness is being imprisoned in Fluidic Space until, pending, the outcome."

"But that's--!!"

"Hear me out, commander!. Nothing effective ever gets done if you're guided by blind fury!"  
Boothby exploded. "I must have told you that a billion times when you were a cadet mister.  
Don't you remember any of those times?!"

Chakotay grumbled into silence. It took all of his control to listen to Boothby closely. ::And he's now my commander. Whether I like it or not. Oh, Kathryn. Be well.:: "Is she harmed?"

"No. B'Elanna said she was scared but mentally intact. She understands the situation against her and has chosen to abide by the Judging 8472's wishes until a trial can be legibly arranged and carried out." the older man said gently.

Chakotay toggled on Boothby's image on the main viewer, shrinking away the now seeming insignificant problem of the orphaned neonate 8472 floating in the water outside Voyager. "What can we do? Anything?"

"Nothing.. Until we, and the ones accusing her,  
can understand each other verbally, nothing can yet happen on our end. " Boothby insisted.

Reginald Barclay and Spock had been listening quietly from their stations while the whole conversation came over the bridge pickups.

The ambassador was calmly reflective while he absorbed the facts but Barclay, was just about frantic with anxiety. So he let Spock know about it.  
"Sir.. Let me take out a shuttle and go into Fluidic Space. I can get her out of there in.."

Spock raised a doubtful eyebrow. "Just how do you propose to locate Captain Janeway after you spend exorbative amounts of your shuttle's energy in getting there? Boothby just mentioned that she is in Fluidic Space only mentally. Look at your internal sensors. Lt. Her physical body is still here on Voyager inside sickbay, on biobed two."

"Oh, uh sorry, must have missed that."

"Your emotions are clouding your perceptions again Lt. Trying releasing them and clarity will return."

But Barclay did just the opposite.  
He bellowed. "This isn't happening..! It's so unfair.."  
Barclay shot to his feet, and started to pace. He could no longer pay any attention to the conversation flying between Boothby and the commander, so he started one of his own. "Sir..we can't just sit here." Then his face rippled in eagerness. "I know.. why don't you go down to sickbay and mindmeld with her...or .....or.  
or even with the Hunter.. Anything, even, to get to the bottom of this..oh please, don't say no..." he insisted when Spock started to angle his head in negation. Reg bit his knuckle thinking very hard.

::Of all people who mean the most to me from Voyager, Captain Janeway must be top of the list.  
I've got to get somebody to her that can save her:  
Then he snapped his fingers and grinned wildly.

"Boothby said earlier that the 8472 was trying to learn English through him. Now, is that fair to Kathryn that the only 8472 that can understand and translate anything we say back to those three 8472 High Judges,  
just happens to be, the Hunter who tracked her down?"

"Lt. that 8472 has threatened to disembowel me if I ever attempted a meld on him. The mere idea of any humanoid attempting mental communication with any 8472 is an idea that is violently repugnant and highly offensive, to them."

"But sir.. "

"My answer....."

"Please ambassador, try to realize the underlying importance of it all. This isn't just about who's right and who's wrong. It's about saving someone's life, sir..."

"...is..yes.. I will make the attempt.."

But Barclay still rolled on in his passionate litany.  
"Spock you have to stand by your fellow officers.  
Janeway is a valuable asset to Starfleet still.  
You can't just stand by and let them...." His eyes flew open.. ".whaa??"

"My answer to your question about whether or not I would attempt a mindmeld, is yes..Lieutenant."  
Spock said again. "It would be illogical to stand idylly by and not assure ourselves of Captain Janeway's continued safety under the 8472 High Judge's confinement. I will make the contact, with her. " And the older Vulcan rose in his robes from the science seat and waited until Chakotay and Boothby noticed him standing by the upper rail.

The two arguing men stopped in mid sentence when they saw Spock raise a finger to his lips in a very human like gesture of....Shhhh.

"The lieutenant, " and Spock indicated Barclay next to him, "...feels I am not carrying out my duties to the best of my abilities." Red shot fully up from his chest to the very tip of Reginald's nose and his mouth opened and closed like a fish in total mortification.

But Spock continued, obvious to the reaction he was creating. "...so I ask permission to leave the bridge to initiate a continuous mindmeld with Captain Janeway to ascertain her true status.  
and secondarily, let you all know what I find through any means I can dream up."

On the viewer from sickbay. Boothby's mouth flashed open in an astonished toothy "oh".;  
Then he exclaimed. "Mr. Spock! You're beautiful! That's what I call using the power of gray matter er.. in your case, milky green.."

"Actually it was the lieutenant who thoug--" Spock began.

"Permission granted."  
"Permission granted." said Chakotay and Boothby simultaneously.  
They looked at each other in surprise but Spock had already left for the turbolift with Barclay on his heels.

When they had looked back, only the barest glimpse of Spock's white ambassadorial robes and Barclay's gold uniform was visible through a closing crack of the bulkheads.

Chakotay pointed a finger at Boothby. "I don't care how high a rank you hold Boothby. If you don't let me know point for point what happens down there, an instant faster than the computer does, I'll personally impale you on a spear next vision quest we embark upon."

"Why commander. You and I have never gone on one of those eye journeys--"

"That's vision quests."

"....whatever...before..." he finished.

"Easy enough to arrange Boothby. I'm the one who teaches the high brass about mind control exercises at the Academy in the mandatory refresher courses, and now that I know you are the highest kind of brass.....Don't push me!" he said more frown than smile.

"I wouldn't dare.." the old flower man grinned, then his face flattened. "I'll be six inches from both their faces commander during the whole thing. Watch for me." and the screen snicked out while the computer shuffled its visual feeds to Boothby's keyed commands from his sickbay terminal.

Then, on the bridge the split screened, ahead viewer zoomed in on Kathryn's pale sweaty face and stayed there.

"Hurry up Spock. Move it. " Chakotay muttered to himself,  
balling a fist from his place in the command chair, "I'd just assume beam you to site to site to sickbay, but Boothby's got the monopoly on the transporter codes.."

Chakotay's fist twisted even tighter when the close framed camera angle showed Janeway's mouth begin to curl in a wisp of fear, even through her unconsciousness.

::Get that Vulcan lead out!:: his mind screamed.

Chakotay would have given anything to run full tilt to sickbay to be there with Kathryn but duty held him firmly nailed in his place. ::There isn't another officer around who's familiar enough with Voyager to take over for me up here. Where's the d*mned calvary when you need it most?::

-------------------------------------------------------------

Reginald Barclay almost balked at the entrance to sickbay when the stench of moldy fish and vomit pinched his nostrils.

Spock paused only long enough to say,  
"No one is in danger in here, lieutenant. There's nothing to fear as yet." he said low to Reg to spare it being overheard by the others.

Then the ambassador was quickly inside and paused at the place where the Hunter 8472, now Kathryn's prosecutor, waited. The older Vulcan lifted fingers and said, "Live long and prosper,  
Species 8472. I ask the right of counsel for the accused. This is stipulated in Starfleet Law and in the annals in renditions from your Ancient Lore of the Ways of Life. I am the one to be.  
that adjudicator."

Big Guy hissed and his crossed gold eyes narrowed briefly. But then they unfocused as he seemed to be getting a mental order from within. "Yyooouu mmmaaayyy paassss, twwooo llleeeggggeerr."

Spock waited only long enough for the hunter to give a short dip of the head and he pressed past the huge 8472 and to Kathryn's bedside. At his look, Neelix rose and lifted his chin.  
"I don't pretend to understand what you're going to do next, Mr. Vulcan, but Tuvok never harmed the captain .." he said, then he gave Kathryn's hand one last squeeze. "so I don't suppose you will, either.."

Spock moved to Captain Janeway's head and studied her lifesign readings displaying on the overhead screen on the wall for long moments.

Dr. Pel rose from the EMH's monitoring desk, "Ambassador Spock. Anything I can do for you? Do you want my report on her condition?" she smiled professionally.

But then she saw Spock curiously grip the Voyager captain's face, some of his hand resting over her nose and mouth with a splay fingered palm. Kathryn gasped in response and her breathing caught, uneven.

"Just wait a minute!!" she shouted, rushing near.  
"What do you think you're doing trying to suffocate my patient like--"

Bones McCoy stopped her concerned rush,  
by grabbing Denara by the arm. "It's ok, Spock's not going to hurt her. He's going to talk to her." And he smiled. "He's done it to me dozens of times."

Reginald spoke up, "It's called a mind meld.  
Spock's going to link to the captain's mind to see how she is and if he can learn anything new."

Dr. Pel's eyes widened but slowly she relaxed,  
and Bones let her go. "All right..if ..if ..if I continue to go right on monitoring her..?"

"Be my guest.." Boothby said. "These Vulcan/Human mindmelds cause different reactions in its participants every time, but none has ever been recorded in Starfleet records, as being dangerous."

"Let me be the judge of that.." Dr. Pel said with a frown, quickly keying up a deeper brain scan of the captain.

"Spoken like a true doctor.." Dr. Crusher grinned.  
"I, too, have seen Vulcan human mind melds. One of my staff on the Enterprise used to do it all the time with patients in comas. Dr. Selar. Ah, how I miss her."

Deanna Troi took a seat near Spock and Boothby by Kathryn's head as Spock's hand seemed to lock into place against her skull until his fingernails blanched. Then the ambassador began to speak and more than one officer unfamiliar with the mental abilities of Vulcans, supressed a shiver at how primally deep his voice had become.

Troi closed her eyes to let the meld's emotional repercussions fill her. Dr. Crusher knelt by her side and flipped open a medical tricorder on her friend to watch Deanna's reactions.

Spocks' lips parted just as Kathryn's breathing shallowed and slowed to only a few breaths a minute. "My mind to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts. I am crossing a void, to meet you, and you, are doing.. the same, Kathryn Janeway. Hear my voice, my mind.. my soul,  
and..answer.."

Reginald's eyes bugged out of his head with the strain of him paying such close attention and finally the air burned his eyes from his immobility. He blinked.... and swallowed.  
Then he spoke, his quiet voice making those around him jump at the noise.  
"Uh,,,......... oh! didn't mean to startle everyone,  
but uh, does anybody want a drink of water? I don't know about you, but my throat is very very dry all the sudden.."

Dr. Pel silenced him irritatedly by thrusting a glass of the liquid into Reg's hand and shushing him.

Then she turned back to the tight cluster of crew around Janeway's biobed.

"My mind to your mind. My thoughts to yours. Allow me inside your mind, in the place I need to be, for us to.......communicate.... My mind to yours. My thoughts to yours.. Ever deeper.  
Kathryn until our minds become............."

========================================

##One..##

Spock was swept into a rushing torrent of searing pink plasma that seemed to burn away his skin and hair the harder he pressed mentally against it.

Soon the agony flared so great, that he screamed...

"Don't fight it ambassador. Just,...let it take you.."  
came a deeply feminine voice in his head.  
"Fluidic Space is alive and so it shapes itself to whatever is imagined in sensation, even if it never changes visually. Come on, easy...just relax.  
Easy.... don't struggle.."

Spock fought down his first irrational impulse that vocalized his distress and soon,  
his mind disciplines kicked in, creating a calmness however false, into his psyche. The impossible heat and pressure against his sense of self and body, faded to a tolerable level.

"That's it.." said the voice, now very close. So close he felt it whisper in his ear. "Ouch.. hold still.  
They've put us together."

Spock opened his eyes. And suddenly felt his back, pressed tightly against another's and his hands and feet were tied with searingly bright energy cording, to a second set of smaller ones. "Captain Janeway.."

"Yes.." she spoke. "Why did you come to see me?"  
she spoke, not even twisting in her imprisoning bonds even as he did.

"To ascertain the level of your well being.. Captain."  
Spock said, staring off into the nebulous, glowing peach ether surrounding them. "Fascinating. I didn't anticipate not being allowed to physically,..see you, nor our being tied up, back to back, like this."

"Yeah, well, can't say the 8472 have much going for them in the interrogation-with-style department. There's nothing in the Geneva convention that says council has to see their representative. Only that they be.."

"..allowed to speak with them." Spock completed. "And it seems they followed those directives, to the letter..."

"Only a nonhumanoid .couldn't .... understand just how cruel not seeing a familiar face could be.."

"You are well, captain?" Spock said. He concentrated on her thought patterns to see if he could determine that on his own. But again, the peach fluid around them kept them distant in all ways except touch and vocal communication.

Janeway felt him shift his grip around until Spock had a hold on her pulse point at the wrist, trying to judge her mental condition through the count of her non real heartbeat. "Easy ambassador.. That's the one Data broke.."

Immediately, the grip let go.

"I'm joking Spock. Doesn't hurt anymore.  
Trying to ease the tension of just.....waiting.... You have no idea how it is knowing that you're on display as a war criminal before trillions of angry 8472 and that the only thing holding them back from utterly destroying you is a thinly spread code of honor." and she chuckled. "I'm sure the doctors repaired my fracture long ago. I've just not been connected to my body enough to have felt the change occur there. I still remember the moment it snapped clearly, and the sound of it keeps repeating itself horribly in my mind.. It's the last memory I had before I came here. And...and...and..it's the exact moment when my own individual freedom, ..ended.."

The stuttering in her voice told Spock just how vulnerable Janeway's center self had become.

"Despairing over your situation is illogical captain.  
It wastes energy and lessens the integrity of your integrated....katra."

Spock felt Kathryn stop trembling for a moment and he felt her shift around as if trying to catch a glimpse of him, but the bonds prevented her. "Katra..? What's that? Tuvok never mentioned that term before on..." and her voice cut off.

The Ambassador felt a brief burst of sadness through the ether reach him like a bright stab of glass into his awareness. "What happened to him, captain? Doesn't he share your Academy lecturing duties with you?"

A long period of time passed and just the howl of the lonely peach fog drifted around them, making both Vulcan and Human dizzy, until both closed their eyes in defense against it to relearn where they began and the nebulous plasma ended.

Finally Spock heard Kathryn speak again.  
"No. He isn't, ambassador. He developed Bendaii's syndrome and,.. oh god.. everyday, um.  
everyday,... each time I visit him, he ..he grows a little more, insane.. Sometimes I feel he no longer recognizes me."

Spock felt a thrill of remorse rise in himself, an equal memory, of equal pain. Of another, aging Vulcan wasting away with an obscure neurological disease. This time, it was Kathryn who felt the sharp bite of Spock's pain. "Who was that, Spock?"  
Then just as quickly, she said, "No. Never mind.  
I know how private Vulcans are about personal matters. Oh, and did I apologize for the fact that they are making me physically touch you?  
I know how disturbing it is for your people to handle that in anyone who has mentally undisciplined emotions."

"We are not touching physically, Kathryn. This is a mental connection, one being allowed by the 8472 of this realm, to honor the Convention. I am not feeling your emotions captain. For some odd reason, this dimension smothers them. I felt a strong one moments ago. Only when ....you mentioned.. Tuvok.."

Again, a brief burst of remorse and sadness,  
escaped her.

Spock absorbed it gratefully. But then felt it was the right thing to do to identify the reason why she had felt a likewise emotional turmoil, in him. "The person you saw a few moments ago, was my father, Sarek.  
He passed from life from Bendaii's Syndrome. And the last man to see him before he died, was not I .  
It was Captain Picard of the Enterprise D."

"I see." came her whisper, near his ear, and her sweat sodden hair crunched against his neck where their heads met due to their tight confinement against each other.

Spock shifted a shoulder until her head rested more easily against his bony frame.

"Are you saying that Tuvok won't know me anymore near the end? And that I won't bother to see him when the time finally comes for him to--"  
and her voice broke off in a choke of pain.

Spock felt her body shudder and waves of deep grief pelted his mind and he heard her begin to sob, ..silently,.. trying to conceal it from him.

He respected her moment of weakness and let her gather herself back into focus and time for her to back out of the desperate fear he knew she must have been feeling.

"Then we have a commonality in that experience.  
Do not feel guilt if your duty does keep you away from him, then. For if Tuvok is anything like my father was. He'll wish you to do your calling ,  
instead of seeing him finally die, so undignified and UnVulcan. "

"Those are deep words, Spock." she said after a long interval. "But,.....I think... I understand them. You must be very wise to suggest this.."

"I cannot take the credit for it, captain. It is a conclusion my second mother told me, after I berated myself about it for an entire year, while serving on Romulus."

He felt her breath go in, tightening the cords around them, and felt her holding it inside her chest. Then she let it out in an ironic quavering sigh. "Puggghhhhh... Your second mother sounds a little like my only mother. Her name is Gretchen. She too is wise beyond her years. But she too, lost my father, Spock, while horribly apart from him. He...died in a prototype starship crash in the Artic. I couldn't save him....nor my fiance either for that matter." she said very quickly.

Spock could almost see the dark old memory weigh on Kathryn's face in his mind's eye. But then his indelible human curiosity and a little bit of Bones McCoy's bad-habits-rubbed-off, took him.  
"But your personnel files say.. that your significant other ..or fiance...was Mark Johnson. Is he not still living? I thought someone fitting that name attended Voyager's homecoming ceremony and spoke there on your behalf in your honor."

Janeway began to laugh; openly,  
the pall of sadness and pain in her shattering briefly into the first good feeling since Spock joined her confinement.  
"Mark? Oh, he's still a good good friend. My first fiance was Hobbs. Someone who won my heart away with invites to forbidden rock quarries for equally forbidden explorations into their underwater caves for natural tankless freedives. About Mark? He's now married with children of his own. Why he did that and the reason why he broke up with me is quite simple, really. You see he---..." and she broke off...

"Thought you were dead.... ..being lost for so long.. on your ship.."

"....yes.." she sighed, and a tear fell on Spock's hand from the angle in which she held her head, still futilely trying to see him, for the visual comfort of knowing someone was truly there with her.

Again, Spock felt her cry. This time for a long time. He afforded her faked polite privacy until at last she said. "I'm ok.. I'm ok.. *sniff* Change the subject Kathryn now.. Um.. This is just one situation that you can't plan for, know what I mean? I've only felt this way one time before,  
in any place, anywhere. I feel like I'm surrounded by ten thousand homocidal maniacs. Felt that way all alone on a Borg Cube once. And....it's a feeling that I simply can't.....stand. Oh God, Spock. I think I'll go mad being all alone in this Space,  
with all of them, ....watching me,.. as if I were some kind of horrific...demon..And they might not even decide to murder me...And I don't want to ever be alone again.."

Spock stared out into the distant pink fire which surrounded them in their isolation and willed comfort into the tiny woman next to him. "There is a term... Th'y'la. It means one bonded, soul to soul. The Betazoids have a similar word, Imzadi. Beloved. We Vulcans do not have the concept's meaning confined in one utterance. "Untouched but forever touching.  
Apart, but never parting." It is a condition of two people who have a connection that will go beyond life. A human book outlined the concept, in a poem.. Nine hundred ninety nine men will say they are your brother and will fall with you in battle. But the thousandth man..."

"Will stay by your side, to the grave....and then beyond.." Janeway finished softly. "I've heard of that. My father had that poem in our family library. I encountered it one night when I couldn't sleep during a loud storm." She gave a small sigh. "I understand it, but I haven't found any of that quality in myself."

"It is not one for the self, Kathryn. But a characteristic to be endowed upon your closest other."

"hmmpph.." Kathryn sighed numbly inaudible.  
"I'm tired... Just let me...sl---"  
And the back of her head grew heavier on his shoulder. Suddenly, even her despair soured into something totally frightening to Spock. A complete and utter, giving up, on her part of the meld.

Spock could feel her growing weaker. "Captain.. "

She did not reply.

"Captain... you must fight to stay yourself.  
All hope isn't yet lost. My closest friend, my T'h'yla.  
Always tells me,.. There are always possibilities.  
Have you heard of that? Kathryn.. Can you hear me..?"

"Uhh huuhh..James Kirk is the one who coins that phrase."

"Indeed." Spock said. "He is, my T'h'yla. My thousandth man..." Spock felt Kathryn's mental presence still fading from him despite all he could do. So he began shouting. "Kathryn Janeway!  
Listen to me, not to them. They can't get at you.  
I won't allow it. For they don't have you completely.  
Not by their Way. Nor by our laws. So don't give in to them. Not yet."

Kathryn seemed to be growing lighter as well as more mentally opaque, inside Spock's tenuous hold on her mind.

Then a strange part of him, a deep and private part, released all caution to the wind and he truly reached out to her, for the first time to her deepest thoughts through a sharing as deep as his heart could go for another who was both a friend and colleague.

"You said, that first day in the cafeteria that you didn't want me to hear you speak about human hybridization, at the Academy lecturing hall, because I AM one. You were afraid that I wouldn't understand you. Well,  
I know you captain. And I know you well. And I will prove it. Answer me this!

Do you know who your T'h'yla is?

::No.::

Well,.. I .. do..!!"  
he exclaimed, louder than the surging peach fire wrapping in around them.

Then he whispered so softly, that she heard him easily. "He is the one who ordered me here from the bridge saying that he'd give anything to be here with you now. So I am here, in his stead, and I won't be leaving you, as he wishes, until all .  
is said....and done. So you won't be alone, Kathryn Janeway. No matter what comes. Know that, at least....

.........So hang on, .....

And survive...

Not for me...

Only... for ..him...."

From a great distance, he felt the faintest glimmer from Kathryn, and then more of her start to surge back, next to him, from the insanity she almost let rule her soul and she spoke one three syllabled word full of spirit and life..

"Chakotay........."

And then Spock knew that Kathryn wouldn't die mentally or emotionally, , not then, or ever, until somebody actually killed her against her will.

"To hell and back.... she shall go..." he sighed. And a single full, joyful tear dampened his face.

Ambassador Spock turned mentally to work on routing a path to his telepathic centers, so that he could give his report on her to the others who cared for this tiny courageous captain...

And another, to find the distant High Judges ...

...who didn't.

The computer became Spock's voice when he was ready, using Voyager's miraculous, living bioneural gelpack array.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Barclay with a warm smile.

Audio: Spock--Admiral, ready to engage the computer.

Image: A deskcomputerpadd, showing a picture of Mark Johnson,  
Janeway's ex fiance.  
Image: From Star Trek III, Spock comforting Kirk following the news that David Marcus is dead.

Image: Janeway and the EMH treating a mind broken Tuvok.

Image: Chakotay, crying and pleading with someone on the ground beneath his CPR set hands, to wake up.

Image: Kathryn Janeway, with long hair and out of uniform, lying in a coma on a sickbay bed with a cerebral brace over her temples.

From : "Clairissa Fox" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Too Different of Hearts so I get closer to them Date : Thu, 29 Aug 2002 14:15:31 +0000 My mum and me were watching the bridge really close.  
There were scary things going on in the hollow deck.  
I saw the bug faces watching the hollow scientists cut up the hollow bug faces and I saw Captain Kirk and Tasha Yar watching the bad ones and it was all very very hard not to run down there and scream for an honor battle. There had to be one cause the bad bug faces killed all those people in the forest for no reason!

And the tiny baby bugs out there in the ocean I didnt like either. Because they were angry and babies shouldnt get angry like that. Not the ones who are going to grow up to be nice aliens. So I went over to Chakoty.

Chakoty Chakoty! What are we going to do with the babies out there? We cant keep using all of Voyagers energy just to be a blanket for them to keep warm in all that cold water. We wont have anything left to fly.

"Alexander. It's our duty to care for the innocent in any conflict and these 8472 young can't defend themselves from danger at this young an age.  
It was a mistake for the Hunter to even remove them from Voyager's biogel packs like he did."  
The first commander said.

Is Captain Janeway going to get into trouble making the transporters go like that? I asked.

"No. The Hunter used his mind to make her press those controls Alexander and she couldn't stop him."

Is she hurt very bad?

"No. Dr. Pel already healed her injured arm even before you saw her antigrav'd down to sickbay. And she's..."  
Chakotay hesitated a moment when he actually didn't know what to tell the boy about the scope of the crime the 8472 still in Fluidic Space were claiming against his commanding officer. "...she's "

Ambassador K'Ehleyr stepped forward and indicated a sweeping gesture towards her son. "Go ahead and tell him the truth Commander. I hide nothing from my son about the realities of the situations I work within."

Chakotay sighed. "Alexander, Captain Janeway is in trouble for stopping a lot of 8472 soldiers a few years ago from attacking Voyager while she was caught in between the Borg and the 8472, during a war battle they were waging with each other. Voyager got in the middle of the conflict and dealt with those who attacked the ship."

What do you mean stopped? I asked. Did she put up a forcefield to make them not bother Voyager?

Again the first commander eyed K'Ehleyr who was still nodding a slow yes from where she observed the holodeck scene unfolding before her on the forward viewer. "Alexander. Do you understand what a bioweapon is?"

Its a bomb that shoots out living things to kill people.  
Are you saying that my friend made a living bomb and killed all the 8472 soldiers coming after the ship?

Chakotay studied his hands. "Yes. Using Seven of Nine's nanoprobes designed to break down their ships and bodies."

How many did she make dead?

"Uh, Alexander. It's bad enough that this happened but I don't think it's.."

How many? I said again. If I am to know what happened I have to know the truth. So dont treat me like some infant Petaqhk because I know better.

"One billion 8472 perished under Voyager's counter attack."

Wow! Then she's got a lot of honor. More than even my father does! Those ones battling were warriors and they knew that they might be killed but its ok,  
they met that with open eyes Chakoty. So why is everyone looking so worried and sad? Captain Janeway did her duty and saved the ship from the bad guys.

Khan said. "There are laws in the 8472 dimension which claim Captain Janeway committed a crime Alexander and want to try her in a court of law."

Thats crazy! The Captain is supposed to kill and do battle for her ship people. Its part of being a leader.  
Are the 8472 that stupid that they dont understand that?

K'Ehleyr grinned proudly at her son's innocent logic but she didn't let it get too big.

Chakotay's smile touched the edges of his mouth but soon his expression fell back into one of heavy concern. "We have to respect any races grievances if any are presented Alexander to anyone on the frontier because its part of being neighborly and its also one of our deepest laws of the Prime Directive."

What are they going to do to her?

"I don't know exactly Alexander. A trial. Evidence showing the crime they state will be considered and weighed and then a decision will be made based on what they find in that evidence."

Oh. Then we dont have to worry about anything cause Captain Janeway did that bombing in self defence! What was she supposed to do? Let them kill the ship?

"No. What she did isn't what the 8472 race adjudicators are questioning. They are questioning the ...degree of which she...retaliated. Do you know what that means?"  
Chakotay asked the tiny Klingon boy standing before the commander's center seat.

No. Explain it to me.

"How hard she pushed back after being attacked."  
Chakotay added.

Oh! I get it. And I ran back over to mum to take my place next to her while we watched the screen.

Chakotay slumped in his seat, the weight of his knowledge seemed almost unbearably harsh.  
::He doesn't understand, the scale of it all.::

K'Ehleyr met his eyes and nodded once in encouragement when she saw him glance up at her from this thoughts.

Chakotay nodded back and retoggled the screen showing Kathryn's lifesigns to his chair's screen.  
::So far, the meld is holding. I don't think Spock nor Kathryn have moved since it started:  
Then he couldn't wait any longer. =^=Bridge to sickbay.. Doctor. How is--=^=

"She's the same as she was two minutes ago when you last comm'd down here Commander.  
I suggest you mind the store up there instead of wasting your energy bothering us for news."  
Dr. Pel said no nonsense."With your biolink to our monitors you'll be able to see a change as fast as we will."

Chakotay sighed. "I hate waiting especially when I don't understand something fully and it involves the captain."

Dr. Pel grinned politely. "Vulcan mind melds are seldom risky in those who don't fight them."

"I wasn't referring to the meld doctor. I was referring to the consequences the captain may face as a result of something she did six years ago."

Denara's composure slipped a bit. "Oh. I see.  
But she's not in danger being divorced mentally from her body. Spock said he would contact us if anything wa--"

The computer's voice came to life ship wide in a curious manner and on all combadges.  
It was the same mechanical woman's timber but it was all different phrasing.

## Mental interface has been established with Ambassador Spock. Live transmission is being reconfigured to emulate the message being received. Please stand by..##

::What th?:: Chakotay thought. ::How can he do that?:: Then he saw the exposed panel by the science station where the bioneural gel pack lay in its bracing. It was glowing. ::Something is making them react that way.::

Down in sickbay, One of Spock's hands left Janeway's cheekbones and connected with the computer's wall panel over her bed. That area lit up under his fingertips.

##Commander. Do not be concerned for the captain. She is being well taken care of and she feels none of her physical injuries.##

::Yeah.. :: Chakotay's mind protested. ::But what about emotionally? Kathryn folds like a stack of cards if she thinks herself to blame for a past action. I remember how she reacted when we were in the Void. Blaming herself for stranding Voyager in the Delta Quadrant and not eating or sleeping for days beating herself up over it.  
It took me hours to convince her that she had no choice about choosing the Ocampans safety over Voyager's.::

##All ..doubts.. have been addressed. I have said to the captain that I will stay present in the meld all through the coming proceedings so I can relay what I see and hear from Fluidic Space and the High Judges.##

I looked up at that. High justices? You mean the bug faces have court lords to carry out things? I thought they just ate Borg and blew up planets. I told the computer.

Hey! I knew who it really was. It was Mr. Spock from his brain lock with Janeway.  
It was so cool he was tied with Voyager like that.  
Then the captain could hear and know what was happening to us from out here too.

Captain Janeway! Dont worry! Mum and me are watching real close. The bugfaces arent going to see and fight Captain Kirk and Tasha cause mum and me will stop them if they even try it!

The computer/mind meld interface filled with static and a difference cadence came over the speakers and badges on all who was wearing them.  
##Alexander. The captain is giving a direct order for you through me.##

ok. I am listening and my hand is on my honor sword.

##By no means is excessive force to be used against the four rebel 8472 in the holodeck. Not from you, nor your mother. I'll not have the blood of more on my hands if I can help it. I'm in deep enough as it is. And I'm defining excessive force to mean any phaser not set on stun setting or, I'm sorry for this, any manual weapons either.##

No swords! But then how can mum and I protect you and Voyager?

##Let security handle things. Spock has already relayed this same message to them via the other comm systems. Allright? I have to leave now because. I'm...I'm....mmmm.##

Chakotay startled in alarm. "Kathryn!!"

The computer fizzed static again and a subtle change took place in the voice modulation when it spoke again. ##She is fatigued by the attempt to mentally interface with the bioneural gelpacks using my mind disciplines. I have set her into a light sleep so she won't lose consciousness later when the 8472 reestablish contact with us again. Commander. I suggest you contact your engineer about what she saw and heard in Fluidic Space when she "stood" before the High Judges. Anything that was said will be very useful.##

"I'll do that right away Spock er..computer."  
Chakotay said. "But what about her vital signs.. They're levelling off." he said sending a reconfirm biocheck to his terminal on that.

Dr. Pel's voice broke into the computer interface.  
"We see it commander. It's nothing to worry about.  
While they're linked, the captain and the ambassador's physiological responses are aligning. We'll break the meld if her lifesigns slip too far into Vulcan patterns.  
A human can't take having a heartbeat of only forty beats a minutes and still stay conscious."

##I can reset my cardiac rate, doctor. If that is required.##

"No, cause then you'll burn with fever from the increased blood pressure in your own body and Kathryn would mirror your temperature rise. Dealing with the bradycardia is easier than dealing with any hyperthermia Spock. Keep things as they are. In fact, putting her in a healing trance might work.  
Can you do that without matching that mental and physical state in yourself?" Dr. Pel asked the computer next to her.

##A healing trance has never been attempted during a mind meld doctor.##

"Then don't do it. There's already been too many unknowns in the Captain's scans just to add more. Try to keep her upbeat Spock. I know this sounds bizarre, but keep her self esteem confident, it'll help her weather the effects of the slow heart rate." Dr. Pel insisted.

##I have already supported the captain in that fashion by remaining here in this half state, with her.##

"Good enough. Keep me posted Mr. Spock." Dr. Pel said.

Chakotay watched as Captain Janeway's heart rate began to fall into the low fifties and then still lower and her skin began to lose its pink hues. It looked horrifying to him.  
::Like she's dying.::

But it seemed the interface rallied and Spock managed to keep its irregular pattern just at the mid forties. ##I think I have struck a balance in our physiologies doctor, commander. I am thinking of times when I was emotionally out of control and it is raising my heart's beating.##

"Just how long can you do that?" Chakotay asked the computer.  
"You might be the one to burn out, not her."

##I have a century of experience of using the mind disciplines.  
And three months of mastery over the techniques of Gol. I shall ...cope.##

"Keep me informed Ambassador. I want to know if she so much as frowns in there." Chakotay said.

##Understood.##

And the computer's commline faded back to a steady hiss of standby static which Chakotay ordered down in volume until it was just louder than the natural bridge thrum.

I was surprised. The captains heart and the old Vulcans were dancing together . But they were too different.  
I saw that on my scanner screen. How could it stay like that? I knew humans needed a steady count to theirs when theirs beat out blood. I had two hearts cause I was one quarter human. My Klingon genes made me keep that another one. But right then I wanted nothing better than to give the captain my human one to help her and Spocky out.

My warrior blood fire started to fizzle because I kept watching the same screen as Chakotays instead of helping mum record the hollow deck away team and my human worry started to show.

The doctor set the captain on that pure air stuff and it helped a little. The little blips sped up a bit above that scary red line of forty. The captain had to stay awake in there. She had to defend herself in front of those bug faced justices!  
She couldn't do that if she fainted could she?

Right then I wanted to see those courthouse bugs real bad. I wanted to see what they were saying to my friend. So I excused myself from the bridge saying that I had to water and I snuck into the lift and went to the transporter room. I saw that Voyagers force fields werent up because we were keeping the bug faced babies warm in that light beam so I asked Bootby to aim a transporter reaching circle until it found Chakotys medicine bundle still lying at that camp we had left behind in the big forest. I brought it on board and Bootby smiled at me for being so clever.

I am going to take this to sickbay and go into the witness seats because thats what they are there for. Thanks Bootby.

"No problem son. You're probably the best one to go snooping around that courthouse because you're not a grownup. The 8472 are notorious for ignoring non threatening targets. Seems its the one trait the Borg and they have in common."  
the caretaker said through the viewscreen link he had with the boy. "See you in sickbay in a few minutes Alexander."

I told mum what I was doing but not the commander.  
He might try to go in there instead of me. But I thought of it first!

Then I was there and I was careful not to touch the captain or Spock while they were finger joined like that. I sat on the foot of her bed and spread out the prayer skin and got into the trance Chakoty always did.  
It was easier this time because I had done it before when the Fagemind was in there hurting my friend.

And so I went to where Spock and the captain were and hid behind a court seat in that room with the white bugfaces and I waited. I had to see what would happen next. I had to see. I had to see for me!

-  
(attachments)

*animated gif* - small hearts of red beating oppositely.

Image: Alexander in a close up.

*animated gif* A Human heart organ pumping.

From : "Jeroen van Rijn" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Nothing like a dive... Date :Sat, 31 Aug 2002 00:00:24 +0200

Gretchen Janeway was still pleased to have Tom over with Miral, the little one seemed like a grandchild to her even though the child didn't come from her daughter's womb but B'Elanna's. Voyager's crew were like children to her enough for her to love Miral as would she her own grandchild.

Tom on the other hand was busy in the barn, working on the Delta Flyer... doing this, doing that, as always trying to improve on it :: Well, it would've been better with Bella here :: he mused.

A warble indicated an incoming communication... The well known Star Fleet Command logo was centered in the screen, it said it was a priority message for his eyes only.

He closed the Flyer's hatch and went back to the screen and sat down. "Computer, this is Paris,  
code Theta Seven Beta Niner" the screen warbled again.

## Code accepted ##

The logo disappeared to give way to the President of the Federation, Tom blinked in surprise. The surprise didn't get to last long, Avalonii spoke to him.

=^= Lieutenant Paris, what I'm about to tell you is strictly off the record..... =^= ...

Two minutes later,  
Tom rushed out onto the porch, leaving a startled Gretchen and a smiling Miral in his wake... but that was all in his mind, in fact he had powered up the Flyer and prepared to take off to Frisco to pick up Harry. He contacted Gretchen over the comm. "Mom,  
I gotta go... watch Miral for me?"

Gretchen's reply came quick. =^= Off saving the universe again, are we? Sure, I will watch the little tyke =^=

This was news, 8472 on voyager, the journey to Chakotay's valley cancelled to go after them, and now voyager at the bottom of the Frisco bay.  
if he wasn't so concerned for B'Elanna he would've laughed over the fact he had to report to Boothby when he did submerge the Flyer...

:: First things first, picking up Harry... Bet he was as surprised to see Avalonii as I was :: he thought as he was nearing the Starfleet complexes, the Janeway ranch now way behind him and out of his thoughts.

One short transport over to Harry's apartment and soon Paris was face to face with his old crewmate.

"Tom," came Harry's smile, "I'd offer you to come in and have a drink to old times, but it seems old times are awaiting for us in the bay." he stepped out,  
palmlocked the apartment, and fell in stride with Tom, going towards the spot where the Flyer was waiting for them on the roof of Building Five.

The trip to the bay was short, drones were hovering all over the spot where Voyager lay 80 meters below the surface. Tom let the Flyer dive and broke the surface smoothly, sending little spray into the air.  
After a few moments the mother ship was in visual range and he hailed it. "Lieutenant Tom Paris to Voyager. Boothby? I was told to report to you...."  
a beat."Sir." he added belatedly.

=^=Lt. Paris and Ensign Harry Kim. About time you're involved with more than just redesigning that Flyer line of yours. =^= came Boothby's reply. =^=I'm just sorry that it had to be to handle an emergency at your old ship. Things are not good. Seems the 8472 contingent allied with us in Fluidic Space sent a Hunter 8472 representative to track, capture and return the miscreants on Voyager's holodeck so justice can be served against them for killing citizens in the Amazon. That in itself, worked like a charm. They're currently cornered on the holodeck.  
Unfortunately, he was also here to administer justice to Captain Janeway for doing the same way back in the Delta Quadrant six years go when you all took on the 8472 in battle, allied with the Borg. Far more than the initial fourteen bioships you saw were annihilated by Seven's biowarfare. The effect took out a billion of them eventually.=^=

"What?! " Harry exclaimed.

"That's crazy! There were no signs of the bioprobes spreading when we left that part of Fluidic Space.."  
Tom insisted.

=^=Ever heard the expression, "We will adapt?"  
Well, Seven actually lives up to that misnomer.=^= the caretaker grunted.

Paris and Kim tried to sputter out protestations again but a glare from the viewscreen silenced them.  
=^=Hear me out boys.=^= Boothby said.  
=^= Now Starfleet thinks the story is a load of pap too. But there are three 8472 High Justices in a Species class all their own who've expended great amounts of resources to keep a link open from our dimension to theirs just to see this thing through according to our treaty agreements. Listen carefully, Captain Janeway's mind is over there. Her body is over here and Ambassador Spock, you remember him, is playing communications interlink for both through a perpetual mind meld with her. And Voyager's computer is the receptionist. Now listen, you oughta know a few things about me. I am a rank officer of Presidential Designate. I am second only to him. I hold Voyager's cards code wise but that doesn't effect the immediate chain of command. My hands are tied keeping Avalonii on top of things here in sickbay so you are going to have to contact the bridge to get yourselves on board. I can't do it. Ah. ah. ah. Don't talk. Just do. Boothby out.=^=

The caretaker's face snicked out leaving behind only a tactical view of the odd Sphere of Fluidic Space filled with 8472 spawn tethered near through a tractor energy beam and Voyager, hunkered down on the bottom of the sea.

It was only then the two stunned Voyager crewman noticed the odd sight of the infant aliens on sensors through the deep water. Harry spoke first. "Tom, I know you probably want to shoot this bubble out of the waters, but since it's here it suggests that the powers that be want it here intact."

Tom nodded slowly. "I suppose they do." he replied and set course for the docking ring at the cargobay.

===================================== Khan Noonien Singh regarded Commander Chakotay sitting in the command chair in front of him with a thoughtful expression, then he decided his next course of action.  
"Chakotay, now, is a good time to start listening to your elders. Is it not so within the Tribe to start doing so?"

Chakotay shook out of his worried thoughts about the scene he was watching on the viewer of sickbay and Kathryn and what was happening with the away team on the holodeck. "Khan. I won't pretend that I understand that meaning."

"I could be the one to take watch of Voyager while you attend your captain. I know enough about Starfleet vessels to handle any situation that might arise. Not to say that much WILL arise being that she is under eighty meters of ocean." the older man said magnaminously.

Chakotay's face fell into long lines and he said.  
"The fact that we're distant relatives doesn't change the fact that you almost killed a Starfleet officer through subterfuge Khan. I don't think Captain Kirk will be happy once he finds out that you were the one responsible for making him nearly bleed to death on a surgical biobed."

"Still unsubstantiated evidence. We've been here before along these lines of words. I could give another oath, one according to the dictates of our familial ties if you still don't trust me. Yes,  
I have unsolved issues to handle with the man I hold responsible for killing my wife and the crew of the Reliant but I've decided that revenge isn't the answer any longer. The killing must stop."  
Khan said.

When Chakotay did not answer. Khan opened his leather tunic, baring his chest and took his Starfleet pendant that was there into one hand. He drew its sharp edge across his breast until blood sprang free and he said in the tongue of their Tribe.  
"I shall not take another's life nor do anything against the wishes of our Spirit Guides nor disobey any laws of our Forefathers. Let this drawing of my life's blood santify my oath to the one who is my son three generations ahead of my own time.  
He is now my only family so let my heart's flow prove the honor of my words." And then he ripped free the shattered pendant from his neck and placed the blood stained emblem into Chakotay's hand and closed his fingers around it. "You are now responsible for my honor Chakotay as a witness to my blood oath. Now will you trust me? I shall not harm anything you will not do so yourself."

K'Ehleyr sitting on the bridge had been listening.  
She knew the portent of a blood oath no matter what the culture and she began to smile. "I think we have one less enemy today commander.."she said, smiling slowly. "And if you really want to get down to sickbay to see the captain, I suggest you take Khan up on his offer to take the conn.  
No doubt he is well versed on Starfleet vessels."

Chakotay finally nodded and rose out of his seat. "All right. The conn is yours. But remember,  
Boothby calls the shots and the next eligible Voyager officer to come on board takes your place.."

"I understand fully commander. I'm sure that Ambassador K'Ehleyr and myself will serve the best interests of this ship and crew while we have her bridge." Khan said.

Chakotay gave back Khan his pendant and likewise, touched some of Khan's blood to his tattoo. "I accept your oath and honor. We are both bound together by our actions from this moment on."

Khan nodded once and smiled. "Now go to your captain. I know how it is to be apart from a soulmate."

Chakotay fled for the turbolift doors heading for sickbay as Khan slowly lowered himself into Voyager's center seat. He fell to watching the screens on the main viewer closely, this time, as an ally and a new avatar for Voyager.

He had just set his elbows on the armrests when a warbling hail autotoned on his status board. A hand immediately toggled the ident switch. ::A seven year old Voyager prototype shuttlecraft is requesting a dock with us:  
he thought. Quickly Khan located the identities of the two men and the official callsign that only Avalonii could have given them to approach Voyager's position under the sea past the security drones above it, hovering in the sky.  
Then, with a firm nod, Khan indicated to k'Ehleyr to open a frequency. =^=This is acting captain Khan Singh on behalf of the Voyager Command crew. I see your tracking route to the port cargobay docking ring. Permission to board manually is granted. You are to report immediately to sickbay. Your first officer, Commander Chakotay is there. I am just... keeping this bridge chair warm, so to speak. No need for arms, none will be allowed against the rebel 8472, Captain Janeway's orders. I on the otherhand, get to continue..babysitting these larvae.=^=

The sound of Khan's disgusted and demeaned voice made the crew of Delta Flyer grin in amusement.

But then they stifled their humor verbally when Tom cleared his throat in warning that he was opening a channel.

"Khan, I would say it's a pleasure to see you, but I'd be lying. " Tom said. "The circumstances make any encounter a grave one.  
We will be docking shortly, do me a favor and notify Bella I'm on my way, and oh, tell her Grandma Janeway is watching our little one."

Khan's misdemeanor about the infant 8472's resolved into a more sightly face when Tom mentioned Miral, after all Khan knew what is was like to have a child, even if the thought now stung him. =^= I will, Khan out =^=

=======================================

Julian Bashir was in the EMH's front office.  
It was not usual for him to leave a patient's side,  
especially if that patient were an officer's grade during a crisis. ::Like the one we have now.  
I can just see the sparks that are going to fly when Kirk's band gets spotted in there.:: he said, casting an eye on the viewer showing the hanger and the tight knot of the away team looking inside of it. ::But. Too many doctors get underfoot around those biobeds. I'm best in here, out of the way. Now I can research the 8472 in peace.::

Ten minutes later, Julian was right back at Janeway's side with a full nasty picture of what she might be up against in the mental realm. "Albino 8472?"  
he read in B'Elanna's report. "They don't sound like the kind of alien you'd want mad at you."

Boothby padded over to Dr. Bashir.  
"Just got off the horn with Paris and Kim.  
They're on their way. Uh, do me a favor doc,  
keep those two out of my hair would ya?  
It's taking all I have just keeping the Hunter happy with our arrangements concerning Janeway."

"Consider it done, sir." Julian beamed.  
"I'll redirect them to Dr. Pel as soon as they get here."

"Good man."

Soon, Harry and Tom were there, part oggling the massive 8472 looming in the middle of sickbay and the intimate mind meld taking shape on the captain's biobed to one side of the ward.

Julian saw Tom's eyes flicker to the medscreen over Janeway to get medical info. "Had medical training lieutenant?" he asked Tom casually.  
"Nice to see that a helmsman's spent time in sickbay. That attractive Vidiian doctor over there will answer all your questions so direct any to her."

Julian paused when he saw both men recognized Denara Pel. "I'm going to go get a full sensor sweep on our swimming brood out there off our nose. It's proving tricky keeping them comfortable. Welcome back you two. I heard this was your old ship." he winked. And then Julian moved off, leaving Kim and Paris facing Janeway's biobed and Dr. Pel monitoring her there.

Kim was restless seeing the Captain like this,  
she was like a mother to him, and the charges brought against her still haunted his mind.

He wanted to speak but found it took more than he had right now. Tom spoke in his stead.  
"Doctor, if I'm reading that biobed correctly her neuropeptides are way off scale, you think this is because of the link to Fluidic Space?"

Denara Pel smiled inwardly at the medically trained helmsman. "It's partly because of her mind reaching into Fluidic space, and partly because of the mindmeld with Ambassador Spock. As you know those peptides are involved with the neural transmitting of telepathic capabilities."

Harry frowned and got to speak at last. "You're saying Captain Janeway is a telepath?" He asked.  
Tom and Denara laughed. "No," Dr. Pel answered.  
"The 8472 over here established the link to Fluidic space for her, and the ambassador melded with her mind. The Captain has no telepathic abilities of her own."

"Oh," said Harry as if to say that he understood,  
which he didn't. He formed a search party of one,  
scouting for something to drink, preferably with a soothing effect, like green tea.

Tom watched Harry wander off to the replicator and decided he could do with some liquid as well.  
"Doctor, can I get you something to drink as well?" he informed of Denara Pel.

"An Arcturan fizz would do nicely." she said.

Tom strode off after Harry.

Chakotay was happy to drink coffee again and was making some as well. He ordered the replicator to make a cup, as Harry came over. "Harry Kim, good to see you, though the circumstances could've been better." he said, clearly masking his own discomfort with the whole Status Quo. "I need you to go to the bridge with Dr. Bashir and find better ways of monitoring the 8472 spawn and keeping them comfortable." Harry just sort of nodded, and was able to mutter a quiet "Yes,  
Commander."

Harry had completely forgotten about his quest for green tea to soothe his aching senses when Chakotay offered him his cup of coffee when he noticed someone in more distress than he was himself. "Thank you," said a Harry that was deep in thought. ::I've never seen the commander like this.. He's really concerned for Janeway. Have I missed something here? He's acting the way I would if Libby were hurt.::

Kim took the coffee and wandered back over to Doctor Bashir, who was gathering a PADD to take with him to the bridge.

Tom nodded at Chakotay just as Harry had left the spot left of the commander and ordered the replicator to make a cup of strong black coffee and an Arcturan Fizz for Dr. Pel. He didn't know what the last was but he guessed it must be an alien soda of some kind. A ceramic mug of steaming coffee and a tall glass full of green bubbling liquid appeared on a tray. "Commander, I was told to report to you for orders by Khan Noonian Singh,  
care to enlighten me? Also is B'Elanna okay?"  
Both questions were waging war in his head over what should take precendence... his wife won over the odd fact that Khan was in charge of the bridge. "Please tell me B'Elanna is doing fine."

Right then B'Elanna slipped behind him and hugged him tight. "I'm fine, husband, let Chakotay here order you to do something useful" she said, and he turned around and kissed her briefly.

"Well, Chakotay, you sent Harry to Doctor Bashir it seems, what would you have me do?" he asked of the commander.

The commander seemed to drag himself a long way and his eyes never left the still form of Janeway.  
"Lt. Paris. Since Helm isn't needed right now on the bridge, I'm not going to order you to do any specific task. As you can see we've several people from out of time working with us. Captain Kirk and Lt. Yar are two. They are currently on Deck Six observing the rebel 8472 to see why they are seeking information about Area 51 in the malleable scenario the captain and I created for them.  
If you'd like, you can join them. " his face fell back into deep lines of worry as the commander and Tom went over to the foot of the captain's bed.  
"Or you can stay here, to see if you can learn more about the Hunter's motivations."

The Hunter 8472 was turning circles in the center of sickbay trying to get his big bulk out of the way of the medical staff buzzing around sickbay. ##You know my purpose marked man.## It said.

The telepathic communication from the 8472 startled Harry from where he was with Julian and he said,  
"Doctor Bashir, now would be a good time to leave for the bridge."

Julian nodded but replied. "In a moment Mr. Kim, have a look at the Captain if you want before we go topside." Harry agreed, but had a good long pull at the coffee Chakotay gave him first.

Chakotay rubbed his mouth absently.  
"I have to go see how Kathryn's doing for myself. I'm no medic, nor a doctor, and it's bothering me not knowing for myself what's going on in there. Excuse me for a second Harry, Tom." the Commander said.

Chakotay couldn't contain himself any more. His anxiety had been building ever since Ambassador Spock had melded with Captain Janeway.  
He took a stool and sat by her head, careful not to touch the hand the Ambassador had over her face. Both their eyes were closed and the wavering heartsbeat on both made Chakotay's skin crawl.

Dr. Pel noticed Chakotay's discomforture and sipped the Fizzer that Tom had given her.  
"Commander. She's fine. Their bodies functions are just falling into the middle ground between a human's and a vulcan's. That happens when a mind meld is initiated for this long. Why don't you talk with her? I'm sure she'd be very happy to hear that your Mr. Paris and Mr. Kim are here to help out. The only thing I can't do is make the conversation private since the computer is configured to broadcast ship wide."

"Thanks doctor." Chakotay aimed a look at Harry trying to hide his intense fright for Kathryn.

Then he turned and took her hand. It was pale and clammy. But the beat in her wrist was comforting.  
"Computer.. Access interlink."

##Link is reestablished..##

"Ambassador Spock? Any signs of those 8472 Justices in there?"

##None at present. However, we've another visitor from the ship here with us. The Klingon boy.##

Chakotay blinked in surprise and then saw Alexander seated at the foot of the biobed using his very own medicine bundle. He chuckled. "Seems he's had the doctors permission to go calling. Sir, can I speak with Kathryn?"

##I shall arrange it.##

There was a subtle change in the computer's voice yet again and the reactions slower and finally there came a small noise of distress from the speakers.

"Kathryn?" Chakotay said.

##Chakotay?## came a strained voice. ##What are you doing off the bridge? Spock says you're in sickbay.##

"Let's just say I...took up a relative on his offer to do me a favor.."

##You didn't.##

"Sorry Kathryn. But I have a Sacred Oath from Khan and he's not about to break it. He's honor enough for that."

##I thought I'd never see the day a wanted criminal to Starfleet sat in my chair. Sort of a personal goal of mine. Now that record's been shattered.##

Chakotay's face smiled as he imagined one just like it appearing on Kathryn's face to match the lighter tone in her voice. "How are you doing? Looks like your lifesigns are trying to Vulcanize from over here."

##Yes. I'm a bit dizzy, but Spock assures me he won't let me black out while I'm over here.##

"I've got company for you." Chakotay said, squeezing her hand.

##Oh?##

"Tom and Harry rushed in the second they found out about Voyager's unexpected ditching with rebel 8472 on board. Tom's right here. I'm sending Harry with Dr. Bashir to the bridge soon to monitor the 8472 young."

##Then they're all right? Those babies? God forbid.  
I didn't want any more blood on my hands. I couldn't stop the Hunter from using me to operate that transporter.##

"I've rigged a tractor on their bubble pocket of Fluidic Space. They were beamed off ship just to our bow. And we're keeping things warm with an energy feed. You'll be relieved to know that the flooding in engineering has stopped. The rift has been sealed and all that Fluidic Space material is now the babies cradle.."

##That's a relief. Everyone still boiling in the heat over there? I can't feel anything on my skin..##

Chakotay's face pained at that and he glanced down at the tight grip he had on Kathryn's hand.  
But he didn't let his shock at the depth of her body/brain divorce, show to her in his reply. "Most have put their uniform tunics back on. B'Elanna will go down and check out Engineering as soon as the temperature drops to tolerable levels."

##Mr. Paris. Glad you took time out for us.  
Nice to know old crew will rally whenever I hit a rough spot.## Then came a gasp of pain.

"Kathryn?" Both Chakotay's eyes and Tom's shot to the monitor over her bed. The heartrate had just shot up to the low hundreds.

##It's all right.## Janeway assured them. ##One of those Justices just cakewalked through my memories and he wasn't as subtle as Spock here.##

Dr Pel, spoke up. "Captain. I'm going to give you some Lidocaine. It will help keep these heart rate spikes from causing you discomfort. Spock,  
I'm doing the same for you with Lexon."

##Understood.  
Understood.## came the double reply over the combadges and the over head speakers.

Denara injected the medications to Spock and the captain.

Chakotay sighed. "Better?" he asked them both.

##Affirmative.  
Much. I feel almost human again.## the two voices said.

"Tom's here right by your side, captain. Just itching to do something. We're going to have to rectify that soon or he's going to drive us crazy with his one liners again." Chakotay added.

The computer did a fair approximation of Kathryn's full laugh. Even Tom grinned.

##Chakotay. This whole thing's frightening.  
But having all of you with me is more strength than I could ever hope for#  
and the sound turned into one of sadness.

Harry had hurried over seeing the doctor suddenly attend to Spock and the captain with a hypo and when the vital signs monitor had gone crazy just a short minute ago.

Tom saw a tear form in the corner of one of the captain's eyes from where she lay and he gently wiped it away saying "Captain,  
never fear, your family is here." Chakotay all but rolled his eyes. :: There come the oneliners :: he thought, but smiled at the meaning in Tom's gentle remark.  
Julian Bashir waited patiently by the door when he saw the young ensign was reluctant to leave his captain's side just yet. "It's all right ensign.  
I'll wait. Letting her know you're here will be therapeutic."

Harry wasn't as brave in actually touching her to show his support. She was a mentor and Kim was still in awe of the This is my CAPTAIN idea. So he did the next best thing addressing her.  
"Cap... Ma'am, I guess this qualifies as crunch time as you once put it when I was a mere slip of an ensign. All I want to say is thank you for the opportunities to serve with you on this great ship. Even now..." he was pained,  
but managed to finish a moment later. "Even now when you are on trial we will all be at your side, or in my case on the bridge helping Doctor Bashir. Our thoughts, nay, our hearts are with you, Captain." tears had welled up in his eyes and Chakotay let go of Kathryn to give an appreciative pat on his shoulder.

##Thank you Harry, now go do what you do so well and I'll recommend you for promotion when I come back##

"Yes, Ma'am" Harry replied, then followed Bashir to the bridge, giving her and Chakotay one last look.  
Tom was aching to do something and took the commander up at his suggestion to go to the holodeck. "Commander, I'll be on deck six with the EMH, Lieutenant Yar and Admiral Kirk."  
Tom squeezed Janeway's other hand, the one Chakotay wasn't holding on to, and left.

Soon Tom was on the holodeck and he made his way over to the away team easily. "Hi Doc,  
Lt. Yar, Admiral. I was sent to keep you company. Want me to tell a joke?"

A look from Kirk silenced him.

(attachments)

Image: Bashir sitting on the landing step of a shuttlecraft.

Screensaver: An EKG screen showing heart rates, two of them flatline into death rhythms. Screensaver Program. Neat one!

Image: Harry and Libby, Kim's girlfriend.

Image: Janeway lying in a sickbay bed.

Image: Khan in a bridge chair, gripping his Starfleet pendant.

Image: B'Elanna and Tom kissing.

*animated gif* A Starfleet Command emblem with a meteor of gold orbitting it.

****************************************************** From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : (voyagerliveaction) The Borg Lamb Date : Sat, 31 Aug 2002 20:18:49 +0400 Tandem Post between "Jeff Seltun"  
and "Cassidy Meyers"  
via chat window MSN.

MAINS involved are

Deanna Troi Dr. Crusher Data Seven of Nine

FREEuse

The Hunter Chakotay Janeway

Lightly referenced temporary character

Albino High Justice 8472

Deanna Troi slowly let go of her emotional sense on Janeway and the Ambassador.  
It had been a roller coaster on both sides but the counselor finally knew that the captain was as shored up as she was going to get and Spock had done an extraordinary job getting her there.  
::I never knew Spock would use his human side in a mindmeld. He was confiding in her about something deeply painful that matched one she has. That's counseling in its highest caliber:  
Slowly Deanna opened her eyes.

Dr. Crusher was still there watching Deanna closely on her tricorder. Once Beverly saw that Troi's eyes were open she clacked her scanner shut. "My that was interesting. Here." and she handed Troi a soft cloth.

Startled, Deanna felt her face and found it wet with tears that she didn't remember shedding. It was a hazard of her job that she gladly embraced.  
::Self absorption into your patient's empathy.:: To Troi, the tears were battle scars. Now, she'd have some basis of experience to go on to offer the captain when she returned from her thrice way mind bond.

Dr. Crusher's face wasn't as cheerfully happy as she often wore when in her doctor mode.

"Beverly? What did I miss? The captain seems fine.  
Spock seems to have calmed Janeway down considerably."

Crusher said, "While you were focusing, we all learned through the interlink that Captain Janeway is being held accountable for a billion deaths in Fluidic Space.  
They're causing this mind body separation to hold a trial against her."

"That explains it. I felt more than the usual emotional shock coming from her. She's being attacked as an individual."  
::Makes sense now. I felt a normally rock solid ship's captain almost despair to the point of insanity. From her files, this outcome is what Kathryn Janeway fears the most. Being one who's killed another who might be innocent of any offense. For this captain, especially so.::

"So, what's your gameplan?" Dr. Crusher said once Troi had made herself presentable.

"I'm at a loss on what to do. The captain is where I can't reach her to physically communicate. And another mind meld is out of the question. Her pysche is already stretched to the limit with other intrusions. I didn't catch who they were. I felt an overlaying set of emotions that didn't fit the circumstance."

"Those were Janeway's 8472 persecutors from the other side. She just mentioned them on the intercom. They're using her own memories as evidence against her."  
Beverly said. "Got your equilibrium back?"

"Yes. I could use a break. But first I want a word with the Commander here."

"Of course." Dr. Crusher nodded.

Troi walked slowly around the biobed holding Janeway and around Spock who still had one hand on a computer panel and one hand over the captain's temples.  
::So that's how he's communicating to the rest of us from the meld. Clever. The bioneural gel packs are an extension of nerve connections and a mind meld is all that.::

She saw Chakotay barely get into a command face when he heard her approach where he sat. He almost let go of the captain's hand. Troi pretended she missed seeing that. "So this is unknown territory for you as well Commander."

Chakotay looked up at Troi only briefly and then his features digressed back into the worry that he was actually feeling. "They don't teach you about situations like this at Starfleet. They only tell you don't get emotionally involved with your fellow crewmates."

"Rubbish." Troi said quickly. "I don't know a single command grade officer who isn't attached to his crew. My own captain included. Having an intimate bond with someone isn't a detriment Chakotay. It's a strength. And what I feel between you and Janeway has been there a long long time."

"Yes but we've never followed through on it. There was always the crew or ship to come between. And now, you'll probably psychoanalyze me to death saying that I'm only feeling sorry for myself because this might be the last time Kathryn or I might have to even acknowledge those feelings you say are there."  
Chakotay said quickly and defensively. He had kept his words low and short but a few heads nearby did lift but then just as quickly, turned away.

Troi smiled, broadly, but not unkindly. She threw on an ironic face. "Commander Chakotay. You've been practically broadcasting your feeling towards the captain ever since the Fire on Earth. No one is in the dark about the depth of attachment you two share. The only ones deluded about even having one is you, and Kathryn."

Chakotay's head lifted sharply and he let go of the captain's hand and a bit of anger filled his voice. "This whole issue isn't about a Commander and Captain's personal relationship!  
You've got your priorities a little mixed up, counselor. This is about diverting a possible 8472 war with the Federation. I just keep thinking what might happen if we obstruct the 8472's brand of justice from concluding, even if it means Kathryn will have to suffer the consequences and that I lose the woman I....." he broke off, his composure starting to twist his face.

Deanna leaned forward across the biobed panel until she had her eyes on a level with his. "It won't be the first time a war was started over a woman commander."

"Yes, but Captain Janeway is no Helen of Troy."

"The concept is the same.." Deanna said. "Only the reason is different." and she started to reach out a hand to offer friendly support but he pulled away from contact. Troi's face turned seriously thoughtful. "Have faith in the system Chakotay.  
The Federation has been here a long time. This philosophy of it attending even an individual citizen's rights is truly a strength. Not a danger. While you and she were away from the Alpha Quadrant, the Federation survived another war based on right and wrong with the Founders and the Jem Hadar and we won that too."

"But millions of ships and people died." he insisted.

"People will always die Chakotay and ships will always meet their end in one way or another. Expansion in life will always be harder than the other way around. It's the nature of Chaos. But it is a joy of life to decide what to die for if and when a cause must be chosen. And right here and now, I sincerely believe that the Federation will make the right choice again to stand by your captain's side, through all of this.." Troi said with conviction.  
"So don't be afraid to show the depth of your love for people. It's what binds us together." and she rose giving Chakotay one last meaningful glance at both him and her sitting so near to each and yet existing so far apart. "Don't worry about what us others think of any bond you choose to forge commander. It's none of our business." and with that Troi moved off to converse with the Hunter, one on one.

It was not a confrontation she was looking forward to.

On the bridge, Seven went to the lower deck of the bridge.  
There she wasted no preamble on Khan in the center seat.  
"There are adjustments I need to make in astrometrics on assuring the continued energy output to the tractors.  
If I may leave the bridge...." and she started away.

Khan upheld a finger. "When I sit here I expect the truth from those pledged to obey their ranking officer.  
I know what you're about to do. I myself have wanted to be a martyr in my day. Do it well, Seven of Nine."  
he said finally with a nod of acceptance. "I shall not interfere in the task you are about to undertake."

Seven of Nine was surprised yet again that someone who barely knew her on the outward happened to know her better than her own crew. ::Ah, yes. Khan has a genetically enhanced intellect. I had forgotten:  
But she cast an ironic look at him with her arms folded respectfully across her back. "Well if that's an order.  
Who am I to disappoint you.." and she left his side.

All the way down in the turbolift Seven was silent and calculating. She knew what she was planning would most likely be the end of all she knew and had worked for. ::But right is right. I shall return a favor given me by one very special captain. She gave me my life. It's only fair that I give her her life back, in return.::

"Deck six.." she told the lift. And soon she was striding towards Holodeck three.

Data on the bridge had overheard the short comments between the half borg and Khan. He didn't even ask permission to leave the bridge. He merely nodded to Dr. Bashir and Harry Kim to take his station's position at science two and then went after Seven of Nine.

"Computer. Display location of Seven of Nine."

##Seven of Nine is on Deck Six. Holodeck Three.##

-------------------------------------------------------

Kirk, Lt Yar, Tom Paris and the four holograms had no time to react when Seven of Nine sprinted from the dark desert surroundings and into the hanger. Kirk shouted. "No! Wait!"

But it was far far too late..

Seven of Nine gave into her Borg attack mode and made sure the spores of the same filled the air around her. She ran straight for the analyzing group of rebels and engaged them in battle.

They screeched in blood fever and leaped onto Seven but she was much much faster than they.  
"Species 8472. A stab to the right fifth intercostal space kills instantly." and she impaled two of them on her wrist assimilation tubes in both arms,  
injected them with a special batch of nanoprobes that she had found in the EMH's medical storage locker from the time Voyager used it against the 8472 bioship. A poke was all it took. The first two 8472 wrinkled into orange ash and melted away into oblivion. The third Outcast 8472 made a leap and met a similar fate. But Seven of Nine didn't kill the final rebel. "Go take your young back into Fluidic Space. The Hunter has found you and your illicit brood.  
The High Justices are here and are watching. There is no escape. So choose now. Death by the hand of your Borg enemy or life in servitude to live up to your crimes against your people and mine by parenting the young you wanted to use as an army."

The Rebel 8472 hissed and reared at Seven, but then it opened a dimensional doorway back to whence it came. Before it left, it reached out into the air and gave a tug with one clawed hand.

Outside in the sea in front of Voyager, the Fluidic pocket of young likewise tugged into another door the parent created and was gone.

Both rifts into the nether dimensions sealed shut with an energetic hiss and soon, the holodeck was empty of alien life.

"Computer. End holosimulation.." Seven panted,  
still filled with righteous anger. Both wrists still sported her dripping assimilation tubes as she whirled around at a shout.

"Seven! No!!" Tom Paris yelled.

Seven hit a switch on her portable transporter band and left the away team standing on the yellow and black hologrid surround by the pools of goo from the dead 8472 she had murdered.

Seven transferred to sickbay. She appeared spread eagle, standing before the Hunter while it still hissed with the broken bonds of its killed escapee rebels. She slicked her tubes back into her arms and stayed standing in the universal surrender stance. "Species 8472. I am the true 8472 killer. Not Captain Janeway. And I have just slain three more.. Will you make the fourth?"

Data burst into sickbay having caught onto Seven's ultimate goal of sacrifice. "Seven of Nine.. You will cease hostilities or I will fire.."  
and he aimed a phaser set to Heavy Stun at her.

Deanna Troi stepped away from the Hunter,  
giving Data a clear line of sight towards the green blood stained crewwoman.  
"Seven? What is this? Your captain is not in any danger here."

"You are wrong! Even I know that I had a part in murdering those billion. The doctor manufactured the nanoprobes from my blood's store to use to kill the 8472 back then in the Delta Quadrant. If anyone is to be blamed. It is I. Not Captain Janeway. " and she whirled back as if to attack the Hunter. "So, what shall it be Hunter? Prosecute a human or a borg who really is your sworn enemy...."

"Seven! Stand down. That's an order!!"  
Chakotay shouted.

All fell paused in a quiet hush but then the towering Hunter 8472 began to laugh and laugh with pure unadulterated mirth. It went on for almost ten seconds shocking everyone with its untimely eruption.  
##Who am I to take on the one who's solved my dilemma and ended my shame..## It said.  
##Borg half woman. You have acquitted my onus of pursuing the rebels and the defective young. Why have you done me this favor?  
And you are not an enemy of the 8472 because your blood is no longer pure enemy. The woman we hold has made sure that you are not of any one identity. I cannot kill a half person. That would be without honor.  
Those rebels were too young to notice your unsuitability as a combatant. I apologize for their stupidity.##

"No.. " Seven of Nine said. "You have to take me to be judged. I have killed your kind. Set Janeway free and take me instead." Seven frowned.

##Hmmm an interesting proposal.. What is this self sacrificing thing I see in your mind?  
It is a strangeness there that clouds your mind and heart. Very well. Join me in bonding rebel Slayer...##

And Seven was whisked away mentally,  
her body falling twitching to the deck in the characteristic convulsions of a forced 8472 mind meld.

-----

Seven was thrown to her feet before the High Justices in Fluidic Space and Janeway's glowing bonds snapped free.

"Seven.. What are you doing here?" Janeway groaned. Getting to her feet even as the mental representation of Spock also rose to stand.

###This one has killed to get our attentionsssss#  
the Albino suddenly said from the podium that had just a few moments before been empty save that of the peach fires caressing it.

"What?" Janeway gasped. Then she saw the 8472 stains on Seven's uniform. "Seven. Why?"

"I have a debt to pay captain. And it's all about me. "  
Seven of Nine stood and faced the Albino 8472 and looked it squarely in the eye, spreading out her arms until the assimilation tubes lanced out making the three judges wince in shock at the Borg weapon source they so feared in their memories. "I trade my life. For hers. Inside of me lies the technology that the doctor derived for the bioweapon which was responsible for the billion deaths six years ago. I am sure your scientists on the Terrasphere can isolate that factor to end the biosickness which claimed them once and for all."

The Albino began to laugh in mirth and it pointed a claw at the faces of Janeway/Spock and Seven.  
##This is fitting but the cure has already been found.  
But Justice must be served for the honor of those still living. So choose.. you two potential accused since this court cannot determine full blame. Who will die for us? The choice is yours.##

-  
(attachments)

Image: Troi talking to Beverly.

Image: Dr. Crusher smiling in a green olive dress.

Image: Seven of Nine and Janeway looking shocked on a shattered burned out bridge.

Image: Species 8472 leaping at you from a ship's room.

Image: A black and white shot of Lt. Yar and Data firing their phasers at something higher than they are.

******************************************************** From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Defense Times Two~~ Date : Sun, 01 Sep 2002 14:45:31 +0000

Captain Kirk flew into action. He grabbed Yar's arm. "Is everyone all right? " he shouted to her and Paris. Numbly, Lt. Yar nodded and Tom already had made tracks for the outer exit to wave in a security detail to handle isolating the remains. "I'm fine captain. " the Voyager helmsman replied.

Kirk cocked an ironic look at the helmsman.  
"I could use one of those jokes right about now, lieutenant."

The EMH was already busy at the arch, consulting the computer. "Seven's in sickbay.  
Something's wrong. .Her vital signs are fluctuating."

Kirk took one look around the empty hologrid and hit his combadge. =^=Boothby! Talk to me. Give me those d*mn command codes right now or beam all of us back to sickbay!=^=

The caretaker came online line and on a viewscreen the holodeck manifested as a priority image.  
=^=Beaming now.. Avalonii still wants me holding the bag.=^=

Captain Kirk, Lt. Yar, Moriarty, the Lady Regina,  
Holozimm and Tom Paris all sparkled into sickbay to a ghastly scene.

The holodoc rushed to Seven's side where she lay in a seizure on the deck. Dr. Bashir was already attending her. "What happened?"  
the EMH asked him.

"Our Hunter friend decided to take Seven where he's holding Captain Janeway mentally into Fluidic Space. These same symptoms took hold on B'Elanna when it happened to her earlier." Julian replied.

Captain Kirk ignored Seven's situation when he saw that she wasn't aware and conscious,  
but he waved over two burly security personnel to subtley watch her with phasers along side Data, who was already covering her.  
"Mr. Data. Stay vigilant, as we don't know why she went on that rampage. You have my permission to use whatever force necesary to safeguard the Hunter up to the limitations Captain Janeway specified."

"Understood, sir." the android replied and his phaser never wavered from Seven's head while the doctors worked on her.

"Captain. I'll stay here to monitor this."  
Yar said eyeing Seven's place on the floor. Already the doctors had out medkits and tricorders and were actively dealing with the woman's convulsions.  
"I'll let you know the moment she awakens."

Kirk gave Tasha a short nod and went to Boothby and Chakotay's side. They were at the tactical station, having gotten the report from Khan that the 8472 young had disappeared from Voyager's scans into a subspace rift. Captain Kirk filled them in.  
"The last surviving 8472 did that gentlemen.  
Seven told it in no uncertain terms to return to Fluidic Space and turn itself and its children in to the High Justices."

Chakotay spoke to the bridge. =^=Khan. It's ok. Stand down from red alert.  
The remaining 8472 was the one who took the neonates away. They're back home to face the music.=^=

=^=Seven of Nine?=^= Khan inquired quickly.

Chakotay glanced down at her.  
"She's being stabilized by the doctors. Looks like the Hunter has brought her consciousness into Fluidic Space like Captain Janeway and I've security aplenty down here. You can relax."

=^=I shall not while I'm in this seat commander.=^=

"Suit yourself." Chakotay grinned. "Chakotay out."

Boothby was crouched over near Seven's head and Kirk did the same and they watched for a chance to question the doctors about the borg woman.

The EMH left Seven on the floor. He had already been updated by Dr. Pel and Dr. Crusher about how B'Elanna's collapse had manifested to them earlier in the same circumstance. "Well, seems the 8472 can stand to learn a few subtleties to their mindmelding techniques."  
the holdoc said sarcastically.  
"You said Torres was physically ill during this process?"  
he asked Denara while holding a bioprobe over the now sedated Seven's torso and head.

"Yes. I was." B'Elanna replied, standing nearby.  
"Because I fought them to keep from leaving Captain Janeway."

"Seems she wants to be in there, unlike you.  
She isn't yet vomitting."  
The EMH had Dr. Crusher hold onto Seven until her shaking subsided from the hypospray given to her. Then he rolled her onto her side to safeguard against a change in the outcome as Torres had laid out for him.  
As he was doing so, Seven's assimilation tubes lanced out of both wrists, one impaling the doctor's leg the other set narrowly missing getting Dr. Pel.  
"Everybody back!" the holodoc shouted.  
"Holozimm. You have enough medical training,  
you assist me here until we figure out a way to deal with these appendages. I don't want anyone non holo getting injured from them."  
The tubes did little more than sparkle through the doctor's holomatrix and he easily pulled himself off of Seven's lanced tubes.

Dr. Pel and Dr. Crusher and Julian wisely stood away.

The EMH held up one of Seven's wrists and studied where the double set of lances were protruding out of her skin. He touched one and in response it dripped out a curious glowing drop of ichor.

Boothby came in close to peer at it. "Well.. isn't that fascinating. Our clever borg's added stealing to her list of grievances along with murder, doctor. Aren't those the nanoprobes you and Janeway used against the 8472 back then in the Delta Quadrant?"

The holodoc's face frowned angrily.  
"Yes. I thought I had them locked up tightly. You know Starfleet procedures on saving any new technology developed in the field."

"I do.. " Boothby grunted in amusement and disgust. "But here's case and point on just how dangerous having loose "guns" lying around a starship can be. Those in the know can take advantage of them."

Captain Kirk spoke up quietly.  
"What I'm about to say may seem a bit crazy, but Boothby, I can almost see your next order here."

"You're way ahead of me captain."  
Boothby grinned with heavy seriousness.

Kirk turned to Dr. Pel. "Doctor. Get a sample of those augmented nanoprobes. We may have to develop another weapon to use against the 8472 if they choose to attack us over this whole incident. Make it so.."

The EMH was livid. "Captain! I highly protest. Wanton killing isn't the option here."

"Never said it was." Kirk said. "But Seven seemed to think so. You won't be the one responsible for this new order. Did you notice I asked Dr. Pel to handle it? I planned it that way just so you won't have to battle your programmed ethics this time around."

"Captain. Making a new weapon isn't the best answer here.." Neelix said with a pale,  
whisker sagging face. "I know. I saw one kill my family inadvertantly in a test. Our moon was utterly destroyed and millions died."

=^=Mr. Neelix. =^= came Avalonii's voice over the intercom. =^=James Kirk is quite right in pursuing any option that will safeguard the Federation. Despite the charges being held against Captain Janeway and any new ones Seven has incurred in the eyes of the 8472 race, we must protect our home soil. It's not a friendly galaxy out there despite what you might think otherwise..=^=

Neelix moused down at the sound of the human's Ultimate High Official and said no more.

The EMH finally said, "Ah, here it is.."  
and he ran a finger up the side of Seven's thumb on the arm he was holding.  
The assimilation tubes snicked back into place. Holozimm copied him and soon the danger was over. Dr. Pel grabbed a test tube and ran the lip of it across Seven's stomach where the droplet had fallen, gathering the sample. She sealed it and took it away to a nearby microscanner.  
"Captain. I'll get right on this."

Kirk nodded.

Suddenly, Seven started breathing very fast and irregular where she lay. The EMH laid a hand on her stomach, monitoring her.  
"Seven?" And he tipped her head back to be sure she had a clear throat.

Troi spoke up. "She's not waking or being ill doctor. She's upset. Something didn't go on in there like she expected. She's frightened."

"Aren't we all?" the EMH quipped. "It's not everyday that we stand on the brink of interspecies war."  
Kirk was standing with his arms folded over each other next to Chakotay. "Seems we can only be on the defensive here commander.  
Spock is our only portal to the High Justices. Thanks for updating me on the whole affair.." he said,  
holding up a padd Chakotay had given him.

The Hunter turned to them all.  
##I am just an emissary to gather wrong doerssss to bring back to the Homeseassss. I only stay here to be an avenue from you to the High Onesss. I will not offer violence..##

"That's good.." Kirk said flippantly. "I could use a break from the carnage festival angle."  
Then he turned to Chakotay. "Commander.  
Your captain isn't going to be pleased that one of her old crewmates has murdered in her name. Tell me. How will Kathryn react,  
and how will Seven for that matter."

Chakotay's face flushed embarrassement, anger and worry in multiple variations when he heard that remark from the Enterprise captain. "This isn't the first time that a crewmember has killed under Janeway's command. Sudor was one. And Seska.."  
His face soured at the mentioning of that last name.

Kirk didn't inquire further.  
"There's always some sour apples in the barrel."

"Speak for yourself! I try hard to pick the good ones for the commanding spots!" Boothby protested. "Go yell at the lower downs for not being as thorough as me with those cadets."

Kirk went on as if he didn't hear Boothby at all.  
"...Do you think Seven of Nine is one?" he finished, looking at Chakotay.

Chakotay sighed. "I know Seven as well as anyone could. We were close once. But she has been an individual for only a short time.  
Even with the time we had together, there were parts of her personality that I didn't understand. But I hardly think that Seven will go blindly radical and start a war for no good reason. There's a deeply personal one for why she's done this, captain. And I trust her for that, at least. She must have known killing the rebels wouldn't have any lasting consequence to a guaranteed level or she wouldn't have done it. She's got history with the Borg. Perhaps she understands 8472 society far better than we do."

The Hunter hissed loudly at that.  
##Only one of us has ever been taken by the Borg. It will not happen again...##

Chakotay's temper flared. "Tell me this!  
Has any race you've brought before your High Justices ever won their case?"

##No.##

"Then just how fair do you think your society really is?" the commander shot back.

Boothby was thinking, deeply. "There's a thought. Commander. Captain Kirk.  
Why don't we contact the Terrasphere 8472 and those of the 8472 govermental branch who's chosen to ally with us. Perhaps they can shed some light on this whole situation."

Again the Hunter hissed. ##They are a new generation. Do not contact our young.##

Chakotay's head turned around in surprised discovery.  
"They seemed mature enough for me. And very open to contact between our two races. Tell me, would these friendly 8472 be an opposing branch of government to yours, Big Guy?"

The Hunter said nothing.

Kirk and Chakotay and Boothby shared a knowing glance with each other and they moved off to a computer terminal.  
They called up the 8472/Federation Treaty to the screen there. Kirk waved Mr. Data over. "Commander. Would you mind reading this to see if you can glean anything we can use and about how we might contact the Terrasphere 8472?"

"Not at all. I shall get right on it captain."  
And the android began speed reading the document before his eyes.  
"Now... " Kirk said, bouncing a finger off his lip thoughtfully. "We need someone very savvy to people and diplomacy and someone who has a way with treaty documents.  
He tapped his combadge.  
"Ardra and K'Ehleyr. Report to sickbay on the double.. We need your brand of expertise down here concering 8472/ Human diplomatic relations according to our treaty with the Terrasphere. And perhaps a bit more.  
If the Hunter is Kathryn's prosecutor. How would you two like to serve as her defendants?"  
::Wish I could get Cogsley. The best lawyer in the galaxy. But he's dead.:: Kirk thought ruefully.

=^=We're on our way..=^= came the two women's reply. Ardra's voice was tinged with surprised curiosity. But the Ambassador's was all calm business.

Then Kirk knelt by the EMH. "Can she be moved? We might have to get her near Spock if he decides he needs to link with her as well."

"No. Seven's physical lifesigns are mirroring her emotional ones in there.  
Any stimulus from our end here may cause her to lose focus in Fluidic Space and decorporealize. She's not attached and being assisted into anchoring there with a Vulcan Mind meld. She's stuck doing that all her own." the EMH said.  
"And not holding on well from what I'm seeing here." he said, indicating her breathing rhythm off body.

"Can't the Hunter get a stronger tie to her to help with that?" Kirk asked.

"No. He's just the one way subway who takes people to the courtroom captain." Torres said sarcastically.

Kirk frowned. "D*mned if you do.  
D*mned if you don't. We have to find another way to get a communications link into that Otherspace. Spock's only got two hands. And we need the one on the computer bioneural interface so WE can hear what's going on."

Barclay spoke up. "Uh, sir. Give me that task. I've...uh, a history of rewired synapses,  
perhaps I can think up something for you."

"All right.." Kirk smiled.  
But then just as quickly it faded as he looked down and saw Seven's still form breathing agitatedly in her mental distress under the doctor's hands. "Just make it fast Lieutenant. I have a sinking feeling that Kathryn and Seven have run out of options in there."

Just then, the weakened strut bolts along Voyager's hull caused by the sudden liftoff from the museum site, tore free and a hull breach ensued right at the rift hole site in engineering. The sea began to rush into that deck with frightening speed.

The computer issued an automatic yellow alert.  
##Hull breach, Deck Fifteen Engineering.  
Automatic integrity shielding between decks has failed.##

Chakotay shouted. "Get those shields up!!"

"Impossible captain!" Yar said. "The warp and impulse engines are still off line because of the heat down there. Only manual commands are functioning to each local terminal."

"D*mn." Kirk shouted. He turned to the EMH,  
"Where's your nearest O mask locker? I'm going down there. Yar, you're with me, Torres. And anybody else who's up on that part of engineering. Move it."

The EMH stood and tapped a few buttons on his console. "You'll find five O masks in storage locker D just outside my office. But those don't work very well underwater captain. Only for short periods if you press them to your faces hard enough."

"They'll have to do." Kirk said, finding and opening the indicated locker. He handed out transparent,  
slender clear plastic masks with gray canisters attached to everyone going with him. "Keep a lock on our biosigns. It's going to get wet. Looks like Voyager has just become a flooding Titanic."

Spock's voice came over the speakers.  
But it wasn't Janeway's this time. ##I have seen your current emergency through the computer sensors. Flooding is now complete in Engineering and most of deck fourteen. The water level is rising. Battery power to the transporters will be spotty at best.##

"Understood Spock." Kirk said. "We'll be moving section by section and manually setting forcefields to secure the rest of the ship. But tell me,  
can Starfleet beam us out from their end?"

"Not at present. There is still dimensional interference being caused by the communications bridge the Hunter is maintaining between Fluidic Space and our own dimension."  
Janeway's voice modulation cut in.  
##Chakotay! I'm giving you a direct order.  
Abandon the link! Both Seven and I would rather be mindless hulks than to risk all of you.##

"Kathryn. You aren't in command anymore. Not as long as you are lying on that sickbay bed!"

"That goes double time for me captain! I'm relieving you of duty as of right now!!" Boothby shouted.  
"So hush! No one is about to "go down with the ship".;  
We're still showing a lot of air and unimpeded decks here.. There's still time to turn this around! "  
Boothby had meanwhile comm'd the surface.  
=^=Voyager to Starfleet hovercraft. How's that manual recovery operation coming? Well step up on the brainstorming. We're taking on water in a big way!!=^=

A startled comm answered back. =^=Uh, sir.. Uh,  
this is San Francisco Bay Port Authority. Starship Recovery Neptune is still twenty light years away and her sister ship is farther than that at six hours distance. We need both of them to even attempt to lift Voyager.=^=

Boothby muttered. "Where's a Q when you need one."

=^=What?=^= the voice replied.

"Never mind son. Stay with us. Boothby out."

Voyager rocked suddenly as one of her landing struts collapsed under her added weight. Very soon, so did the other two. Everyone was jolted when Voyager's belly hit the sandy bottom of the Bay.

Those not already on the floor or on a biobed were jolted severely. Chakotay spit out blood from the lip he had bitten in his fall to the deck.  
"Damage report!!"

"Working on it sir.." Yar said.

Dr. Pel was on her knees before her baby's cradle.  
The infant had fallen out and had been injured when an equipment cart fell on her.  
"No...!!"

The EMH almost went over to her side to assist but was stuck monitoring Seven of Nine.

Dr. Crusher took BabyPelSchmolis from Denara's arms. "Let me see her.. come on. Let go.."

Beverly's tricorder tones suddenly soured into death tones and no amount of care she and Denara could give could save the tiny child.  
Dr. Pel crumpled into grief over the body of her firstborn girl. "No... not like this..No."

Over by Seven the EMH's face was stricken and his mouth gaped. "She's dead?"

Gently, Julian shouldered the holodoc out of the way and told him. "Go. Go to them.. I'll take over here."

The EMH remembered only the face of their life stilled child when he embraced Denara in as tight a hold as he could manage.  
"I'm so sorry Denara... I..." and then he gave into crying as deeply as any human's.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Kirk lying injured.

Image: A stressed Yar and Data looking at her.

Image: BabyPel Schmolis in her mother's arms.

Image : Chakotay getting to his feet again after being shaken off his feet.

Image: Dr. Denara Pel and the EMH in close shot by a biobed.

Gif: A red alert bar.

***************************************************** From : Katherine Bird .uk Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Poseidon's Plunge Date : Wed, 4 Sep 2002 05:02:03 +0100 (BST) The computer issued an automatic yellow alert.  
##Hull breach, Deck Fifteen Engineering.  
Automatic integrity shielding between decks has failed.##

Chakotay shouted. "Get those shields up!!"

"Impossible captain!" Yar said. "The warp and impulse engines are still off line because of the heat down there. Only manual commands are functioning to each local terminal."

"D*mn." Kirk shouted. He turned to the EMH,  
"Where's your nearest O mask locker? I'm going down there. Yar, you're with me, Torres. And anybody else who's up on that part of engineering. Move it."

The EMH stood and tapped a few buttons on his console. "You'll find five O masks in storage locker D just outside my office. But those don't work very well underwater captain. Only for short periods if you press them to your faces hard enough."

"They'll have to do." Kirk said, finding and opening the indicated locker. He handed out transparent,  
slender clear plastic masks with gray canisters attached to everyone going with him. "Keep a lock on our biosigns. It's going to get wet. Looks like Voyager has just become a flooding Titanic."

B'Elanna Torres was way ahead of Kirk when she snatched open the storage locker and got O masks for everyone going to the lower decks to stop the influx of ocean water.  
"We have to hurry with those manual shields in all the associated corridors! If Voyager takes on too much water, we won't be able to have her lifted or flown out. I think I have a plan to drain engineering. Let's move."

Then the urgent Klingon Human engineer tapped her combadge. "Computer. Scan the reconnaissance sphere Byte, and tell me if its systems are able to withstand submersion or dampness above 70 % humidity."

A series of analyses bleeps strung out and then a fast reply. ##Negative##

"That cuts it. We're on our own down there.  
The holograms won't be of much use under water if those holoemitters on it fritz out. "

The EMH appeared into sickbay.  
"That's not essentially true. I can still go. I'm wearing twenty ninth century technology." and he pointed to his holoemitter stuck on his arm. "I'm sure a little damp weather won't effect it much."

"Join our party then." B'Elanna ordered.  
Again. She hit her chest insignia. "Torres to all security personnel below decks.  
Get those manual section isolation fields down. Track the course of the flooding on your infrared sensors. That will tell you which sections are flooding. Don't worry about the Jeffries tubes, they already have bulkhead doors between Decks and levels.  
Hit the computer wall panel display in any section you've successfully sealed off!!"

Slowly, the schematic on Voyager that Torres had called up began to show dams of isofields erecting as the teams sent in to deal with the 8472 rebels now dealt with Voyager's new emergency.  
One by one the computer announced the sections safely barricaded from the rising waters and soon a line of green indicators lit up ahead of the sections filling with seawater. All but two.

Torres shouted. "Is anyone down there by Deck 13, there's two corridors that are still unprotected! Any security team personnel down there respond!"

There was no reply.

Then Kirk began counting heads on the accompanying lifescan monitor.  
"That's all they can do lieutenant.  
See? That's all twenty four security personnel accounted for.."

"Mr Spock.. Are the transporters functional down there?" she asked the intercom.

##Negative.## came the oddly humanoid mindlinked voice.

"D*mn." Then Torres looked at Neelix. "I'll need you too. Come on. I need every hand I can spare down there. Captain Kirk.  
How about you head down to this juncture at Section nine. Neelix and I will grab Section ten on Deck 13. Use the turbolifts. If we hurry we'll get one more use out of them before they flood that high up.  
Doctor, you're with the captain. If any of us gets into trouble just demat and reform to anyone in trouble got that?"

"Of course." the EMH replied. "I'll be limited to those areas with air but I'll do my best."

Torres went on.  
"Anyone else who wants to go, pick a group.  
But only form two.. The fewer groups there are the easier it'll be for the transporter to discern us out into the pattern buffers if it becomes functional again!"

Voyager jolted once more.. mildly as the sea claimed more of her internal spaces. Everyone shifted on their feet maintaining their balances.

She gave a long meaningful frightened look towards Tom as if she were about to say something but there was no time left to spare for it.

Then she saw Denara kneeling over her dead child and her resolve firmed up. No more people were going to die. Not on her watch.

She slapped the O mask over her face and rushed out of sickbay. Neelix barely was able to keep up with her and he fiddled with his O mask straps while they ran towards the turbolift. "Eh, B'Elanna isn't there any other way to keep out the water? Positive air pressure using the environmental controls perhaps?"

"No Neelix. We have to save that little trick for purging Main Engineering. We've used up too much of our air supply trying to cool Voyager down from that intruding Fluidic Space earlier. Once the main core is high and dry again, we'll be able to assist the recovery craft in lifting ourselves off the seabed with partial impulse power." and she paused by the turbolift, nearly running into its doors when it didn't respond to their proximity. "D*mn. This one's in auto shutdown and its isofields have sealed the shaft already. Let's head down to the aft turbo."

And Torres ran, breathless, to the next turbo a few hundred meters down the corridor.  
This time the doors opened.

B'Elanna pulled Neelix in after her before the doors shut. B'Elanna helped Neelix fit his O mask the rest of the way onto his face and then she drew out her tricorder and pointed it to her feet, running a scan. "Oh, no.. There's water between us and Deck 13's level.. and it looks like we're going to have to plunge right on through it to reach that level. Only the shaft is flooded so high. The deck itself is still dry in that section.. I'd say we have about a minute before the computer locks this turboshaft down too. Ready?"

"Ready for what?" Neelix quavered.

"Your first swim.. It's going to be cold. We only have to be underwater long enough to blow the turbo doors and open Deck 13's. Once we do that, the excess water we bring with us will just spill out onto the floor. Nothing to worry about."  
B'Elanna grinned through her mask.  
She shouted. "Deck 13. Emergency speed.! Hang on Neelix!!"

Neelix said when the pit of his stomach suddenly shifted to his chest. Soon, they both got used to the accelerated motion and inertia caught up with them. And they both braced themselves hanging onto the lift handles and side railing.  
"AhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhh."

The whine of air around them in the turboshft hissed higher and higher as they approached the flooded part of the shaft.

Torres studied her tricorder screen intently.  
"4.7 tons at 50 kilometers per hour should get us precisely down to Deck 13's bulkhead portals."

"What if it doesn't and we're stuck between decks?"  
Neelix said.

Torres frowned. "No problem, we'll blow the roof hatch here and swim to the surface and climb the ladder to Deck 14 if this doesn't work, the isofield will let us through even if it is activated then. It only repels non carbonated matter. The water and turbolift will remain below it."

The hissing whine of the turbo's acceleration began to hurt their ears. Neelix couldn't help but scream.  
"AHHH.."

Splash!!!!! The turbocarriage dove deep into the submersed part of the shaft and its weight carried it down slower and slower until the air inside of it prevented it from going any deeper.

Torres let go of the rail even as ice cold water began to bubble and seep rapidly through carpetting and ceiling down on them. "Move it Neelix! Take this suction handle. Help me with this bulkhead and the lift doors.  
We have about fifteen seconds before our air is gone and we lose buoyancy. The last place we want to be is in this turbocar when that happens for it will sink all the way to the bottom.  
Too deep for us to swim from before we're effected by the bends." she shouted over the shower of frigid salt water pelting on them.

The frightened Talaxian did what he was told. Ten seconds later the lift doors were open and the water risen to their knees. It was bitterly cold and already, their teeth chattered against the icy temperature.

Torres hit the emergency switch on Deck 13's entryportal. Negative signal bleeps told her the mechanism wasn't functioning. "The heat in there must have fused the release circuits."  
Then a brainstorm. "I know.." and she ripped off the control cover from the wall's emergency bypass unit until she exposed wires. They were still dry..

"B'Elanna.... Hurry.. The water's up to our waists!.."

"Just a minute.. I've almost rewired this iso--"

Right then the turbocar groaned and sank a meter,  
protesting the weight of water filling it with a sickening shriek of titanium...

Neelix found himself treading water. And B'Elanna plunged up to her neck. "D*mn! " she swore when she saw the circuit box submerse and short out in blue sparks under the greenish water.

Neelix spit out bitter water. "Now what?!"

B'Elanna hit her hands on the remaining set of bulkhead doors in frustration willing them to open, yelling at them in a burst of Klingon anger.

Then she had a great idea.  
She drew out her phaser and lifted it out of the water. She fired a precise low shot at a curious node of red just by the ceiling. A fire alarm klaxon went off and the turbo lift door suddenly sprang open and both Neelix and Torres went tumbling in the tons of water that spilled out onto Deck thirteen, emptying the shaft down to floor level..

Coughing and shivering, Neelix and B'Elanna made it to their feet as the water around them spread out onto the soggy carpetting and then both sloshed back to the turboshaft. He and Torres both reached into the lift car and grabbed out the manual suction handles and used them to close the deck bulkheads shut. Soon after,  
they heard the emergency isofield in the shaft hum into existence on the other side. An indicator on the computer wall panel glowed green as a successful containment completed.

"That was close.." Neelix said seriously, rubbing dripping water off his O mask.

But then he pulled his collar away from his neck.  
"Whew.. It's hot down here."

"That's still left over residual heat from engineering. It will take a while even with all this water surrounding us to cool down titanium. Enjoy it while you can.  
The warmth won't last more than an hour at this rate."

Neelix shook himself like a dog, showering Torres with brine..

B'Elanna began laughing.. "Oh, Neelix I'm sorry.. You look like a drowned rat.. " she said, leaning over her knees and catching her breath.

"You don't look much better you know.." he panted, chuckling. "At least, I smell better wet.."

"Wait a minute? I smell?" And she sniffed her sleeve..

Neelix grinned 'Don't worry about it lieutenant.  
I'm used to it from all you Alpha Quadrant people.  
Got used to it real fast after Tuvok told me what to expect.."

"We all smelled to Tuvok , too?" She asked.  
"Now that's a revelation.." she said making a face of mortification.

Neelix shrugged and then he pulled off his O mask.  
"We should conserve these until we really need them. Now, which way to section ten?"

Torres looked up with a smile and pointed over her shoulder.."Just about a hundred meters right down that w--"

A low rumble of water met their ears and a blast of icy air swirled about them.

"Oh no you don't!!!" B'Elanna shouted and ran full pelt down the corridor towards the raging sound of flooding..

Neelix was terrified, but somehow, he got his feet moving just as quickly.

It was a race between tons of icy ocean and one very very angry Starship engineer. Both rushed towards the middle of Deck 13,  
Section ten. But B'Elanna's living hand hit the isofield button way before the first blast of frigid water could beat it. The field warmed up in a buzz that could barely be heard over the rapidly flowing water and Neelix froze into place, emitting a terrified moan rising up higher and higher as the rush of seawater barrelled down on them.

Snick!!! And white sparklets sheeted up inches before Neelix's whiskers as the isofield finally came online. He winced when the wall of water on the other slide slammed into the field with terrific force and was held here.

Neelix could see data padds and clothes from flooded cabins floating around the other side amid the swirling bubbles of air as the water slowly stilled.  
One of them was a sweater he recognized.  
"Say, that's the sweater I made Naomi Wildman.  
Eewww. All that salt water will leave a nasty stain."  
he said, pressing his nose up against the isofield like an eager child. "I wonder if there's any deep sea fish in there?"

A sharp tug on his ear whirled him around "Oww. Ow.  
I'm just kidding. Trying to take the stress of the whole situation off. Where's that sense of humor you had a minute ago B'Elanna? Ooo. " and he rubbed his tender ear lobe.

"There's levity and then there's levity Neelix. Look."  
and she showed him the computer display of Deck 13.

The whole deck was contained behind forcefields, but the section that Kirk was to report to was now fountaining up water onto Deck 12 like a geyser through the flooring.

"Did something happen to them?" Neelix said.

"I don't know. But we have to get over there somehow to the other side of Deck 13 and stop that flooding.  
Or we're going to have to evacuate again and try this whole iso field barrier attempt again on Deck 12. I don't want to lose that side of Deck 13. That's where Environmental Life Support is and where we have to go to rig an air purge for Engineering."

"But how..?" Neelix asked, wringing out seawater from his jacket.

B'Elanna crossed the light flickering corridor and pulled off a jeffries tube cover and pointed at it with a little flourish.  
"Don't have a problem with low ceilings do you?"

"Uh, no.. not especially. But B'Elanna, isn't that section's half of the bissecting jeffries tube over there under water?"

"It is. We're going to have to seal this hatch after ourselves crawl down there to Voyager's mid ship's point,  
and flood our side by opening that side's hatch.." she said,  
pointing to the tiny dot farther down the tube. "Once the pressure is equalized, we can swim through into Section nine and put up the isofield there to stop the flooding to the deck above."

"But we'll still be underwater afterwards.."

"Yeessss.. " said B'Elanna sarcastically. "That's why I'm hoping the holodoc's estimates on how long these things will last is accurate.." she said, holding up her O mask.

"Oh, I can't do that..." Neelix said, backing up a little and staring into the open jeffries door fearfully.

"Why not? You almost were sent to your death in that turboshaft.."

"That was up and down.. I had a lot of head room.  
In there is... side to side...and soon won't have any air in it.."

"Come on.." B'Elanna said, giving him a shove into the Jeffries tube. "Put on your mask and get ready. Once I seal this door, there's no going back. This side of Voyager must stay safe. It'll buy the others up there some time if we fail and what we did will preserve that air for them."

Neelix's face gave a look of twisted worry and he stayed silent. But then he nodded. "I understand."  
and he crawled inside. "What if we can't seal that section off like you plan?"

"Then we'll be pinned to the ceiling by the rising water pressure until we can't move and we'll drown before anybody gets to us in time."

"Oh, sorry I asked.."

B'Elanna followed him inside the tube and then closed the hatch behind them. It shut with a clang that echoed down the whole length of the shaft and back to them several times.

To Neelix it sounded like a guillotine slamming down on his neck. He winced but then bravely followed B'Elanna as she crawled on ahead, showing him the way to the mid point of the ship through the tube to the mid point door.

As he crawled Neelix, began to relax as the warmth and light around him made the whole situation seem surreal.  
"You know.. This isn't so bad.. Now it would be a whole different story if the lights went o--"

Puuff ufff uuffff.... came a gentle whine and the lights and all power suddenly killed in their horizontal crawl space and it went pitch black night so fast their retinas flashed afterimages.

Neelix began to moan in an upward sob higher and higher.  
"Oh, nnoo ooooooooooOOOo..." he groaned softly.  
"I hate the dark.. B'Elanna??? This is bad.. Very bad.. My people go catatonic when that happ-"

B'Elanna pulled off the caps of two illuma-glow sticks she had found in one cubby hole. "Ah ha.. " she shouted in triumph.  
"Guess I'm not the only one who plans for black outs around here. Remind me to thank Vorik next time I see him for these. Thank heavens for Vulcan efficiency.." And two blessedly bright green auras of light filled the jeffries tube. "Here you go Neelix. One instant torch made to order.." and she handed him one with a smile.

Neelix unfroze from the beginnings of his natural instinct to go catatonic and he slowly took the tiny glowing tube from her hand and snugged it up to his cheek.. His natural humor soon returned. "Hehe. I'll be sure to be the first to hug that man despite how he feels about physical contact.."

Torres resumed her hand over hand crawl to the middle ship hatch now only a few meters away.  
"I'm sure the blackout was just the computer conserving power on that half of the deck. I had it programmed to shut down non essentials in the case of an isofield barricade situation. The blackout was designed to tell anyone on the ship that that area of lights off was where total containment was assured."

"Clever rigging." Neelix said.

Soon, the fateful hatch was before them.  
B'Elanna scanned it with her tricorder. "Yep.. It's flooded on the other side. But the water's still warm. Possibly, it just got here. We may just be in luck and can still get to the corridor over there without swimming like two struggling trout in an upstream."

"Can you scan for air pockets?"

"Doesn't matter. We've got these things on.."  
she said tapping her O mask.

"I see.. Uh,.. just blow the hatch before I change my mind ok?" Neelix said.

"All right.. Get set.. One, two......"

A bright flash of rematerialization almost blinded the two of them as the EMH appeared crouched next to them.

B'Elanna and Neelix both yelled and covered their eyes from the bright remat.

"Oh sorry, you two. I've got word from Captain Kirk's group. They got stuck in the forward turboshaft and had to be pulled out. So the only section still venting water above to Deck Twelve is...."

"....section nine.. we know already doctor.." B'Elanna said.  
"We just scanned it on the tricorder.."

"Oh. Well.. At least let me trade you those.." he said,  
pointing to their O masks on their faces.. "For these.."  
and he handed them both new ones.. "Put that first set into your belts for emergencies. I won't be able to follow you since you are flooding this tube and entering a flooded deck block. But, I'll be on the air side of that isofield security managed to rig over there, scanning you both, once you appear in the breached section to seal off that last breach. Spock is working hard on getting all power to the transporter by rerouting the food replicator energy supplies should you two get into trouble. I'll be monitoring your lifesigns.. Good luck."

And there was another flash and the doc was gone.

B'Elanna groaned as she and Neelix rubbed their light violated eyes until they could see the dim green illumasticks they were carrying once again.  
"So, we've a safety net. Ready Neelix? The isofield switch is any place half way between any two crew cabins on either side of the corridor.. We're going to have to both hit two switches simultaneously to set it into ceiling mode to stop the upwelling of water onto Deck 12 . Got it?"

"Yes, I think so... "and he placed the new mask over his face and set the glow stick between his teeth.  
L-let's just do it.." Neelix shuddered.

Torres said. "Ok. Now the water will push us back a ways until it floods our side of the jeffries passage. Don't panic just fold into a ball and let the currents roll you around until things are fully equalized. "

Neelix nodded, growing pale. "Please just don't go into details.."

"All right.. Here goes.. Blowing the hatch in three,  
two, one..."

B'Elanna hit the manual override and a tube of warmish brine slammed into both of them.  
Neelix's ears and eyes flooded with stinging water and he felt the rush of water send him backwards and bump him along the walls and into the ceiling of the jeffries tube. In a minute, it was over and Neelix found himself floating.

A kicking set of black legs he saw in the nimbus of the glow stick in his mouth, showed that B'Elanna was already swimming to the other side through the opened mid ship's hatch.

It was a long way to the opposite end of the jeffries tube. But soon, they were there and blissfully normal lights met them. It glimmered at the opening through the water. B'Elanna grabbed Neelix by the shoulders and pointed up through the water where air bubbles were rising and getting sucked into the cracks of the ceiling of the corridor. That was section ten and the base of the geysering flood now filling Deck 12.

Neelix felt the tug of the powerful current that wanted to pull him into that dangerous place but he swam around it as B'Elanna did and they both hit their mutual switches until the isofield spread through the water across the ceiling, ending the water current's frightening funneling upwards.

B'Elanna swam up to the side isofield on the unflooded part of the corridor deck and waved a hand at the blue and black wavering form of the holodoc she could just see on the other side in the OK gesture. But with the other hand, she kept pressing the O mask tightly to her face. Neelix did the same. Then B'Elanna sealed the jeffries tube from where they had just swum and it was done.

Neelix kicked and swam until he could tap B'Elanna on the shoulder. Already the water was growing colder as the heat around them slowly dispersed.

B'Elanna pointed down the corridor to Neelix and away from the isofield where the holodoc waited when her tricorder showed that a briefing room two doors down still had about one meter of air in it by the ceiling. Neelix nodded and joined her swimming to that spot and into the room with the air pocket.

B' Elanna hauled herself up onto a floating table, coughing and choking a bit on the mouthful of water that had gotten past the mask. She helped haul the soggy Neelix up onto the table as well and they both lay there, getting their breaths back. Then B'Elanna took out her phaser again and played the lowest beam possible over her combadge and Neelix's until both devices were thoroughly dry. Then she tapped hers.  
"B'Elanna to the EMH. *cough* We're through.."

=^=I can't see you anymore where are you?=^=the holodoc asked.

"Two doors down from you doctor.. To the right, in an air pocket." Neelix continued.

=^=Obviously. Since you both are talking right now.  
The holodoc said. =^=Any signs of hypothermia yet? Both of your vital sets still look good on my medtricorder.  
Neelix, You're a bit chilled but that shouldn't last long now that you're in air. The ambient temperature of the air around you is still in the low twenties C.=^=

B'Elanna coughed once more and said, "How's the extent of the flooding look to you doctor? Deck 12 still getting inundated from any new areas we missed?"

There was a pause, then the doctor came online again.  
=^=Things are quiet up there. The water that has gotten in is just pooling, from the images I'm seeing here.  
Boothby has just relayed a vid link to my location.=^=

"Good news.." Neelix said. "Now how about us? How can we get out of this section? It's all underwater.  
Then we have to get to Environmental Control to air pressure force the water out of Main Engineering."

=^=Hmm. Give me a moment. I'm checking sensors.=^= the EMH said. =^= Hey, someone's in Turboshaft A,  
the one that Kirk and crew had to abandon when the isofield kicked on. It looks like Commander Chakotay.  
And he's got pattern enhancers strapped to his back.=^=

"What?" Torres said. Then her face spread out into a wide grin. "Don't tell me. He's got transporter arm bands enough for three in his back pocket.."

=^=Why yes.. How did you guess?=^=

"Tom once told me Chakotay wanted to pull a stunt like that when they first met, climbing out of a collapsing tunnel on the Ocampan homeworld forever ago. Didn't have them then of course. Guess the commander didn't forget the equipment that matters this time around.  
The circumstances are very similar. Hmm. let's see if I can remember what he said back then.. "Get everyone in jeopardy fitted with the arm bands and then use the pattern enhancers to nurse the weakened transporters into a site to site effective enough to work to pull them out of there" I like how he thought back then and I like it now. Where is he, at the moment?"

=^= The turbolift's been flooded about seven decks below him. Looks like he's climbing down manually to get to Juncture C, Deck 13. That's right near you.  
He's managed to drain that shaft down that far using a portable tractor.=^=

"Of course he has.. He's trying to do the same thing we are, to get to Environmental Control to purge Main Engineering so we can eventually help the rescue ships raise Voyager. He must think Neelix and I are too tired to go on, hence the arm bands to beam us out leaving one for him."

=^= From what I'm reading here. You are. Neelix is borderline exhausted.=^= the EMH said.

"Speak for yourself.. doctor.. I'm just a...just a... "  
and Neelix started to yawn.

=^=Case and point Mr. Neelix.. When Chakotay arrives to you both, you are returning to sickbay for a hot shower. Doctor's orders. You've done what you can helping B'Elanna activate that ceiling isofield. That had to have been done by two people so don't feel as if you haven't made yourself useful. Understood?=^=

Neelix grinned, teeth chattering. "Who am I to argue with a voice of reason? Even if it is a holo one."

=^=Hmmph..=^= came the doc's satisfied grunt. B'Elanna could almost see the EMH's affirming nod.

Torres sat up on the floating table dangling her legs into the water and started watching for Chakotay to come swimming to them for a rendevous.  
A regroup was needed exactly where they were to plan out how they all could best make it to Environmental Control for the next phase in saving the sunken starship.

::I'm not about to lose this ship for Janeway. That's the last thing I want her to find out about on one of the darkest days of her life. I can't even begin to imagine the stress she's under being accused of genocide..::

She calibrated her tricorder to read Chakotay's progress to their location. On a whim, she hit her combadge. "Torres to Chakotay."

But there was no reply. The tricorder relay she had rigged like the doctor's just showed his biosigns still sinking in a slow climb down to her level along a ladder. "Hmm, Guess he hasn't figured out the phaser as a dryer concept yet for his combadge."

Then she looked up at Neelix trying to hide his goose pimples. "Hey Neelix..are your clothes organic?"

"Yes.. They are. Kes always used to prefer natural materials and I guess I never got out of the habit."

"OK. Here's the next best thing to a campfire since I don't want to melt your clothes off trying to dry you."  
And B'Elanna fired a warming blast from her Type I at the ceiling to heat the metal in an effort to stop Neelix's intense shivering with its red hot glow. "Why don't you get some rest? We can't do anything more for a while since we only have enough air in these O masks enough for one trip to Environmental Control. Gotta make them count so we're gonna wait for reinforcements before we go for another swim. Chakotay's most likely got a better map than this one with him." she said tapping her tricorder.

"That sounds like a splendid.. splendid.." and Neelix tipped over, snugging his head onto his hands like a pillow and he soon curled up into sleep, snoring under the improvised heat spot in the ceiling.

Torres threw a leg over his shoulders to keep his face from sagging into the water as he drifted to sleep. "That's my good little morale officer. You've done enough for one day.."

The EMH piped up. =^=Neelix's sleeping?=^=

"Yes. I essentially pulled a warm blanket over him with a phaser doctor. "

=^=You didn't stun him..=^=

"No, of course not. I flash pointed the ceiling bulkheads to get some infrared heat going."

=^=Smart thinking. =^=

"I learned that trick from one of Captain Kirk's mission logs. I'll keep a watch on his vitals as you will doctor.  
To make sure he doesn't fall into hypothermia."

=^=All right.=^=

Then a loud shudder shifted the water beneath B'Elanna and Neelix's "rafting" table and a hollow clang reverberated through the water in a twisted metal howl followed by an even louder crash..

"What was that?!" A bleary Neelix mumbled in sudden fright.

"Shhh shh." B'Elanna said. "Doctor..What was that sound?  
Not another deck breach? I thought we just plugged them all!!"

The EMH's voice came on in equal startlement.  
=^=B'Elanna.. That was the car in Chakotay's turboshaft.  
It's just fallen to the waterline. And the ladder he's on is showing heavy damage! He may have been trapped by it! I'm reading a dramatic change in his lifesigns shifting to those of high stress patterns..=^=

"Doctor, can you translocate to him?"

=^=Not at the moment. The holoemitters in this area are fluctuating just like the transporters.  
Only my holoemitter is allowing me to stay online down here. Someone must be recalibrating some power relays right now. I can't get the computer to transfer me.=^=

Torres hit her combadge. "B'Elanna to anyone! Respond!  
Chakotay's in serious trouble!"

--------------------

In the turbo shaft, Chakotay clung to the shattered rail of the ladder that had twisted like wire when the speeding loose turbolift had given way and made its downward plunge past his position.

"Oh great..." he trickled fighting to stay conscious from the glancing blow a chunk of debris had landed on his temple. He felt the mass of the pattern enhancers on his back start to weigh him down.

He barely had one hand's grip on the scaffoulding.

And that grip, was slipping..

-  
(attachments)

Image: A Lcars EMH interfaces computer screen.

Image: B'Elanna, Neelix and the EMH with others watching someone off picture, speaking.

Image: Tom Paris catching a falling Chakotay on torn scaffoulding.

********************************************* From : "Clairissa Fox" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] The Recess Date : Wed, 04 Sep 2002 18:25:30 +0000

The Albino began to laugh in mirth and it pointed a claw at the faces of Janeway/Spock and Seven.  
##This is fitting but the cure has already been found.  
But Justice must be served for the honor of those still living. So choose.. you two potential accused since this court cannot determine full blame. Who will die for us? The choice is yours.##

I jumped up from my hiding place and shouted.  
Thats not fair! Thats not fair! You cant kill 7 or Captain Janeway. There are too many people who care about them and need them around!

##Who is this tiny one before us?## said the white 8472. ##Is this a biped young? It shows many teeth for its age.##

"Alexander is a member of my crew. " Janeway said and she waved him to stand by her. She set hands on his shoulders when he finally ran over to her.

##Is he your child leader woman?##

"In a way, yes. I am responsible for him. My crew IS my family. "

Yeah so back off bugface! I shouted real loud. I felt funny not having my honor knife but I had to follow Captain Janeways orders about not having any weapons.

I didnt like the way she was looking so white and scared.  
I didnt know the whole reason why the bugfaces were so angry at her. All I knew was that it was wrong for them to keep her away from her body like this. She wasnt in a dream quest using Chakotys medicine blanket like I was. She was ripped away and only being awake because Spock was brain to brain with her.

7 looked scared too. I was happy she had killed the other bug faces on Voyager. That was what a warrior did protecting the ship and crew. But I didnt understand why she wanted to be the one to stay with the judges for their crime punishment choosing. So I asked her

7! 7! Why are you here? Dont let them take you.  
Its not right. We can just get out of here. They kidnapped you. And thats against our law. So the bugfaces are just as guilty as they say you and Captain Janeway are.

Seven of Nine looked down at the mental projection of the boy and said, "That is just one of the grievances with which we are planning to defend ourselves. Now return to Voyager. This is no place for a child."

I am not a child! I am the son of Worf House of Moug and I will never abandon my family friends like a beaten Petaqh!  
Mum knows Im here. So does Chakotay but they are still letting me stay in my trance. The bug faces cant hurt me.  
Cause I didnt do anything to them.

I ran up to the white bugface and climbed up his wooden stand and got into his face. Why pick on us? If you are such a grownup alien people, why remember all the bad times? Thats what so wrong about grownups! They never know when to quit fighting. They just remember all the bad things that happen from the other guys and none of the good things and it starts all over again and never really ever goes away! Its so stupid. And I am disgusted with you.

And I jumped back down and I stood in front of Captain Janeway and 7 and held out my arms. You are chicken.  
Why dont you three justices come to Voyager and really see who we are? See how we have stopped wars and stopped killing. We only make mistakes when we are far far out there in the stars because people are jumpy in new places and shoot first and ask questions later!  
We have to do awful things sometimes just to save ourselves. And all we were trying to do is explore and meet new people to be friends.

We have a big room for you to be in. Its the place where 7s bed is. The cargo bay. It would be better for Captain Janeway and 7 because then their bodies wouldnt be sick being apart from their brains like they are. You can come there safely. I know you can because the Hunter is in our sickbay and hes still with his body!

Then I can show you the computer and all our stories and logs and missions that show how we try hard to be a good neighbor and not kill. You only saw us out there in new space when we first met and things got out of hand and thats why those people died Mr white bugface. I challenge you as an honor judge to see what kind of people the earth federation joins up. I am Klingon,7 is a borg, and Captain Janeway is an earth female. There are tons of other aliens in our space who are friends too.

I know a lot of your bugface friends and family died.  
But that was because none of us took the time to understand each other first. And thats the thing thats wrong with grownups from any place. So I dare you to come to my ship and see who we are on the computer telly and in our library!  
I shouted up at him.

The Albino Justice seemed to confer with his compatriots on either side of the high podium stands in the Fluidic Space courtroom and then the Eldest of them stood up and lashed its tail. ##Your young speaks words that challenge us leader woman. Its words hold merit for your race's integrity since it cannot know the evils of war as yet. This one shall be a witness and we accept its speakings on your behalf. And it is true that your physical shells are suffering damage being in this place of Judging.  
The Hunter is remiss in overlooking that happening. And it shall be disciplined for it. ##

"High Judge. What the boy proposes, a reconvening in Voyager's cargobay, may not be possible. Our hull was damaged in our attempt to quell the high temperatures Fluidic Space was creating in our engine room." Janeway said. "We had to immerse Voyager in one of our seas to reverse that damaging condition. Now water is filling our ship and may have already submersed the Cargobay."

##What is water?## asked the Albino.

I shouted up. Its like air Mr Bugface but it is heavy and likes to pull down to the middle of planets from gravity.  
The human world has lots of it. And when its cold it is hard and when its hot it turns into a cloud and can float.

##Oh. The liquid envelope with the three states of being.  
This will not matter. 8472 can exist in it like we do space and air.##

But it hurts us! We cant breathe under it.

The Albino leaned forward regarding the tiny form of Alexander. ##I don't understand. Your bodies from what I see are mostly this substance. How can water hurt you if you already are made up of so much of it?##

Its our lungs. In some stories they say people came from the seas waters to land so we could grow thumbs to build our cities and grow food without hunting it like what other lifeforms are stuck with doing. We have been away from it so long we cant breathe it any more.  
In water, we drown.

##I see the limitation. Just how mired is this starship in the liquid sea?## asked the High Judge.

"We don't know yet. The lower decks of Voyager for sure. All I know from Spock here is that people are being sent to seal off the breaches to keep the water from completely destroying my vessel. It would be like one of your bioships being repaired from contact with a pulsar's radiation. " Janeway said.

##Ahh,.. spinning stars do have the moving energies which kill our ships. Yes. This water for you is like that for us. I understand now. Very well. You shall be allowed to recorporealize back into your own bodies. The Hunter shall be recalled and its rights to leave the Home Places stricken for harming your minds by taking them from your bodies. And I shall come to your ship when this liquid miring is solved, into His Place, for the Seeing the boy says is there and this ruling time shall recommence then into your Cargobay.  
I shall be watching..There is no place in the black with stars that you can go to escape us...##

Janeway and Seven felt a long mental tug of pain,  
quickly stifled by the Albino's telepathy as they were released from Fluidic Space back into sickbay.

------------------------------------------------------

Janeway opened her eyes briefly, seeing that Chakotay was no longer by her side and she remembered seeing the Hunter vanish with a shriek into a dimensional doorway, but then dizziness and nausea swept her back into blackness. She felt Spock hastily stabilize her physical lifesigns as he withdrew his mind meld from her before she passed out.

On the floor, Seven's struggling respirations evened out and she too blearily opened her eyes before slipping into a simple faint.

---------------------------

I saw Captain Janeway and 7 vanish before my eyes and I smiled. I looked up at the white bugface still looking at me and saw the Hunter pop in next to me. I felt sorry for the Hunter for the trouble he was in so I said.  
He did do his job and got those rebel 8472 off Earth even though 7 had to finish it. Dont be too mad at him.

##You defend even one who has harmed your adults?##

I do. Its another thing we two leggers have. Its called compassion. And then I left the dream quest I had been on and picked my hand off Chakotays trance machine leaving the white bugface in that foggy courtroom.

---------------------------------

I unfolded my legs and got up from Chakotays medicine bundle and ran to Captain Janeway.

The tall Vulcan was just removing his hands from the wall and her face when I got there.

Doctor! Doctor! I did it! I got them back from there.  
The white bug face let them both go.  
There still is the judging stuff but hes coming here next time since the Hunter was wrong in taking their minds from their bodies like he did.

I saw the EMH wasn't there but Dr Crusher was.  
Then I saw that Dr Pel was sad and so I sat by her. What happened? And then I saw her little baby had gone to heaven. And I gave a long death howl to show she was on her way to Stov O Kor.  
I kissed the baby and covered her like I knew humans like to do when a body turned into just a shell and then I kissed Dr Pel.  
Im sorry she had to go Denara. Ill be here if you want to talk to me about your baby.

Then I got up and watched Dr Crusher examine 7 and the captain and I waited for them to wake up.

Then I saw the computer screens and how many places that had water in them. There were a lot of red lights! Deck 15, Deck 14 and some of Deck 13. And the lifts were out too!

I had to see what would happen next. I had to see.  
I had to see for me.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Alexander Roshenko with a Klingon honor knife.

Image: Seven of Nine, unconscious on a biobed.

Image: Captain Janeway out cold on a biobed, closeup.

Audio: The Klingon death howl and creepy music.

*********************************************

END WEEK TWENTY ONE RECAP 09-04-02

.org Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Site

WEEK TWENTY TWO RECAP 09-04-02

.org Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Site

********************************************

From: 'patti keiper'  
Subject: [voyagerliveaction] All Stages of Wet Date: Monday, September 9th, 2002. 14: 08: 09 CST GMT

K'Ehleyr heard Captain Kirk's order to report to sickbay. But she took her time, instead monitoring the horrific changes occurring on Voyager's decks below with the coming influx of the sea water. "Khan." she spoke up. She didn't deign to use the honorific captain. "Looks like the security teams got up those integrity fields.  
All intradeck containment fields are holding.  
But we lost both turbolifts. Scanning closer.."  
she said and she fine tuned her sensors.  
"B'Elanna Torres and Neelix are on Deck Thirteen in an air pocket. The EMH is near their location and I'll assume his lack of talk means that they are doing fine."

Just then, a staticky broken comm link burst through K'Ehleyr's commbadge..

Torres hit her combadge. "B'Elanna to anyone! Respond!  
Chakotay's in serious trouble!"

K'Ehleyr immediately replied. "Torres? Specify..."

"Turboshaft two.. On the ladder. Hurry!"  
the engineer shouted.

Khan gave a kurt nod and dismissed K'Ehleyr from the bridge. ::Not that I need any encouragement.:: she said as she vaulted up the short landing on the bridge to the turbodoors. She just about impacted with them when she remembered that the turbo was now under twenty meters of cold unforgiving ocean. Just as fast, she ran into the captain's ready room to the jeffries tube access panel there. Then she hit her combadge. "K'Ehleyr to Barclay. Time to work a miracle.  
I need a site to site transport to Commander Chakotay's location. Torres says he's in a sticky situation.."

Reg looked up from the power relays he was working on in sickbay from the main computer tie in. "I see his combadge signal. Hang on. I was just trying to rerig--"

The EMH burst into their comm tie. "...So you're the one interfering with my mobility. Pick who'd be there faster lieutenant! And get that person to him, now!"

K'Ehleyr could hear the panicky Reg hastily rerouting his terminal over her comm pin. But physically, she crawled into the jeffries tube and started scrambling for the hatch leading to the forward turboshaft many many meters away. ::My comsignal should allow Reg to get a transporter lock if by some means he gets them going again.::

Just then, K'Ehleyr felt herself dissolve and she reappeared on a swaying twisted ladder a few feet above Chakotay, getting blinded by a cascade of salty water still sheeting from the walls of the shaft left over from the huge splash the turbocar had made plummeting down to the bottom decks.

"Sh*t!!" she heard from him and she opened her eyes to the gloom as she oriented herself to how she was holding the ladder. She looked down and saw Chakotay barely clinging to the bottom most rung of what was left of the ladder. Then his grip .....broke.

K'Ehleyr slammed down onto the small shelf of twisted titantium onto her stomach with a jarring impact and she lunged downward. Her left hand caught Chakotay's wet arm and sheer strength stopped his plummet down the long shaft. Seconds later she felt the dazed Commander return a fierce grip on her own arm. "Hang onto me!!" she said.  
"Chakotay.. Are you hurt?"

The commander groaned and blinked and suddenly looked startled when he realized he was dangling hundreds of meters over the sea inside the turboshaft.  
"Ugh.*gasp*....!" he shouted and his other hand clawed her arm until he clung to hers tightly with his other hand too.. His eyes finally began to focus.

"It's ok. I got you and you aren't going to drop. Just get your bearings first." K'Ehleyr said.

"Get me out of here..." Chakotay coughed out sea water.

K'Ehleyr grinned sardonically. "I'd rather not move just yet. This ladder's barely attached to the wall. And,  
if I know a certain panicky lieutenant....."

Sure enough gold sparklets filled her eyes and Chakotay's and they felt the tug of a transporter carry them away.

K'Ehleyr and Chakotay appeared unceremoniously on a soggy deck by a pair of familiar boots.

K'Ehleyr felt icy seawater begin to soak her pants where she was kneeling but she ignored it, glancing at Chakotay who was still half alert from his temple grazing. She began to peel his fingers off her arm one by one.  
"It's ok. We're out of the shaft.." she smiled.

"There you are!" came the voice of the holodoc and he crouched down to examine Chakotay where he was crumpled upright on the deck. "Glad you got there in time. When I saw his positional signal begin to accelerate....."

"I wasn't about to let him fall to his death doctor.  
Not in my nature.." she said. "I hate water but I'll take a soaking to bail someone out of trouble."  
she said, wiping streaming water out of her face.  
But then she glanced down at her own arm. "Doctor. Can that scan wait? I think he's cutting off circulation..." she said and pointed to where she was trying to loosen the death grip he had on her upper arm.

"S-Sorry.." Chakotay shivered. "I can't seem to let go..."

The EMH smiled. "Ah, I love the human survival instinct. Get scared witless and then that grip of iron.. Normally, it would take an hour to get you free but we've pressing business here.."  
he said ironically of all the tons of frigid seawater being held at bay behind the forcefield over the doctor's shoulder.

K'Ehleyr grimaced at his pun as she watched the EMH inject a hypo to Chakotay's neck that restored his voluntary control over his involuntary reaction.  
And finally K'Ehleyr was successful in getting him to release her arm.  
"My fingers feel like noodles.." he grinned.

"So that's the report on your fingers. Is your head feeling like a bowl of pasta too?" the doc asked as he scanned the large lump on Chakotay's forehead.

"More like a bag of sand.." he joked.

The holodoc rolled his eyes. "Har dee har har. Your sense of humor's returning.." and he moved his bioprobe down Chakotay's body in another vitals check. "You'll have a nasty bruise on your ribs but nothing's broken. Except that grip of yours."

Chakotay grimaced distastefully as frigid water soaked his rear and legs. He glanced up at the holodoc.  
"Lucky me.. Now if only I could find some dry clothes like these.." and he grabbed onto the doctor's shoulder,  
pulling himself to his feet.

"Ah, the wonders of holotechnology.. I could redirect my uniform over yours commander but I think I'll remain dressed for the job if you wouldn't mind. You'd only see a dry uniform. You'd be still wet underneath and I'd look ridiculous in my birthday suit. You'll get even wetter with the swim you're about to take.."

"Swim?" K'Ehleyr asked.

"Yes. Hold this, ambassador, for a moment.." the EMH said pleasantly. K'Ehleyr felt his open med kit being pushed against her front. He dabbed a gauze over the lump on Chakotay's head before playing a dermal regenerator over it. "Neelix and Torres managed to seal off this half of Deck thirteen and kept it from flooding further. They're resting behind that in an air pocket.."  
he said pointing to the lilac silver sparkling curtain of energy holding back the water behind them.

Chakotay said. " Can we remat to their location?  
Seems the transporters are working again. Strange that. I thought the dimensional doorway the Hunter was holding open for Captain Janeway and Seven was interfering with transporter function."

K'Ehleyr seemed surprised. "That's right. We've had two successful beamings just now. " and she tapped her combadge to sickbay. "K'Ehleyr to sickbay.."

=^=McCoy here. How's the commander? Looks like his vitals are showing that he's fully awake and oriented now. Is he ok?=^=

"He's fine Doctor McCoy.." the EMH said. "Superficial bruising. And one overreactive survival instinct, now put back to bed."

=^=Gripping like steel was he? Heh. I'd do that too if I was in a turboshaft disintegrating all around me.=^=

Chakotay put his hands on his hips, his mind already far from idle banter. "Doctor McCoy. The transporters are working again. It was Barclay who bailed us out just now.  
And they can't be working unless the corridor to Fluidic Space has been--"

=^=Wait a minute, K'Ehleyr. Is someone else speaking to me? All I hear is static..=^=

K'Ehleyr reached over and pulled off Chakotay's combadge and popped its cover, draining it of water, then she blew on it before replacing its cover and sticking it back onto his shoulder. It chittered back to life.

Chakotay repeated back to McCoy what he had just said.

=^=That's right commander. Uh, Spock's just let your captain out of the meld because something has just pulled Big Guy the Hunter back where he came from.=^=

"What?" Chakotay asked.

K'Ehleyr snatched the medtricorder from the EMH's hand.

"Hey!" the holodoctor said. "I'm not through checking out Chakotay."

She ignored him and shifted the scanner's mode from medical to standard. She aimed it up deck towards sickbay.  
"He's right commander. There's no sign of Fluidic Space interference anywhere on Voyager and the 8472's biosignature is gone." she paused, checking ship's lifesigns too. "Your captain and Seven of Nine are no longer in a psychic bond. They're just in a light syncope." and she handed it back to the doctor. "Should be an interesting story they'll tell once they're through napping. I was under the impression that the High Justices wanted to hold their minds in custody until the trial was over."

Just then, the lights on the deck fluttered into emergency battery and the computer bar panels along the corridor set into their conservative ghost illumination mode. The effect made the dripping water and the murky seawater behind the field look even more sinister. "Huh. And I'll just bet the transporters are out again.  
Spock did say they'd be intermittant earlier."  
Chakotay held down his concern for Captain Janeway and Seven's new change but securing Voyager was now his most urgent priority. "Doctor. How can K'Ehleyr and I get to Neelix and B'Elanna. You said something about taking a swim..." he frowned in distaste.

"Oh. Right. I've been thinking about that. They have all of my spare O masks. I gave them to Torres and Neelix before they embarked on their mission to reseal this deck. But, the room they are resting in is just about fifteen meters from our location past that forcefield to the right. You could drop into that section from an airvent from Deck Twelve and then swim underwater until you rejoin up with them. I assume you're all eventually heading to Environmental Control to see if you can purge engineering of its flooding?"

"That's right.." Chakotay said. "Is that room filled with water?"

"Yes. It is.." the EMH said." There's only the one air pocket where they are, on that half of Deck Thirteen."

K'Ehleyr was already sloshing down the corridor towards the access jeffries tube that would get her and the commander to Deck Twelve. "Thank you doctor.  
We'll be in touch."

Chakotay turned to the EMH after glancing uncertainly towards the field and the frightening water being contained behind it. "Do we have to worry about depth pressure in that doctor?"

"No. Voyager's hull and the fact that most of her decks are still air filled will act as a buffer Commander.  
No need to worry about the bends. Just don't try to go anywhere that's hundreds of meters deep in that water. Then that effect won't protect you as nicely. For example. Both Voyager's turboshafts are now deathtraps of pressurized deep water." the holodoc admitted. "Here. This is for Mr. Neelix. The stress of his little underwater adventure and forced bath is having their toll on him. See what you can do. I only need my medtricorder to keep tabs on you all."

"Understood." And Chakotay followed K'Ehleyr into the jeffries tube, taking the spare medkit the doctor handed him along. He could feel the heft of a second medical tricorder inside of it.

K'Ehleyr and Chakotay soon climbed up the short ladder to the Deck above. Deck Twelve was bustling with the security teams now acting as damage control parties roving the deck and taking readings to assure that Voyager's flooding was indeed halted.

One stopped, seeing Chakotay and K'Ehleyr's bedraggled wet conditions but Chakotay waved him on back to work.

Teams of crew were sweeping the deck with devices that looked like metal detectors scanning for moisture leakage into the computer systems.  
So far, Voyager's computer core and secondary systems were still dry despite the massive flooding on her lower two decks. Chakotay told the head of one team. "Deck Thirteen just kicked into battery reserve lighting down there. It might mean water leaking not into the computer systems, but humidity infiltrating our power grid."

"I'll get right on it and coordinate with the bridge sir.." came the young man's reply.

K'Ehleyr smiled as she thought about their next step. "Commander. We don't have to take that swim the doctor is suggesting. We can rig a field dome over the place that's the ceiling in the room B'Elanna and Neelix are in and then open the intradeck hatches between us to get to them. The dome should keep the air pressure high enough to prevent any air from leaving that pocket of theirs. And it will allow us a "dive" room to get onto Deck Thirteen again where the water is."

"Smart thinking. Let's do that. I didn't like the idea of an underwater rendevous."  
Chakotay said and then he stretched to loosen his sore muscles and side.

"Getting sore? You could take a hypo to ease some of that discomfort. " K'Ehleyr said referring to the medkit Chakotay was carrying as they walked to the right place along the corridor's carpetting.

"I want to remain clear headed. Thanks but I'll be fine. Not the first time I've taken a few knocks and still gone on with another task."

K'Ehleyr and Chakotay traced the right hatch to pull in the floor and exposed a bioneural gelpack relay compartment underneath. Chakotay slid the assembly out of the way on its flexible rack to reach the second hatchway leading to the ceiling of the room B'Elanna and Torres were in. Chakotay hit his combadge. "Chakotay to the computer. Erect a dome containment field over subdeck section twelve hatch twenty. Allow a two meter space around K'Ehleyr and myself underneath it. Initiate."

When nothing happened Chakotay groaned tapping his combadge again. "Boothby! Would you mind?"

=^= Oh, sorry commander. There you go..=^= And Chakotay heard the gardener commandant toggle switches until his computer order went through. =^= The trial's not over yet so I still have the command codes to Voyager's critical systems. Accessing a field to isolate a biogel relay compartment was deemed as a critical system command.=^=

##Dome field parameters specified have been established.## the computer replied.

Chakotay and K'Ehleyr felt their ears pop as the field formed over them and they jumped down into the small space between the decks to open the next hatch.

In the blue glow of the gel packs around them.  
K'Ehleyr shivered deliciously. "It's warm in here.  
Nice.."

Chakotay consulted the tricorder from the medkit he carried. "Looks like Torres and Neelix have made themselves a ceiling scorch heat source.  
Smart thinking. The metal two meters to our left is red hot from a phaser blast."

K'Ehleyr warmed her hands towards the spot she couldn't see while Chakotay unlocked and pulled open the hatch into the briefing room below. He saw Neelix asleep and B'Elanna sitting on a floating table right away.

"About time you got here.." B'Elanna said.  
"But I was expecting you from that way.." she grinned, pointing into the water.

"My shower in the turboshaft was enough Torres."  
Chakotay said. "Think that table can handle two more without sinking?"

B'Elanna picked up Neelix's napping head into her lap and said. "Go for it. It'll hold. I'm watching his face here."

Chakotay dropped down into the water with a splash that awoke Neelix when its cold spray doused the snoozing Talaxian liberally.

K'Ehleyr's jump just finished that task.

"Ahh!! Whaa?? What's going on?" *sputter*  
K'Ehleyr swam over to the floating briefing table that was serving as their raft and climbed up.  
"Just doubling the away team Neelix. Go back to sleep. We'll make sure you aren't jarred again."

Neelix's exhausted head sagged back down onto Torres's lap and he began to snore once more under the glowing ceiling hot spot.

Chakotay handed Torres his medkit and then climbed onto the floating table, too, until he was seated next to her with his feet dangling in the water.  
He turned his face to the warm heat coming from over them. "And before you ask, B'Elanna, I'm fine. K'Ehleyr here caught me before I made a carnival high dive."

Torres grinned.

K'Ehleyr was already busy at work with a computer panel on one wall over Neelix. "The integrity fields are still holding. So far so good. But the EMH is right. Environmental Control is completely underwater. It'll be a cold time for us finishing our next task."

Chakotay had the medkit open and he was running a medbioprobe over Neelix's sleeping head and torso. "Not looking forward to that. I think we'll let Neelix here be a communication relay to the bridge. Better yet.."  
he decided and tapped his combadge. "Doctor. Neelix is fine. He's not yet hypothermic.  
K'Ehleyr and I have an open access to this flooded room if you'd like to join us. Remat by the medkit's silver gauzing..." and he expertly tossed a pack of gauze up through the ceiling hatchway to land in the biogel compartment above them.

A shimmer of light made them all wince in the dim lighting as the holodoc appeared.  
They saw his bald holohead reappear in the hole they had jumped through.  
"Ah, there you are. And thank you commander for remembering that I have to stay away from water sources and any condition that might short out my holoemitter.  
Let me see Neelix's scans for myself."

Chakotay reset the bioprobe instrument back into the medical tricorder and he tossed that up to the EMH through the ceiling hole too.

The EMH caught the scanner and used it.  
"You're right about Mr. Neelix's vital status. Nothing to worry about. And letting him sleep will right his physiological fear response. Just dry him best you can. He'll be ready to rejoin the away team for that swim after a half hour or so. I see that hot spot down there. Why don't you form two more around him on the walls to speed up the process?"

B'Elanna shrugged and fired her phaser to a place not on the computer panel bar along the wall and again at the back wall behind them. Soon the air was filled with tropical heat and the seawater began to steam off of them.

In five minutes Neelix was dry.

K'Ehleyr finished her damage assessment and forwarded it to the bridge's console for Khan.

Then she called up a detailed map to study the way they'd have to swim to get to Environmental Control on O masks.

Torres said. "How did you get that working?  
It wasn't before.."

K'Ehleyr said. "The High Justices have closed the portal between Fluidic Space and here according to Dr. McCoy. Barclay's most likely recharging batteries again and rerouting power to this location.  
The transporters worked too for a time. But now Deck Thirteen's on reserve power only and they're offline again."

Chakotay set the medkit aside after a last pulse check on Neelix. "He's still napping. But we can't wait."

He crawled to his knees along the floating table to the map K'Ehleyr had glowing just above the water line.

The EMH leaned through the hole closer to see what they were looking at. "What's the rush commander? Voyager's no longer taking on water."

"That's not what's bothering me doctor. It's why the High Justices have released Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine from their mind captivity that is. And I have a feeling the faster we stabilize Voyager the better off we'd be.."

B'Elanna began to wonder where Tom was.  
It surprised her that it was K'Ehleyr who responded to Chakotay's emergency and not him.  
But she kept silent on her misgivings.

"Another hunch, commander?" the EMH said, still hanging upside down from the ceiling hatch.

"You can call it that."

-------------------------------------------------

In Sickbay, Bones had a hard time getting Denara to rise from the floor after he had put her baby's body into stasis.

"Come on honey. Come over here. It's ok."  
and he took her into his arms and placed her head on his shoulder. "It's all right to let it all out.."

Great huge sobbing cries filled the tiny Vidiian woman and she sagged against him. Together,  
he and Deanna Troi got her to lie onto a biobed and the counselor stayed with her. He sedated her and covered her with a light sheet.

McCoy had turned back to attending Janeway and Seven when Captain Kirk came striding into the door. "Jim! Blast you! What are we going to do now, roll over onto our backs and cry uncle to those albino high brows just because they ask?!"  
he questioned sarcastically.

(attachments)

Image: McCoy with a hypospray.

Image: K'Ehleyr in brown leather.

*animated gif* A ship's computer integrity field display.

Image: A combadge open and being fiddled with.

*

From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Cat Out of the Bag Date : Mon, 16 Sep 2002 20:27:11 +0000

Captain Kirk ran back to sickbay the moment he heard K'Ehleyr answer Lt. Torres frantic hail about Chakotay. He and Lt. Yar scoped out the changes in sickbay as well as the drastic changes Voyager was sustaining as a result of the halted flooding on her lower decks.

::Spock's no longer mind melding with the captain.  
And Seven of Nine's down.:: He thought as he saw Dr. Crusher attending the borg woman where she lay on the floor. He nodded to Yar to move closer to him while he scanned damage reports. He called Boothby over as well with a tight, worried nod. "Fill me in Boothby.  
Is Chakotay safe?"

The mandated gardener CO looked up from where he was watching Spock awaken. "Yes. K'Ehleyr managed to get a grip on him and Reginald pulled the rabbit out of his hat again when the transporters decided to work again for a moment. They're on Deck Thirteen with Torres and Neelix. And before you ask,  
the flooding did a lot of power relay damage in the propulsion systems. Maneuvering thrusters will be out of the question when the recovery vessels arrive to try and lift us off the seabed. But, drying out engineering is now a top priority. The impulse and warp engines don't use those power couplings."

Kirk looked awry at Boothby. "Are you sure you aren't related to Montgomery? You sound just like Mr.  
Scott."

"We're neighbors. Now look here. The situation with Janeway's escalated while you and Yar were trying to access the other turboshaft. Seven of Nine killed the rebel 8472 on the holodeck." Boothby stated.

"I know. I was there." Kirk said exasperatedly.

"Hear me out captain. Seven tried to go vigilante and take Kathryn's place for blame in Fluidic Space.  
Now the Klingon boy here somehow managed to convince the High Justices that being captive mentally was harming them. The Justice let them go, pending a revconvening in Seven's cargobay..."

Kirk's eyes flicked to the situation screen watching the progress of humidity and dripping water through the ship. "But that area's under water.."

"Yes. All the more we send people down there to help out with purging engineering of her oceanic theme don't you think?"

Kirk didn't appreciate Boothby's cutting remark and he frowned in disapproval. "Lt.." he addressed Lt.  
Yar. "Discover from Data what he's learning from the Federation Treaty document with the 8472 Terrasphere. This whole trial business is smelling a little fishy and I don't mean what's coming out of Voyager's air vents." He turned back to Boothby who had taken a stool near the terminal where they all stood, watching Voyager's status screens.  
"Why come all this way to just call up an old offense regarding Kathryn? Doesn't make sense. The 8472 are from the Delta Quadrant area right?"

"They are actually from all over Captain Kirk. They just choose to have their welcome mat opening from their dimension to the Delta Quadrant. My guess for that approach would be an answering reply to the Borg stepping on their galactic expansion endeavors."  
Boothby said.

Lt. Yar was looking thoughtful and she rubbed her nose. "Sirs. Do you think those 8472 pressing the genocide charges are different from the ones Voyager met in the Terrasphere?"

"Most decidedly.." came a deep baritone. Kirk smiled when he looked up to see Spock joining them along with Data and Barclay.

"You ok Spock?" Kirk asked his old friend.

The ambassador nodded and angled his head so that he could better listen to the conversation.

Lt Yar went on. "I've been reading a bit along with Data, sirs. The treaty was constructed with 8472 who had created a mockup of San Francisco just to learn more about us. They even had mimicked the Voyager crew and other humans simply from what they had gleaned from their minds. They weren't overly aggressive, these Terrasphere 8472, just defensive and fearful of the technology they saw destroy their vessels in Fluidic Space."

"Janeway's actions..." Kirk muttered softly.

"Sir?"

"Nothing. Go on."

Yar sighed as she pinned down what was weighing on her. "Consider the rebel 8472 who came to Earth to "research" our past at the Area 51 museum. Spock showed us through the mind meld that the High Justice said they were outsiders to their society. What if they were working for the Terrasphere to establish ties with Earth? Perhaps that older faction of 8472 government, the ones who are the albino justices, didn't like the idea of alliance with a race who could greatly harm them and took steps to send the Hunter to stop them. The High Justices may just be using Janeway as a political move to strengthen their position among the debate of alliance or war with normal space civilizations with the younger more open minded and radical generation of 8472."

"Those rebel 8472 killed the workers in the rainforest Lt."  
Kirk answered.

"Maybe they were attacked first and defended themselves.  
We did find a war drum in that clearing. Maybe the rebels had learned too little about human native cultures to realize the swords and drums were ceremonial.." Lt. Yar said. "They were just studying the events in the museum exhibit. Rather benignly I'd say. Too late to ask them about it now. Seven's slaughtered them.."

Kirk raised a calm down gesture. "I appreciate your concern lieutenant. The idea of a splintering faction of 8472 struggling to maintain the old makes a whole lot of sense on why they'd come to the Alpha Quadrant to pursue Janeway. If they had an example to show the others on how "dangerous"  
normal spacers are to their young generations, they'd show that the whole Terrasphere Federation Treaty is equally risky."

"What can we do about it, sir..?" Yar asked.

"Looks like we have to contact the Terrasphere 8472 if we can." Kirk mused, looking at Mr. Data and the others.  
"Mr. Barclay. Is that Hirogen Communications Array still functional?"

"Yes it is. Project Pathfinder's still linked with it for the sake of maintaining a dialogue with Neelix's colony from time to time. "

Tasha nodded. "That's how he must have heard we were having a problem with the rebels 8472 in the Amazon. He did say he came through the Borg Queen conduit remnant to get here."

"Contact your people, Reg, and get them to fire up that Hirogen array. And get me Ardra. Seems an old con artist like her's been around the block. Perhaps she could better remember where the Terrasphere might be for us to locate."

"Right away sir."

Kirk was about to snap another order when he turned on his boot heels and came nose to nose with Ardra.  
He hadn't seen her enter sickbay. "That was fast...."  
he managed to blurt out as he pulled away from the pursed lips Ardra started to form with his cheek so near.

"Aww. Don't be shy captain.. I was just about to congratulate you all on stopping Voyager's flooding.  
And for figuring out that the 8472 realm's is just as whirlwind with conflict as the Q civil war ever was." she grinned.

Ardra glanced around sickbay and noticed Janeway,  
Seven and Dr. Pel were all out cold either on biobeds or on the floor. "Where's our big scaley friend? I've grown a little fond of him."

"Recalled." Yar said. "An Albino High Justice will be coming here to the ship once we get raised and drained to continue his charges against Captain Janeway.  
Now it seems Seven of Nine's claiming half the blame too."

"She would. " Ardra said cheekily. "After all,  
Janeway's her mentor, is she not?"

Kirk grabbed Ardra's arm none too gently.  
"You may be on reprieve from your sentence serving the museum network. But that doesn't mean you continue to act insubordinate to all of us, is that understood?"

"Quite.." Ardra said and she lightly peeled off Kirk's fingers from around her arm. "Now, how can little old Ardra help this tiny tiny ship's crew with their 8472 problem?" she purred.

Kirk refused to let the woman's annoying slink bother him. "Tell us where the Terrasphere is so we can aim the Hirogen Array at it to open a channel."

"Hmmmmm....." Ardra sighed as she slowly turned a circler around the tense group around her. "It's been many months since my ship and crew made it out to those parts but... I think they may be..." and her finger stabbed down on the computer terminal. "Here.... Yes. The Boothby 8472 was quite fond of the Circadian Nebula Showers which came about every decade or so. He always used to take his pod group out to see them when they weren't engaging the Borg in battle. A way side rest so to speak.."  
she trickled.

Kirk nodded to Barclay who immediately got his superiors to position the Midas Array to line up with the distant Hirogen net to send out Voyager's outgoing hail to the coordinates she indicated.

Captain Kirk got a nod from Boothby to be the one to first initiate the call. =^=This is the Federation Starship Voyager to the 8472 Terrasphere. Respond..=^=

Reg held up countdown fingers from ten as he nonverbally told them all that it would take about ten seconds for the message to go through the relay to the Delta Quadrant. At "one", a sharp hiss of white noise and violent background radiation was the reply. It was the earmark of a super nova remnant that everyone recognized instantly. A zone of death.

Ardra's face even flattened a little. "Oops. Looks like the Borg must've found their oasis and wiped them out. Sorry fellas. Looks like the Terrasphere's history and so is that charming little treaty of yours too..."  
she sighed with a growing smile.

"Confirm that!" Kirk shouted to Lt. Yar.

Tasha rechecked the link of the Midas Array from Project Pathfinder to the Hirogen net and slowly shrugged.  
"It's true sir. No life nor normal space in that region for thousands of light years. Whatever was in that area, didn't survive the super nova we're hearing."

Kirk looked up with a frustrated look of agony at Spock who slowly nodded in agreement. "Don't tell me Earth hasn't detected that event yet in the Delta Quadrant because lightwave travel is so slow."

"It is seventy thousand light years away."

"Project those audio signatures with probable damage estimates in subspace. Did that nova reach anywhere along Voyager's old Journey path?" Kirk wondered. He was thinking about Neelix's home colony. The one he left to come to Earth to help them all out.

"No where near.." Yar said. "All the damage seems to be only in deep Borg Space in the 8472/Borg warzone region. The only casuality of places or people Janeway might have encountered is.."

"The 8472 San Franciscan Terrasphere...." Kirk sighed.  
"Just wonderful. I wonder who planned out that. The old government? Trying to keep the Old Ways of the 8472 Realm intact? Or the Borg, in just another twist of battle against their adversarial neighbors.."

"We may never know.." Ardra said. "But, since that avenue of action is no longer open to us, it doesn't mean we've lost any leeway against the High Justices. They remember me. I appeared as their god once to keep a younger 8472 uprising in place. They owe me a few favors. I'll help you if I can gain a full pardon for my offenses Captain Kirk.  
Do we have a deal?" and she held out her hand.

Lt. Yar lifted her phaser at Ardra stopping her a meter away from Kirk. "Whoa. Stop right there. Where did you get that bracelet?"

Ardra looked down at her wrist where the silver band was sparkling in power. "This trinket? I've always had it. It's an emblem of rank that doubles as an 8472 translator. I earned it as the Boothby 8472's advisor during the construction of the Terrasphere."

Yar blinked. "But I thought you were in prison for endangering Captain Picard and his Starship with your con artist plot.."

"I alone was serving in the Amazon. My crew was held blameless and remained free to do what I asked. They went to the Delta Quadrant on my behalf to trade information for passage to that part of space." Ardra said.

Yar grabbed Ardra by the collar. "You were a spy for the Terrasphere?"

Ardra easily squirmed her way out of Tasha's grip without trouble. "How else do you think they got such good details on San Francisco? Using a telescope? I was relaying to them audibly through subspace radio on my off times..Trick I picked up from the humpback whale space probe that visited a few decades ago."

"But you couldn't know that faction of 8472 didn't mean harm to the Federation..." Yar insisted.

"Ah,,.. but it turned out for the better.. Janeway even got rose out of the deal."

"The Hunter was sent after her later..." Yar said angrily.

"From the old governmental regime yes. But that was such small price to pay for peace, don't you think? After all,  
Voyager was allowed to continue on her journey home."  
Ardra smiled.

Kirk was silent through the whole exchange.

Boothby was fuming.  
"I knew allowing prisoners comm vid calls was a bad idea I even told the law makers that years ago."

"Lucky me. And how unlucky for Captain Janeway.. But don't fret darlings, I'm sure she'll agree giving herself up for her shipmates is all in the line of dut--"

Kirk reached out and slapped Ardra. Hard.  
"That's for allowing critical tactical information to go through your lackies to the 8472. We'll have fun watching Starfleet adding breaking the Prime Directive to your long list of offenses. Terribly fond of those museum tunnels are you? Good. Cause you'll never see daylight again when they're done with you."

"Oh, really.." Ardra said. "That's very ignoble of the famous Captain Kirk to strike a lady. Mark the occasion all. I do believe I've just made history as only the second woman to be hit by Captain Kirk. I'm sure Elaan of Troyius is turning in her grave right now. But remember this James T Kirk. If I suffer that fate, then know that Janeway won't be seeing any daylight either in equal measure once her own personal demon judges get through with her."

Kirk's face rippled into indecision and his jaw clenched.

Ardra's winning sly smile returned even as she rubbed the reddening welt on her face left from his hand.  
"Grant me my full pardon and I'll win her freedom.  
Guaranteed..And if you're really really nice, I'll throw in Seven's as part of the bargain."

Yar growled and shoved her phaser under Ardra's chin.

But Ardra didn't even blink under Yar's unwavering phaser.

Kirk slowly pushed down Tasha's firearm.

"But sir.. You can't trust her... She's a convicted con artist.." Yar hissed.

Kirk's eyes lifted, heavy and weighed. "But she's Janeway's only hope."

Boothby grunted and then he addressed the air for Avalonii, the Federation President monitoring them all.  
"Uh, boss.."

"I heard. I'll start swinging the necessary datapadd work."  
the reluctant leader admitted at last.

"Glad you see it my way boys.." Ardra said, pressing past Boothby and Kirk. "Let's get to work shall we? I think I need a session with my client don't you?" And she stepped to Captain Janeway's biobed.

The others watched as Ardra leaned in to grip Janeway's chin where she lay. "Wakey wakey captain. Your lawyer's here. Come open those sleepy eyes and look into the only ones that can ever possibly save you.."

From a great distance, Janeway came to, seeing brown eyes over her own. "Chakotay?"

"Wrong gender captain. But brownie points for guessing someone with the same eye color. Pull yourself together we've got a courtdate to prepare for.." Ardra said pressing a button on the biobed to raise Janeway's head faster than comfort's sake.

McCoy protested. "Hey.. Easy. You'll make her dizzy.."

"Better dizzy than dead, doctor. Now hush. Let us work."

Janeway confusion was growing but she was learning volumes seeing the resigned looks on Kirk and Yar's features. Even on Boothby's. "Ardra, what on Earth?"  
she said as the images of people and where she was swam before her bleary eyes. She finally was able to tolerate being upright in bed.

"Earth has very little to do with things this time captain.  
More like "what in dimension" in our case. In brief, so your muzzy brain can comprehend while you're finishing coming to. I've some clout with your persecutors captain. So I suggest you start being nice to me as well as telling me from the beginning how it all began the day you killed a billion 8472 with that secret nanoprobe bioweapon of yours..." Ardra said seriously intent.

Kirk started to speak up about confidentiality but Boothby hushed him with a gesture and a look.

James Kirk fervently hoped that playing with gasoline in the fire wasn't about to ignite into a bigger headache.  
::And what a booty it would make for Ardra's crew to have a new biotechnological weapon outlined out for them legally. Are Ferengi bidders out there anywhere?:: He thought sarcastically. ::I'll do my d*mnedest to make sure Ardra doesn't pull a Vash on us.::

Janeway opened her mouth to speak.

(attachments)

Image: Kirk medium close.

Image: Yar and Data very solemn.

Image: The 8472 Delta Quadrant terrasphere.

Image: Ardra in a long view.

Image: A star's supernova's boom.  
Image: Boothby8472 and Janeway outside in the Terrasphere.

*

From: "Cory Anda" Date: Wed Sep 18, 2002 9:58 am Subject: [voyagerliveaction] The Road Back

Reginald Barclay watched Ardra go to the head of Captain Janeway's biobed.  
::This just keeps getting more and more bizarre. You'd think after years spent on the Enterprise, that I'd be used to it:  
he thought.

Ambassador Spock spoke up to his aide as if Reg's skull and mind were suddenly transparent. "Life will always change,  
Lt. In Starfleet, even more so."

"Sir. I don't know how the captains' do it."  
he said frankly. "If I were in the center seat,  
I'd probably sweat myself to death with worry."  
Barclay admitted.

"I highly doubt that Mr. Barclay. The computer would sense your falling vital signs and would have you beamed to sickbay long bef-"

Reginald started pacing in front of the work console he and Spock were standing in front of. He could hardly contain himself. "This whole situation is.. is.. is like something out of a nightmare. Well,... the 8472 are like something out of a nightmare, don't get me wrong. But there must be something we can do. Some legal form of due process, a way to overthrow the charges in galatic court, something.. This is just so wrong."  
and his hands rubbed his forehead animatedly.

Spock remained quiet while he let Barclay vent.

Reg's pacing suddenly stopped. "Why can't we show what the rebels did to us inadvertantly?  
Poor Dr. Pel lost her infant child when Voyager's decks bucked when the flooding began.  
And we never would have even HAD the chance to flood if Voyager hadn't needed to be drastically cooled down from the rebels intrusion of Fluidic Space. If it weren't for Captain Janeway's actions--" He suddenly broke off,  
realizing what he was saying.

Spock didn't look unkindly at Reg. "We are all tied in the physical world, Lt. No one is alone in that regard and logically,  
someone inevitably will feel the reaction of any change that occurs in their proximity. No one is to blame for any event unforeseen. It is unfortunate that such an outcome is judged by others on the degree of change if something goes adversely to plan."

Reginald finally stilled and looked up sheepishly.  
"Like what happened when that bioweapon in the Delta Quadrant didn't stop spreading infection after its use."

"Captain Janeway is not a mass murderer. I'm sure that Boothby would have a coronary if he ever found out that one of his captain's picks had suddenly become, a Jack the Ripper." Spock said with finality.

Barclay smiled for the first time since Voyager began taking on water. "Now there's a creepy character. One wonders what his motivation was for doing such evil." he said, slipping into a less stress oriented intelligent discussion.

"He wanted to spread panic and mayhem to renew and feed his lifeforce on the terror of young women."

Barclay looked askance at Spock, his face filling with surprise. "That sounded like first hand experience Mr. Spock."

"It was. I have personally encountered him."

Barclay's eyes grew as big as saucers and he rose from his lean against the computer console to resume his nervous fidgetting. "You mean Jack the Ripper was an alien come to Earth?"

Spock moved in his robes until he blocked the direction in which the lieutenant started heading. "Reginald. I am an alien. So are most of these people in sickbay. It wastes energy worrying about trivial facts such as national origin. Now..." and he turned his head back to the damage schematics on Voyager's lower decks. "What can you tell me about the ship's power reserves? We may have to abandon the bridge and reroute to main engineering once Lt. Torres and Chakotay manages to free that deck of water."

Reg immediately forgot his quirky fretting and turned all business.

Spock caught an approving gleam from Deanna Troi's eye as the counselor sat, waiting for Denara Pel to emerge from her sedation.  
::Nice move.: Her eyebrow seemed to say.

Spock raised a like eyebrow in a Vulcan shrug and returned to his work.

Barclay pointed to Deck Fourteen, where the geysering salt water had been before Torres and Neelix managed to contain it.  
"Just some soaked carpetting here. Nothing the ventilation system can't dry out. We can speed things along with a tetrion sweep if need be."

"Utilizing high level short term radiation is a low priority. Critical consoles would have to be abandoned while the sweep commences through the ship. We cannot afford to leave those systems unattended."

Barclay mentally berated himself. "Of course.  
I didn't think. Who knows if we might spring another leak."

There was an uncomfortable silence as everyone remembered just how deep under the sea Voyager was truly mired beneath and a chill that had nothing to do with the air filled all.

An indicator from the bridge piping a heads up tone filled sickbay. It was Khan. He had directed the main viewer to lock the long range viewer through the worker drones hovering in the bay to show angles of both recovery ships coming at high speed towards Earth. The sight filled Barclay and everyone with hope.  
Reg practically shouted their ETA. "Recovery Ship Neptune and her sister, the Caduceus are less than three hours away. Starfleet has authorized them to go above the regulated Warp Five in Sector One to get here."

Everyone in sickbay cheered. The loudest was Alexander.

Reg flicked the view of Voyager's rescuing ships to the main viewer in sickbay so Janeway could see while she fought herself back to full wakefulness.

Spock reached out, but stopped short of touching Barclay's arm to get his attention back. "Let us join the others on Deck Thirteen.  
Chakotay has created an improvised airlock through an intradeck hatch to Torres and Mr. Neelix's location." He caught Kirk and Boothby's eye where they were talking and pointed downward to the decking in unspoken emphasis.

Both men nodded in agreement.

Kirk said, "Go Spock. We'll still coordinate repairs to the transporter power couplings and continue monitoring the flooded areas."

Boothby said suddenly. "Make that just you captain. It's been a while since I've been on a real away mission and now that I'm top of the totem pole for a while, I'm going to authorize my butt to accompany one of them.."

Kirk started to say something but then his lips cracked into a small grin when he remembered the times his lower officers had kept his rear on the bridge while attending a mission.  
::I don't know how the captains after me ever handled it. Picard, and Janeway, staying on the bridge? Unthinkable.:: he thought ruefully.

Boothby joined Spock and Barclay as they left sickbay to climb down the jeffries tube ladders to Deck Twelve for the hatch and dome field left behind by Chakotay.

----------------------------------------------

"Earth has very little to do with things this time captain.  
More like "what in dimension" in our case. In brief, so your muzzy brain can comprehend while you're finishing coming to. I've some clout with your persecutors captain. So I suggest you start being nice to me as well as telling me from the beginning how it all began the day you killed a billion 8472 with that secret nanoprobe bioweapon of yours..." Ardra said seriously intent.

Janeway opened her mouth to speak.

"Ardra. Those tactical details are unnecessary for you to know. Suffice it to say that all matters of new technological warfare remain classified information."  
Janeway said. Her head was clearing by the second and she felt sharp mentally and a bit annoyed.  
::Typical state for me when my back is up against the wall.:: she thought sarcastically.

"My dear captain. If I am to be your plea bargainer,  
you will have to come level with me. Even if that means telling about the weapon you and the EMH came up with to save your ship that incident. Tell me, just how am I going to prove your true minimalist defense point of view if I don't know all the details..." Ardra said.

Janeway noticed the rising mark on Ardra's cheek.  
"Who did you tick off this time? Was it Chakotay?  
He's got a very short wick when it comes to black mail of any kind."

"Oh, it was the older one. He may still wear the uniform but his hair is no longer a matching gold.  
His patience is just as tarnished." Ardra sniffed.

But Janeway only smiled at the insult to James Kirk. "He may be many things but getting on in age isn't one of them. That gray is a mark of distinction and experience. You would do well to learn from him."

Ardra didn't even hear her. "Now let me see.  
You made a deal back then with the Borg, to create a defense to clear the way past a flotilla of 8472 bioships. Allying with the previous enemy to survive an even stronger one. Is this true?"

Janeway settled back onto her biobed and took a deep cleansing breath as Dr. Crusher came over to check her status with a tricorder.  
"For the most part. A captain plays the best of the hand she's been dealt."

"So you say you were driven to create that bioweapon on threat of great harm given to you by the Borg."  
Ardra said.

"They used different terms to describe that outcome,  
Ardra.. Let's see, ' Resistance is futile, Your life as you know it, has ended, You will now come to service, us, or be assimilated..' better covers their sentiment yes.. " Janeway said, nodding to Beverly when the red haired doctor gave her the go ahead to sit up on the edge of the biobed. She took a glass of water handed to her and began drinking.

"Interesting. Then perhaps we can use their testimony at your future trial to reconvene in Seven's Cargobay."  
Ardra said.

Janeway choked and nearly spat out the water she had in her mouth. "I beg your pardon.. Exposing Earth to the might of the irrepressable Borg again is far from my list of options."

"But they are such good defensive witnesses to your coercion captain. I'm sure with the knowledge Mr. Data has from his time with Picard as Locutus has provided the means for you to isolate a small number of them safely away from any Borg Cube to question and testify." Ardra countered.  
"Dr. Crusher. May I have a glass of water too?  
All this legal council is making me thirsty."

Dr. Crusher blinked selfconsciously as she fought down her real reaction to Ardra's comment and she passed over a second cup without further eye contact.

Janeway said. "I'm afraid I'm not too popular with the Borg just now. You see, I melted their Queen's limbs off with an implanted virus and imploded their galactic wide subspace conduit including their premiere Borg Control Sphere."

It was Ardra's turn to nearly spit out her drink. "You used a second bioweapon on another race?"

"Actually, It was the same bioweapon as the one the 8472 say escalated to genocidal proportions in their neighborhood. Only slightly modified."  
Janeway said finishing her water and crushing the cup to toss into a bedside waste receptacle.

Ardra set hers down untouched.  
"If the High Justices ever got wind of that bit of news. They'd have precedence to go after your whole crew and the whole line of EMH's for that matter."

Janeway's look was pure command when she spoke instantly. "In no way will you involve the doctor into this whole nasty business. In the 8472's eyes. He's just a piece of sophisticated technology, and not a sentient individual. Another captain's duty of mine besides taking the fall for the Prime Directive in matters like this is to safeguard new life when I encounter it.  
Like his."

"Ah.." Ardra sighed. "Now there's an angle I can use. Safeguard new life huh? Like Seven's perhaps?  
I can see it now.." and she held up her hands painting a view screen in the air above them both as if framing a headline. "Benevolent captain performs her duties to preserve life, liberty and .. well, not the pursuit of happiness since you captain types are usually the loneliest unhappy individuals in the entire galaxy.  
Say, how are you coming with Chakotay? Now that you've been home, there isn't a ship and crew getting in the way.."

Janeway shot her a dirty look and didn't deign to reply.

Ardra let herself be amused over that and continued to outline her plan to use a captain's duty as a defense for Janeway.

But using the Borg as witnesses were just as unusable as the atomized Terrasphere now drifting in what was left of the supernova's debris field.

Eventually, Janeway began to see merit in Ardra's views for her case of defense. In fact, her clever manipulating of events actually began to sound quite plausible.

Janeway began to lean into the conversation with her body as well as all of her mind as she listened.

--------------------------------------------------

Ambassador Spock and Barclay lowered Boothby into the icy water of Torres's and Chakotay's room.

"Agh.. Whatever happened to centuries old wet suits?" The crusty CO caretaker huffed.

"They developed iso belts." Barclay grinned.  
"But we can't use them or we'll drain the biogel packs in this corridor unnecessarily.  
We'll need them to reroute to Environmental Control once we swim underwater to there."

"Underwater?" Boothby grunted.

Chakotay grinned as he tapped Neelix awake. "Underwater... Hey Neelix. Rise and shine. They're here."

"What? Huh? Oh! Right. Let's be off then."  
Neelix said instantly cheerful after his nap.

He reached down and splashed water on the hot phasered spots on the walls after he saw that the others were overheated and sweating.

Chakotay said. "Don't bother putting out the campfire Neelix. That heat'll disperse away from the metal a few minutes from now. And we'll cool enough once we start heading for Environmental Control."

Torres asked Barclay Spock and Boothby.  
"Did you bring enough O masks with you for yourselves?"

All three lifted their utility packs they had slung onto their backs.

The EMH said. "Whew.. I'm glad somebody thought ahead." he said from the compartment hatch chamber in the ceiling above them as he peered down into the flooded room where the others were. Then he said.  
"So, Boothby. Getting second thoughts about muscling onto an away mission.  
Never thought you'd have to swim blind through 0 C pitch black flooded corridors to do this one, did you?"

Boothby didn't take offense. "Still doesn't change anything. I'm a command grade and so command grade problems I'll handle. Thanks for your concern Mr.  
EMH." he added lastly with a touch of sarcasm.

The holodoc smiled as he handed down the pattern enhancers that Chakotay had left up in the chamber when he had jumped down to the flooded table.  
"Just boosting morale."

"Hey that's my job, doctor.." Neelix said with a grin.

"Feel free to take over."

Chakotay took the enhancers and packed them away with the medkit he had used on Neelix and soon the five of them were ready to begin the long cold dark journey to their destination.

The holodoc said just before they each donned an O mask and dove under the surface of the water, "I'll be monitoring that room. As soon as I see Engineering clearing out from your purge, I'll transfer myself there in case one of you runs into trouble." And he flicked out back to sickbay to tell the others the away team was moving on.

Soon, the flooded briefing room with the flooded table was empty and the glow of the phaser heated spots of walls and ceiling slowly went out.

---------------------------------

Boothby remembered thinking that it was heavy and very very cold. Even his fingers were growing numb from the seawater as he followed the others swimming underwater past debris in the corridors from the flooded cabins. His illumatorch barely showed him the way ahead and his breathing hissed loudly in his head from the O mask. He forced himself to be calm and keep going.

The black before him suddenly gave way to an even blacker black when he saw Barclay's kicking feet disappear into Environmental Control.

Chakotay swam over to one glowing console and braced himself against the deck bolted chair to pull off a manual control panel cover to reveal an emergency lever in the wall at that work station. It took Torres, Neelix, Barclay Boothby and Spock all to force the lever over after the proper deck had been selected for the emergency air purge.

Reg saw that Deck Fifteen was the one targetted by the computer. ::Engineering::

The lever finally gave way to the commit position and a great gout of bubbles burst from around its housing as the device began to function far down below.

They could feel the cold metal of the deck and computer panels in the water shudder beneath their grips as Voyager emergency purged all of engineering. It happened slowly enough so only a little groaning of deck metal and bulkheads protested the pressure changes.

Spock held onto his O mask with one hand as he floated and hit a secondary switch.  
Environmental Control suddenly lit up like full day shift and they began to see a crack of air begin to form at the ceiling as all the water from Deck Fourteen and Thirteen began to sink into Deck Fifteen into the emergency purge lines. He doubted whether or not the pumps would remain on long enough to completely drain Voyager but it would enough to free breathing and working room in all the effected spaces on all three of those decks.

All five away team members swam up to the top of Environmental Control and took advantage of the warm air flooding into their room. They tore off their O masks and treaded water, watching the water level sink. In about five minutes, their feet touched the submersed carpetting and the last of the water drained into the corridor and into hidden vents and hatches and on down to Deck fifteen and on out off Voyager in the ongoing purge.

=^=Janeway to the away team. Good work.  
Sensors, what we have of them, are showing that all three effected decks are emptying of seawater. Stop the purge when Engineering is around knee deep. That's all we'll need to clear and we still need to save on air capacity.=^=

"Understood." Chakotay replied, hitting his combadge.

Khan, on the bridge, reported.  
=^=Captains and Boothby. Shall I lock down the bridge and report to the new bridge station in engineering?=^=

"Yes." came Janeway's, Boothby's and Kirk's voice through the universal comm in triple treble.

Barclay looked at all the officers around him who stood on the now drained deck dripping like drowned rats. "Shall we start the trip to engineering? The transporters are still offline on this deck." he said, locking down the telemetry on the console he had checked. "Perhaps using those pattern enhancers near the cold warp core will provide the boost those weakened systems need to get more personnel down to engineering."

Spock nodded. "An excellect suggestion Mr. Barclay."

Soon, the five met the EMH in a dark, dripping,  
up to the knee water filled engineering.

Torres lit and cast green eerily glowing illuma sticks a meter long into the water to light things and soon, everyone was getting to work on checking and rechecking Voyager's propulsion systems to see if a warp and impulse engine start was possible to assist the recovery vessels when they arrived.

Neelix almost fired a phaser to create another hot spot on a bulkhead to warm everyone when he remembered just how close to the towering and vulnerable warp core stack he was.

He contented himself with getting hot coffee from the soggy replicators instead.

The EMH remained on the drier transparent second level deck of the core and watched proceedings fussing like a mother hen when this or that person did something foolish like touch an active power conduit with a tool while they rerouted energy to the warp core.

A nasty spark lit Reg's sleeve on fire but the Lt. had the presence of mind to douse it in the shallow water around their legs.

His carelessness won him a glare from the holodoc and Boothby both.

Barclay wrung out his sodden sleeve and startled jumping back a few meters when he heard an indignant high pitched trill from it when he had squeezed.

The others ran to him but then Spock reached up and pulled out a very very water matted tribble.

Barclay sighed in relief from the stool he had fallen onto. "Oh, she must have followed us and used my arm to get out of the water."

"Is she well?" the EMH asked. "I didn't know tribbles could swim.."

Barclay lifted her nearer his face and heard only soft purring. "She's fine.  
Although how she managed to get on Voyager is a mystery. I thought we last left her on the Excelsior."

"Mystery of the hour.." the EMH said seriously. "Better let McCoy know his "pet" is here."

"I'm sure he knows. Everyone in sickbay has scanners on us, remember?"

"How could I forget? I'm the one who set the sensors that way." Torres said.

The work to even come close to a potential restart for Voyager's engines proceeded slowly.

But finally, five hours into repairs, Spock hit his combadge and said....

****SEE SOUND BITE in this email's attachments.***

-  
(attachments)

Image: The EMH and Barclay by a table.

Image: Spock at his Enterprise station.

Audio: Spock- Ready to Engage.

Image: Boothby in a Voyager room.

Gif: Voyager orbitting a rainbow world.

***********************************

From : "Tyler Sherkin" t_ Subject : [voyagerliveaction] New Arrivals Date : Fri, 20 Sep 2002 19:01:38 -0400

Voyager was stuck nearly 350 feet underwater on Earth.  
::How do you respond to being told something like that? How do you look a person in the eye and make a calm reply after hearing that an 1,125-foot ship, a spacecraft, was stuck that far underwater? Granted, it wasn't a particularly great distance (the Titanic, that ancient relic of early Space-Age humanity, was sunk roughly 12,500 below the water), but it caused problems:  
William T. Riker was facing those problems. He'd just been told that the ship, who's crew he'd consorted with not so long ago, was 350 feet below Terran water, and not really of its own volition, forced to go there after extra-dimensional aliens had overheated the Intrepid-class starship. What a mindjob... So there Voyager was, and here he was, sitting in a seat on a Runabout-class shuttle, next to Geordi LaForge. They were flying from the Enterprise to see if they could help Voyager out of its current predicament. Apparently, Engineering was flooded knee-high with water, and other places had only recently been pumped free of water, damaging an unknown number of systems in a variety of ways. Riker could tell that Geordi was unhappy right from the start, because he wasn't even making joking remarks about the situation, he was plowing through a seemingly endless pile of PADDs ranging in subject from bio-neural gel packs to making your own isolinear backup systems. He had his Engineering kit on hand, two of them even, and a duffel-bag full of other items Riker could only guess at. What he himself was going to do when he got there was also beyond him, but his thoughts strayed from there as the pilot of the shuttle contacted Voyager over the comm.  
"Voyager, this is the Darren, we are over your position now."  
Voyager's comm response crackled through 350 feet of resistance, static interspersing the conversation with loud and obnoxious personal plugs. =^= We read **********u, Darren. Wha*** do you need? =^= "Just have us a hatch ready. Can you get the main shuttlebay open for us?"  
=^= Yes, ** can. It'll be re*** by the *ime you **** your descent. =^= "Roger that. We'll see you there."  
Riker called out loudly, so that the crew on the other end could hear him, "And have some coffee or hot chocolate ready, it's d*mn cold in here!"  
=^= *laughter* Yessir, Commander. =^= There was laughter again at both ends of the comm, and then it clicked off as the pilot began the descent. The view from outside must have been spectacular, as the shuttle slowly spun on its X-axis, rising directly upwards and then tilting its nose down to the seawater at a slight angle. Then it began to lower, its RCS thrusters spraying water everywhere, as once upon a time Naval rescue helicopters must have done going after people stranded overboard. The runabout lowered itself slowly, the pilot expertly administering tiny pulses of energy here and there, sliding the runabout gently beneath the water. Riker and Geordi lurched as the runabout slid completely beneath the waves, the whole feel of the ride changing radically as an entire atmosphere of extra pressure enveloped the shuttle, and the water all around rocked the ship slightly as the current moved past. Slowly, ever so slowly, the pilot angled the runabout down and kicked the thrusters into reverse, gently bringing them up to full power over the first hundred feet they descened, which took a long while as he spiraled downwards towards the mired bulk of the USS Voyager, a metallic addition to the reef. The warp nacelles had powered down with the warp drive offline, and even now they were thick with activity as fish of all sizes and shapes came to investigate this new carcass, this behemoth of unknown origins. With the runabout performing a Hegelian spiral down towards the Voyager, Geordi had plenty of time to catch up on his bio-neural systems. Of course, the Enterprise E ran on bio-neural systems itself, but the Intrepid-class was an older model, and thus had older system.

Indeed, Geordi knew that the Voyager had undergone a set of retoolings in the Delta Quadrant that most other engineers couldn't even comprehend, save for those onboard the ship herself, but Geordi knew all about that from working on the Enterprise all these years (OOC: 15 years!). A ship's idiosynchratic systems, her different patchwork repairs, all the things that a crew did to keep her running over the years, those were the things that made a ship unique, that made her special. They were the things that separated a ship from its assembly-line mass production identity, that made her almost a being of her own. Geordi could appreciate that, could appreciate that to some extent, it happened on every ship, but the Enterprise (and all her ancestors), and Voyager, they were not every ship: They were the two most well-known ships in the Federation, more well-known than the Defiant, more well-known than the Excelsior or the Hood or the Kyushu. Enterprise was the flagship of the Federation, and Voyager had been the focus of the Federation for seven years while she adventured in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light years away.

Each had more tales to tell than any other ship could claim to, more experiences of the wonderous and terrifying kind. The Enterprise had engaged the Borg; Voyager had flown into the heart of Borg space and met Species 8472. The retooled Enterprise under Kirk had met the V'ger probe, the beginnings of the Borg race;

Voyager had met a race that split the boundaries of time in a way opposite to the superfast beings that Kirk's crew had encountered. Each had many a tale to tell, and blow for blow the Enterprise had more, but she'd been around longer. For its time, Voyager had definitely accrued more than its share of stories and experiences, all the stuff of fantastic high adventure. These were the thoughts that William Riker had as the runabout spiralled down into the sea, comparing his ship and its predecessors to the ship he was about to board. Here he was thinking about things that had been done, when he was descending almost 400 feet underwater to the Voyager, mired in her latest and greatest adventure. He chuckled a bit, but Geordi was too engrossed in technical readouts of Voyager's current state of affairs as compared to her last rundown by Starfleet Engineering, his brow furrowed so deeply it looked almost like a unibrow. The sensation of descent ceased as the shuttle came to a stop around the shuttlebay entrance. Riker noticed that in passing, then frowned and came back to it: He shouldn't have been able to notice that much, unless... The pilot had dialed the intertial dampeners down so that he flew more "by the seat of his pants." All the best pilots did it, Riker himself among them. He used to fly shuttles quite a bit earlier in his career. But he'd never turned it down THAT much.  
Well, that was a lie. There was a time on Beta Fortuna that had... but that was different. And the Antarean Buzz, that was totally different. And the circumstances under.. And Quatal on the border of the DMZ by the Cardassian Union, those were amazingly different circumstances. But... and his hypocrisy struck him like a weighted sock: He was just being old and ignoring his youthful exhuberance in favor of harping on a youngster. And he wasn't even 40 yet! This was not promising... He smiled wryly as he thought about all of this, his cherubic features spreading the grin across his face into a facial gesture that crossed his features. The door into the main shuttlebay lurched open, the forcefield fizzing brightly as hundreds of tons of water tried to flood in, but it resisted with a fair amount of ease. The runabout dipped through, splashing just about a metric ton of water into the shuttlebay as it slipped through the forcefield, flooding the bay high enough that the runabout was a good ten feet underwater. Voyager was unprepared to drain the fluid just yet, but ten feet was nothing to worry about. The pilot looked at Riker and Geordi. "Don't worry, I'll just float us on up top with the RCS-"  
And the control panel seethed in angry rage, fighting back for all the years of tortuous, delicate use it had gone through, sparks flying madly in all directions as its rage directed itself at the pilot and the general vicinity. A fire erupted on the main control section, quickly extinguished by the computer. The overhead lights fizzled and went out, to be replaced by red emergency lights. Of course, the board was not sentient and not angry, but Riker had been writing a little recently and he felt like being poetic: Deanna said it made him more romantic, and he'd always been a romantic kind of guy, with a flair for dramatic description. Why once, he'd demonstrated to Wesley with Guinan, and boy had THAT ever been some kind of tutorial. That was an interesting memory. He chuckled. Apparently the computer had not taken kindly to the combination of depth and some kind of strange electrical field down here... What was it down here that had caused this? Maybe it was something in Voyager.  
"Looks like we're gonna have to swim a little. How about this: See that hatch there? Let's get there and section her off with a forcefield. Then fill it up with water slowly, we hold our breath, blow the hatch, and swim up."  
"Like an airlock." Geordi piped in, his eyes adjusting to the new lighting provided by the emergency lights, his implants easily compensating. "Exactly like an airlock, Geordi. Alright, let's do it."  
The plan was enacted, and soon they were knee-deep in water, rushing in quickly as the valve let water into the contained space to match pressures so they didn't implode. While they were only ten feet beneath the water in the shuttlebay, the forcefield didn't change the fact that they were 350 feet below the surface of the sea, not when the shuttlebay door was still open. That was something they had to do from the shuttle... or failing that, from the control panel up in the control center that they couldn't reach without exiting the shuttle. Sticky predicament, but here they went. They were somewhat protected from the pressure, otherwise they wouldn't have dared exit the shuttle, but this was a necessary precaution.  
"On three," said Riker. "One, two... three!" They all sucked in deep breaths and ducked beneath the water. Riker moved forward and opened the hatch, swimming upward while slowly exhaling. Geordi followed, and the pilot soon after. Seconds later, around 15, they surfaced and swam over to the ladder ascending up to the control room. Entering that, Geordi input the commands to close the door, which obliged them by shutting very slowly. They had done it.  
They were aboard Voyager. Now all they needed to do was find out where everyone was...

-  
(attachments)

Image: Wil Riker in a promo shot, grinning.

Image: Geordi LaForge promo shot with a starfield behind him.

Gif: A starship schematic of a light craft shuttle bridge.

Gif: A starship schematic of Voyager's bridge.

****************************** From : Katherine Bird .uk Subject :[voyagerliveaction] Moments Between the Waves- Date : Sun, 22 Sep 2002 17:12:00 +0100 (BST) Torres looked over the warp core appreciatively while she directed Neelix to set up a pattern enhancer triangle near the open flooring of engineering.  
"Right here would be fine, Neelix. The water's shallower here and we're still outside the core's natural static field."  
she said sloshing through the icy water that came up to her mid leg. She took a few moments to switch on the pattern enhancers until their blue beam of containment joined each other in an improvised transporter field. The energy below made eerie St. Elmo's fire dance around the silent and dark warp core above near the high dripping ceiling and sympathetically made the plankton in the water glow in response with millions of tiny blue motes. ::::Pretty. But that's gonna change.  
Engineering's not some lunar tidal pool on the beach.:: B'Elanna thought and she navigated to the main power relay console using the green glow of the illumasticks floating around in the seawater like channel markers.

She did a brief conductivity check before activating the lights. Neelix, Chakotay,Boothby, the EMH, Barclay, Spock, and K'Ehleyr all looked up and squinted at the light's return, but not without huge grins appearing on five of those faces. Then she turned around. ::My poor warp core!:: she thought.  
It was draped in California kelp that had been pulled inside the breach and here and there, barnacles were dropping off into the water in response to the depth pressure change. A practiced eye told her everything was fine. ::No scorched paint even from all that super heated Fluidic space that had once filled up in here. Cold salt water's great. I should recommend tanks of it to be installed above every warp core on every new starship they're cranking out.::

Just then the outer hooters went off as the computer informed them of an outer docking taking place through the shuttle bay. Torres raised her eyebrows. "Chakotay?  
Did those rescue ships cut a few corners getting here?"

"No," he grinned, "That's the Darren. Khan just sent a squirt to me from the bridge before he sealed it up.  
They've a pilot, one commander and ...." he held a pause for emphasis."...another engineer reporting for Voyager's salvage operation."

"hmmph.. About bloody time. I can't do all the work drying out engineering myself. And it would be a huge help if somebody knew which circuits needed to be dried off first so the others can be taken care of remotely. She casually called up a sensor scan of the shuttle bay and caught a fluctuating power grid distinctive of a protesting shuttlecraft and then a very very short infrared signature burst that was unmistakable. She hit her commbadge.

=^=Torres to the Darren crew. You three'd better be leaving your pilot behind to watch that cockpit.  
Last thing we need is fire to go along with all this flooding. I'd better be seeing one of your lifesigns staying behind in ten seconds or I'm coming down there to bootkick his butt back to the extinguisher controls. You know how shuttle plasma fire likes to crop up after a computer panel decides on a pyrotechnics display. And if you want to know where we all are. Listen to the echo behind my voice and guess.=^=

---------------------------------------

Up on the upper deck of the shuttle bay, the nameless pilot shrugged and said, "Sir, I take that as a strong hint I'm not going to be leaving the shuttle anytime soon until this is all over. I'll wait commander." he said to Riker. And soon, Riker and Geordi saw his soggy back disappear back down into the water for the submersed hatch leading back inside the Darren.

Wil rolled his eyes at the no nonsense no beans about it sarcasm from the Voyager engineer at Geordi and he offered to take up one of LaForge's ample engineering equipment satchels. "She a big sized woman? Wouldn't want her mad at me."

Geordi chuckled. "B'Elanna? No. She comes up to here."  
and he pointed to a point up to his shoulder. LaForge winced as he saw a curtain of static sparks reform over the shuttle as the pilot reestablished a waterproof containment out of the Darren's maneuvering thrusters.

Then they heard a voice come over all their combadges in another no nonsence tone. But this one was of quiet authority and confidence itself. =^=Janeway to the Darren crew. If you're wondering about the abnormal electrical field down there interfering with your light craft's systems, it's from Seven's Borg alcove. Just told my crewwoman to turn off its protective intruder alert grid. That alcove's anchored the other side of your east wall bulkhead in the cargobay next to you. Would have been easier if you used the captain's yacht launch bay but, not surprisingly, no one has had time to give the repair crews coming in a thorough briefing past a "we're still here.".;  
Welcome aboard. I'm in sickbay. =^= And the commline snicked off.

Geordi flashed a where to at his commander and long time shipmate and waited for his response on where they should head.

------------------------------------------------------------------

B'Elanna smiled as she noted the wide eyed grin on Neelix's face. "What's your problem? I'm not mad at them." she told him about the Darren crew. "Just how many starships do you know that has Borg alcove's and subsystems woven into their makeup.  
I'm just making sure one of them stays behind to put out all the sparks. Our remaining air is too precious a commodity to get all smoked filled."  
she replied.

"If you say so, Uh, eh, those fine gentlemen sounded like their teeth were chattering. I'll go get coffee for them from the replicator and antigrav tray it to whereever they end up next.." and the bustling Talaxian left Torres's side to do just that. "That should surprise the heck out of them with us using an auto gallery server. Heh. heh." he chuckled.

The EMH glanced down at his tricorder towards the shuttle bay and where the two new lifesigns were ascending up the shuttle bay ladder to the top control booth there. "Hmmm.. I'm reading a....Commander William Riker and a Lt. Commander George...La Forgey? ...off their combadges. Their lifesigns are fine yet. No signs of compression sickness."

Torres grinned. "Doctor, that's Geordi LaForge.."  
she snickered. "Wow, Picard sent me his best engineer?  
They actually sent me the Geordi LaForge.. I've always wanted to run a Level One diagnostics race with our subsequent ship's engineering crew with him. So far,  
he's got only about a .45 second lead on my best time. He's the best man for the job, any ship warp core job after Montgomery Scott." she sighed. "I wonder how that old guy's faring."

The EMH piped up. "B'Elanna, now you know that both he and Kira Nerys were beamed directly to Starfleet Medical once the Excelsior's Vidiian Phage quarantine was lifted following our cure all with the Fabrini records.  
No doubt he's already distilling more moonshine in his lab in Building Four at Starfleet Headquarters. I can almost smell his still from here..." he said, sniffing the air.

B'Elanna threw a towel at him she had been using to dry off the worst salt water drips off of her face.  
"That's brine doctor. Do I need to realign your olfactory subsystems or is that actually some sentimentality forming in your personality subroutines for the first time.  
Somebody call Seven to witness this historic moment!"

Barclay, from his precheck station at the lower computer core access panel, chortled in amusement but held his tongue.

Chakotay answered Spock's puzzled look at the ambassador slung his soggy ambassador's robe over the back of a computer chair nearest the warp core. "The doctor's been evolving due to his long term activation mode. Sort of like the steps our crewman Seven of Nine's been experiencing as she regains back her humanity. Captain Janeway's been keeping a running tally to see who hits what stage first."  
he told the Vulcan. "Looks like the doctor beat Seven on that waxing nostalgic count a minute ago."

The EMH looked promptly embarrassed and hid it behind a vitals check on the new Darren crew making their way to their chosen destination. "Looks like Riker and Geordi are still free of hypothermia. So far so good." and he pretended to scan everyone working down below him to let the conversation about him naturally move on.

Neelix returned from the back part of the high engineering chamber with a fresh tray of hot beverages for everyone.  
"Ha ha...! That will surprise the socks off of them...."

Torres afforded her whiskery friend with a half mouth grin. "Sent that tray to hover after them did ya?"

"Yep." Neelix said. "I even added a few illumasticks and fresh towels so they can dry off and see where they're going. They probably forgot wrist lights trying to put out the shuttle's fire they had for those few seconds."

"Did you warn them?" Torres asked about Riker and LaForge.

"About the coffee tray? H*ck no. I have it running just ahead of them so they'll have to sprint to catch up to it. The doctor suggest I do that to get them some exercise so they can warm themselves..." Neelix said. "The aroma of the steamy coffee will egg them on."

"So, think they're heading for sickbay or engineering?"  
Boothby asked Neelix. "Better not be to the bridge because I'm showing Khan here just sealed it off and rerouted all bridge functions to down here."

"Doesn't matter. I have the antigrav sniffing after their bioflag signals."

-------------------------------------------------------

Captain Janeway was glad more help was on the way to repair Voyager and to get her flight ready once more. It was a small measure of comfort as the weight of her true predicament constantly preyed upon her conscience. It was getting to the point that she could no longer hide the trepidation on her face.

Moriarty, Holozimm, Ardra and Countess Regina noticed.

Regina stepped forward in her holoskirts and took the stressed Voyager Captain's hands. "I'm sure things will turn out all right darling." she said kindly, but then flashing a mildly reproachful look at Ardra. "This one's lawyering skills seem in their proper order. She's a sharp tongue but cultured enough to suit your case well dear, "  
she said diplomatically to Kathryn. "I think.."  
she added.

Ardra crossed her arms before her breast and polished the shiny black leather on her sleeve. "Well, thanks for the Victorian era appraisal Miss Minding your Manners.." the sly woman said. She took Janeway's arm and lead her a few steps away so that Regina had to let go or be pulled along gracelessly.

Janeway broke away from physical contact with both of them and held up her hands in an appeasing stop motion. "Let's not get this whole thing into a fiasco shall we?  
I can see Regina, that your holopersona is the same as Ardra's real one ..."

"I'm not so unscruple-less!" Regina protested.

"I'm not so prim!" Ardra said in the same second.

Janeway went on cranking her voice up a few command notches until it thundered both holo and real people into silence.  
"....with a few minor distinctions. You were bound to clash. Now, I'm ordering you to both just get along, if you're going to do nothing to help with Voyager's repairs or be productive and do something other than idle prattle...!!"

Then Janeway realized that she had fell into pointless bickering just the same as they.  
::Oh my god. Did I just react like a two year old?:: and she set a hand on her lips and moved away from the two women.

Holozimm and Moriarty met her on that end of sickbay. Both were understanding as the women could not be.

Moriarty said to her. "I know what it's like to have your "life" on trial. I've been there."

Holozimm was quick on the encouragement band wagon. "And I've seen every court trial known to Starfleet my two weeks about the Academy net just after my formation.  
I'm trained to know.."

Moriarty smiled graciously at the red haired Voyager captain with a little bow.  
"Let me be your confident through all of this as you could not have with either Chakotay nor the counselor. Confide in me all your anxieties and misgivings and I shall be a tactful and most gracious listener.."

Janeway had to smile. Moriarty did have a charming side once his megalomania was bypassed once he got what he wanted for the moment. "Just your saying that has eased my load kilotons Professor. Thankyou."  
And she turned to Holozimm, who was still so holopersonality new that he seemed a child in a man's body. "And you too Holozimm. Your empathy means a lot to me.  
For yes, this whole genocide trial affair has me charting new waters..." then she looked down at the flooding damage control report she was writing on her padd and groaned. "Oh, that was an awful pun. That's what I'm doing now..." she said, holding up the datapadd.

"Not any more.." Holozimm said, snatching it away. "I've got this.." and he took it from her. "I've cadet graduate level experience education wise. I can finish the damage report for the new engineer now on board.  
Why don't you go hover over your B'Elanna Torres's shoulder or visit with Dr. Pel for a while to take your mind off of things for a bit. Looks like the doctor's awake over there."

Moriarty gave a likewise encouraging nod and took the tricorder out of Janeway's other hand.  
"And I've got the crew biolifesign watch now so it seems you've got a little freetime on your hands captain..." he said no nonsense.

Janeway shook her head ruefully at the two of them. "Seems like the EMH is rubbing off on you both. You sound just like him."

"We know.." Holozimm and Moriarty said at the same time. "He's linked to us through Byte right now remotely from engineering and he's telling us what to say to you.."

Janeway's mouth dropped in surprise and she began to laugh all the more as she made her way to Denara Pel's bedside where Dr. Crusher and Deanna Troi were leaning over her while she regained wakefulness.

Slowly, Janeway felt herself slip away from all captain to just Kathryn in the space of time it took for her to get to the edge of the sedated woman's biobed. A huge weight of stress lifted from her shoulders as she shifted mentally into being just a woman showing concern for another who's just lost her infant child.

Dr. Pel saw her coming.

-  
(attachments)

Image: : B'Elanna smiling Torres.

Image Neelix and Janeway in a good close shot

Image: Denara Pel and the EMH holding hands.

******************************************

From : "Tyler Sherkin" t_ Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Mired in the Deep Date : Sat, 28 Sep 2002 02:10:57 -0400 Riker and Geordi were still in the control room of the shuttlebay, chuckling a bit at Torres' forceful behavior. The pilot, at Riker's order, dove into the water and reentered the shuttle so that he could watch the shuttle and prevent any kind of fire from erupting. Of course, he had no idea how a fire would be of any danger beneath 10 feet of water, but orders were orders and he had his, so he had to carry them out.  
Riker frowned. The ship was not totally flooded as it had been earlier, but it would not be easy to get to Engineering with all of the emergency bulkheads in place, and the Jeffry's Tubes sealed shut to prevent deck-to-deck flooding. "How are we gonna do this, Geordi? We have to get down what, 10 decks? How do we do it?"  
Geordi furrowed his brow, concentrating hard on the task at hand. Flooding wasn't too much of an issue anymore, though there would be some water in some places. No, it was as Will said, all the emergency bulkheads and forcefields in place to keep structural integrity forcefields, the 24th century's version of the Titanic's compartment seals. Geordi frowned at that, since the Titanic had sunk, and Voyager was holding together rather well. Oh well, pessimists made great engineers.  
"I guess we could see where we can get to, and then I can bypass the bulkheads. Just watch out for water."  
"Alright, let's do it, let's go."  
"Aye, Commander."  
The two of them set out on foot and began making their way downwards towards engineering. They came to the first door, and Geordi was able to bypass it with the manual override, and likewise the second and third. The fourth door required a little creative rewiring, but they got passed that as well. The fifth door required a lot more. The access door into the Engineering deck was sealed tightly and wrapped in security programming to protect the vital areas of the ship. Geordi wasn't sure how to get by that door, so he took stock of the tools he had on hand. He had his phaser, his Engineering kit, and his tricorder. The phaser wouldn't work because the door was BEHIND a forcefield, and a potent one as well, since it was the warp core he was trying to gain access to. The Engineering kit wasn't going to be of much use since he couldn't access anything with it, as forcefields protected access points to the powerlines all the way down the corridor. That left his tricorder, and luck.  
Well, not so much luck.  
Geordi was counting on his brain to remember just exactly what it was that Wesley did on that desert planet to disrupt that energy lifeform protecting the water Captain Picard needed so badly. He used the tricorder to emit a signal that disrupted the field, and that same principle could be applied here-  
"Come on Geordi, we have to get going."  
"I'm on it Commander, just gimme a second."  
Riker nodded, and Geordi went back to thinking. He brought his tricorder up and pointed it at the forcefield in front of him. Then he paused as something occurred to him: He wouldn't have to use this trick until a little later.  
"Why don't we just go down the emergency hatch a little way back down the corridor? Wouldn't that be easier?"  
Riker closed his eyes, a look of tired mirth on his face as he realized that the two of them had walzted right past a much easier alternative without even realizing it.  
"What would I do without you, Geordi?"  
Geordi laughed, and opened the door to the access room. Riker followed him in, and they walked over to the emergency hatch. This hatch was one of several hatches around the ship that allowed access to vital decks through manual overrides and without forcefield protection, assuming there were no intruder alarms. So Geordi opened the override locker and pumped the handle until the door was opened wide enough to fit through, and then he slipped down onto the ladder and began his descent, followed closely by Riker. Will shut the door behind him by pumping the manual release on the underside of the door, resealing the deck, and then he caught up to Geordi, who was a ways down the ladder, by sliding down the sides, his feet on the outside of the ladder instead of on the rungs. He slid this way for a few short seconds before slowing down so as not to hit his friend in the head feetfirst, and continued the descent at a slower pace. It took a while. The ladder was long, and the distances between decks was actually fairly large, even on a compact ship such as an Intrepid-class like Voyager. But years of doing this on the Enterprise D, and more so on the E, had trained them well and they rose to the occaision with gusto, making it down to the Engineering deck without breaking a sweat or breathing hard.  
"Old body's hanging in pretty well, I think." Riker said with his customary jubilence, popping his eyebrows and flashing an ivory-filled grin at Geordi.  
"I don't know about YOU, Commander, but my YOUNG body is doing just fine." Geordi let his tongue loll out just a bit, pressed against his lower lip as he smiled back.  
"Don't go there, Geordi, just don't. I said it to the Captain once, and I'll say it again: I plan to live forever."  
"Right. And when Q gets respectible, I'll believe it can happen."  
"Haven't you heard about his son?"  
Geordi stopped and turned towards Riker. "Son?"  
"Yeah, he's got a wife of four billion years, and a teenage Q son. Captain Janeway knows him. Heck, I hear Q wanted to have the kid with HER, but she turned him down."  
"Why am I not surprised..."  
Riker and Geordi both laughed at the image of Janeway rejecting Q, and then walked over to the door into the Engineering Deck proper. When they saw it, Geordi's brow furrowed.  
"That's strange, this one's still locked down."  
He walked over to the door and hit the open button once, twice, three times with no success until he knelt down and pulled the manual release. The door opened.  
... and released a torrent of water all over his already-soaked uniform.  
Riker couldn't help but laugh, even as the icy water resoaked its way through his uniform from the waist down, as Geordi rose slowly from his kneeling position, soaked to the bone in ice-cold water, holding his arms out to his sides bent down in a sort of ground-facing square bracket, lips pursed in a duckbill.  
"A little cold, isn't it?"  
Geordi said nothing, he just turned around and splashed Riker in the face with some of the cold water swirling around his boots.  
Riker stood stock still for a moment, the water running down into his beard and dripping off, before twitching his lips (and subsequently the beard), and looking at Geordi, and speaking in total deadpan.  
"Now that was not very nice."  
"But it was deserved."  
Riker lightened up and cracked a lop-sided grin.  
"True enough. Let's go."  
They walked through the door, and out into a cargo bay, sloshing through water that was ankle-deep before reaching the corridors and spilling more water out into them. It was the work of a few minutes to locate Engineering, and make their presence known.  
"I'm looking for Lieutenant Torres," said Riker into the room, "Anyone seen her?"

-  
(attachments)

Image: Geordi LaForge without his visor.

Image: B'Elanna from Blood Fever.

Image: Geordi LaForge with visor.

Image: Close up of Geordi's machine pupil from All Good Things.

Image: Riker, looking very worried.

**********************************************

Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 11:36:36 -0700 (PDT) From: "Myron Ojala" Subject: [voyagerliveaction] Levels of Comfort

They walked through the door, and out into a cargo bay, sloshing through water that was ankle-deep before reaching the corridors and spilling more water out into them. It was the work of a few minutes to locate Engineering, and make their presence known.  
"I'm looking for Lieutenant Torres," said Riker into the room, "Anyone seen her?"

Noonien Khan waded through the main engineering bulkheads just as the tall Commander uttered his question.  
Khan said to the first officer who was only slightly shorter than he, "Have you known any engineer to be away from the heart of her ship in a crisis?" and he pointed to B'Elanna's small form buried waist deep inside the power relay station crawl space,  
banging away as she realigned UPS conduits. "Your shuttle fire is contained.  
I got word from your pilot just before I rerouted all bridge functions down here.  
Seven of Nine sends her apologies for the defensive electrical field that was emanating from her Borg alcove nearby for causing it."

Just then Torres's voice erupted from where she was working. "Thanks a bunch you two for opening the main bulkheads to engineering.  
That knee deep water was there for a reason."

Barclay spoke up from his terminal.  
"Uh, Lt. Torres. I'm not reading any structure weaknesses in the flooring and our air supply and atmospheric pressure are fine.."

"Hmph.." came Torres's reply but she still did not back out to see the new arrivals just yet.

Khan turned to see Dr. Julian Bashir had followed him from the upper decks. "Everyone all right?" Julian said carrying his medkit. "That swim didn't chill anyone too badly from what I'm seeing here." he said eyeing his med scanner.

Riker gave Geordi an ironic look as both men regarded their own soaked uniforms, but the young doctor didn't seem to notice that they were even wet. He just nodded a welcome to them and eyed the engineering kit Geordi had with him for a moment to place their purpose in coming privately in his head.

Spock, Barclay, Torres, Neelix, Chakotay,  
K'Ehleyr and Boothby all grunted denials about being needy for care and Julian nodded in satisfaction.

Bashir glanced up at the EMH on the second level clear deck above him. "Hear that? We've nothing to do, doctor.." he kidded.

The holodoc rolled his eyes. "I'm not bored in the slightest. I have to keep dodging these falling water streams before they impact my holoemitter. Last thing I need is for my holomatrix integrity to fail and then have it fall into the water down there."

"Look again doctor." Dr. Bashir said shouting up to the EMH. "The commander and engineer here have let it all out into the corridors. There's no more standing water in engineering."

"Oh?" Then the EMH smiled. "I guess my systems can tolerate soggy carpetting." and he winked out and then appeared back, standing next to where Riker Geordi, Khan and Julian were standing.

The holodoc turned to Julian, his earlier easy tones evaporated. He asked.  
"Doctor, how's Denara? I feel like the inadequate once "father" being away from her at a time like this."

Julian's face fell into comforting lines. "She's resting. And, the baby has been interned until you both decide how you'd like to handle her.  
arrangements. When I left sickbay, Captain Janeway looked about ready to talk to her as she was awake and beginning to get over her distress over her baby's death." Bashir didn't fail to see the EMH's face pinch. Yet again, he was amazed at the wide range of emotion granted to this living hologram.

The EMH buried his brief show of discomfort for Julian's sake. "Vidiians are resourceful. They mourn a lot less than ...." he broke off.

Dr. Bashir set a hand on the doctor's arm.  
"It's all right to feel something about that in this case. Baby Pel Schmolis was your daughter by all sense of definition. Does it matter that she was genetically engineered and artificially transplanted into Dr. Pel? No. She was family.  
And as family, you have a right to feel her loss. In this case, you don't have to be a doctor here. Just a holoman. I'm sure if you ask the commander, that he'd let you return to sickbay now that I'm here overseeing things."

Khan had overheard the exchange between the two doctors and had recognized a personal conversation so he regarded Riker and Geordi thoughtfully. "You two strike me as having spent years together as crewmates. It's admirable that you've come to Voyager's aid in her time of need. Let me fill you in. I've relinquished the bridge. That older man with the silver hair's got the ship's command codes. Goes by the name of Boothby. And your Federation President Avalonii's got a direct tie in with shipwide com and visual pickups."

Just then Chakotay looked up from helping call off power relays to Torres when he noticed Riker and Geordi standing there looking on.  
He straightened, and set down his comm padd to join them. "Khan, is the bridge shut down?"

"Yes Chakotay. All is secure and transferred to that station.." he said, pointing to a system that Spock was now formatting to functioning mode. "Relax, son of my son's son. The danger to this ship is past, for the moment.." he grinned. Riker and Geordi couldn't help but noticing Chakotay shying away from any contact with Khan even as the man reached out to give him an encouraging pat on the shoulder. They saw the older exotic man turn away from the younger and move away to stand near Neelix where he was working on getting food for all from the dripping replicator.

::Noonien Khan is related to Janeway's first officer?:: Thought Geordi with surprise.

Chakotay acted like Khan hadn't even been near,  
past his giving his report on the bridge. The first officer blinked at Riker and Geordi. "I'm sure headquarters briefed you as to the nature of Voyager's emergency regarding the 8472 rebel young and the Hunter sent to find them. All of them are now gone in one fashion or another. But, a large problem remains."

Geordi spoke up. "We heard..."

Riker finished. "Your old captain's trial.."

"Yes. There's a new faction or an old one, residing inside 8472 society that carrys out other species judgements. An individual known to us only as the Albino Justice is coming here to finish where he left off with Kathryn and Seven of Nine concerning an incident where a billion 8472 inadvertantly died by a bioweapon we needed to imploy to save the ship a few years ago in the Delta Quadrant. It wasn't intended to kill so many. Only the bioships attacking Voyager back then. Earlier,  
the Justice had their minds divorced from their bodies until Alexander convinced him that the severing was harmful. Ambassador Spock has just come back from a mindmeld with the three of them. He might be able to tell you more.  
That Justice plans to reconvene in Seven's cargobay, next to the shuttle bay where your runabout is stationing."

"Won't that be fun.." the EMH said sarcastically.  
"With that setting, all we need is a few wooden stocks to make the atmosphere complete.."

Chakotay frowned. "Doctor. These circumstances are unpleasant as it is. I suggest you keep those comments to yourself and away from the captain."

"Chakotay, I'd never say such things in front of her in that way. It might harm her psychological well being."

"Try amending and widening your tact protocol to include those who're close friends of the captain too, huh? I didn't appreciate the imagery."

The EMH blinked, thoroughly taken aback.  
"I'm sorry commander. I had no idea. Usually my caustic bedside manner eases the crew's stress."

"Yeah, well live and learn. Permission for you to leave engineering granted. I can see you glancing at Sickbay's monitors more than you are at everyone here. Go to Denara. I can spare you here.."  
Chakotay said with finality, then he offered a small smile.

"Now it's the stressed crewman comforting the doctor.." the holodoc smiled back.

"I outrank you.." Chakotay said. "And send Kathryn down here when she's through."  
the commander said to the EMH's retreating back.

To Riker and Geordi he said, "Make yourselves at home. Looks like Neelix will have supper ready and a whole lot of that hot coffee we heard you muttering about on your way here."

Neelix chuckled from where he and Khan were extracting food and drink laden trays.  
"Right you are, commander. Lt. Torres. That can wait. I can hear your growling stomach from here."

Ambassador Spock said deadpan. "That isn't her stomach.."

"Oh.." Neelix said forehead frowning with worry.

Chakotay grinned and was the first one to a tray. "Boothby. Share this one with you.  
I don't eat meat. I claim the salad."

"Fair enough.." the older caretaker said. He noticed both Geordi and Riker grinning to him as they fully recognized him for who he was. He began to feel uncomfortable. "And before you ask. Yes.  
I can commandeer a starship. I've enough rank to cover all of you put together. Why do you think Starfleet let's me hand pick all the captain's candidates? Riker. Why haven't you filled the captain's boots yet. I told them you'd be one by the time Voyager got back and that was five years ago..." he complained. "And Geordi.  
Starfleet Medical could have had orbital implants instead of that archaic visor with its temple implants, a decade must like pain if you've still got that."

"The Lt's in pain?" Bashir said suddenly. He pulled out his tricorder. "Huh..." he sighed thoughtfully as he scanned the Enterprise Engineer where he and Riker sat on stools. "Residual underlying migraine.  
You bury it well, LaForge. My hat's off to you."  
he grinned, plunking down his scanner again and uplifting a chicken sandwich.

Then Boothby asked Riker and Geordi directly.  
"Gentleman. What did you do with the antigrav tray Neelix sent to find you? It would be a shame to waste two steaming coffee cups,  
a bunch of dry towels and those illumasticks."

And Chakotay added. "Glad things are secure in the shuttle fire could have ignited your power couplings and that burns under water. Not to mention the explosive danger of the thruster fuel you have on board.  
Last thing we need is another repeat of the plasma fire we had in Starfleet headquarters inside Voyager. What would you like to do next gentleman? We've no medical emergencys to tend with, and only routine engineering problems to handle before the rescue and recovery ships arrive in....four point seven hours time."

"Routine?!!" came Boothby's indignant reply before Torres had a change to utter the same thing.  
"I wouldn't call draining seawater from a space going starship routine commander.."

Chakotay's comment finally succeeded in getting B'Elanna's undivided attention. She scrambled out from under the computer console and made a vain attempt to brush off water from her hands and knees.  
She glared at Chakotay for his comment but took the half of sandwich he offered her silently and began to eat.

"Two ways to get a Klingon's attention. Wave food around in the air or insult their profession." Chakotay laughed. That earned him a smack on the arm from B'Elanna, and he winced. "I take that back about the medical emergencies. I think she broke my arm."

"B'Elanna.. Behave..." said a new voice in the doorway.

Tom Paris, sloshed into the room through the soggy mess still on the deck and joined everyone in engineering.  
"Wow. I'm impressed. No more open sea theme and the lights are on already." He nodded at Riker and Geordi. "Well, looks like the calvary's here.  
Glad you made it. Tell your pilot I admired his landing. Not many make it even into the bay when Seven's alcove is set on defensive mode."

Khan sat nearby Neelix and Chakotay and ate his salad slowly.

Julian announced. "Lt. Paris. We could use your cheer.  
Too much dire doom floating around here at the moment.." he said cheerfully bright.

"Where's the doc?" Tom asked, looking around.

"Sickbay. He's with Denara." Bashir countered.  
"Where's Harry?"

"Sickbay as well. He wanted to help out Captain Janeway. He's, rather attached to her and this latest wrinkle isn't sitting well with him and Harry's the type that would rather do than fret, if you know what I mean."

Bashir had a flashback of a time he had to be right there with Jadzia Dax and the loss of her symbiont. He shook away the painful memory in his mind.  
"I can imagine.." Julian said, taking a bite of cous cous. "Join us.. Looks like Neelix planned ahead.  
There's a sandwich left for you."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Khan Noonien Singh looking evil surrounded by seductive women.

Image: Dr. Bashir hugging a crying Dax.

Image: Tom speaking to Chakotay from across a few chairs.

*  
From : "Tyler Sherkin" t_ Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Our Dearest Friends... Date : Mon, 30 Sep 2002 19:31:02 -0400 Geordi looked at Khan, surprised to see the dead man walking. It took a moment for him to put together what was happening, remember what Commander Riker had told him, about the Guardian, and about the visitors from other times. Temporal Mechanics had always been one of his weaker classes, and his brain hurt now, just thinking about all of the problems. This cleared up when he remember the nice deus ex machina that had been provided: None of the paradoxes he was thinking about were going to occur/had occured/were occuring, because the Guardian was insolating the timelines from pollution. That made thinking about all of this a whole lot easier.  
"Have you known any engineer to be away from the heart of her ship in a crisis?" Geordi shook his head, a smile playing across his lips. "No, I can't say that I have. It's just not right." Will shot him a look, his face saying 'You never leave Engineering ANYway,' but Geordi just kept on smiling: He loved his work, loved every second of it, even when things didn't work and he just knew he was doing everything the right way, the challenges always intrigued him, motivated him. And now he would have, for the second time in his life, a chance to work with one of the most famous engineers in Starfleet. Years before, he'd had a chance to work with the legendary Montgomery Scott, when he was discovered on the surface of a Dyson Sphere, suspended inside of a transporter loop for 80 years or so. That was an interesting affair, and "Scotty" had proved very valuable in the end, able to hold the Genoa's shields just long enough to wedge the Sphere's entrance door open and let the Enterprise through, while he and Geordi beamed off. That was an exciting time, he recalled. And now, Geordi would have a chance to work with B'elanna Torres, of Voyager fame. She was the closest engineer in the fleet to his diagnostic speed record, only behind him by 0.45 seconds. That was leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, who were at least five or more seconds behind him, and that was the top 1% of the fleet's engineers. Judging from what he'd read of Voyager's mission logs and engineer's reports, she was very competent, able to integrate all sorts of technologies into the Federation starship, able to come up with solutions to problems under heavy time constraints, without folding under pressure like a lot of younger engineers did. It would definitely be interesting to meet her, since her fiery reputation preceded her no matter where she might go. Geordi was most impressed with the Quantum Slipstream drive. It was a shame that particular project failed, but the data they garned would be useful in later experiments, most certainly. That technology would not be buried. They were so close to having a working system, all they needed to do was iron out that phase variance (0.4, was it?), and they would be able to travel phenomenal distances in a very short period of time, approaching 1,000 light years per minute, at top speeds. Geordi made a mental note to bring that up with Starfleet Engineering, as he was highly interested in that project. Khan went on to describe in intricate detail the situation at hand, with Janeway's trial, the faction of 8472 that was unhappy with Voyager's captain, and the Albino Justice that was coming to Voyager. Geordi also remembered somewhere a log about the destruction of the Terrasphere that Voyager had encountered in one of their final missions before they returned to the Alpha Quadrant. That was apparently discovered when an attempt at contact was made, only to find no response, and no indication of the sphere's presence in that area of space. Barclay's microwormhole technology would have been more than adequate to reach that section of space, but no reply was made. It was hypothesized that the current 8472 government had eliminated the rebellious youngsters because of a violent sense of xenophobia in their race as a whole, a theory that might have merit.  
Riker looked at Geordi, who seemed lost in thought. "Well, are you going to answer Boothby or not, Commander?"  
"Huh?" Was Geordi's eloquent reply.  
"He asked you about the VISOR."  
"Oh, that. No no, I have the implants, Boothby, I had them put in after that whole Nexus scenario with Captain Kirk and Dr. Soran. I'm just testing something right now, a linkage between the VISOR and the implants. If it works, I'll have a lot more control over my visual input, and I might be able to, someday, use my implants to see the way you do, the way all of you do,  
in the visible light spectrum. Also, I can use the VISOR as a benchmark to test whether or not my implants are going out of alignment, or if there is some kind of error."  
"So basically it's a diagnostic tool now, instead of a functional implant?" asked the crochety old gardener.  
"Yes, that's it exactly!" Geordi's face brightened with excitement at the interest in technology. If there was any one thing that could interest him enough to revert his attitude to that of a small child, there it was. All things technological got him excited more than anything else in the universe, except perhaps Dr. Brahams that one time.  
"The Lt's in pain?" Bashir said suddenly. He pulled out his tricorder. "Huh..." he sighed thoughtfully as he scanned the Enterprise engineer. "Residual underlying migraine. You bury it well, LaForge. My hat's off to you."  
"Oh, that's nothing. I used to get migraines way worse than this when I first started using the VISOR. You get used to them really quickly, because they're not really migraines. As I understand it, my optic nerve is receiving far more information than usual, since the VISOR, or my implants, receives the entire EM spectrum. That sort of overloads it, so you have to pick and choose what you want to receive, at what time. That's the tricky part, the part that takes the longest time. Until you get used to it, and start receiving only certain kinds of information, you can get some pretty painful headaches."  
"If you choose what you want to see," said Chakotay, "Why can't you choose to see in the section of the spectrum we see?"  
"That's a good question. The visible spectrum is really small, covering only about 300nm. That range is roughly in the middle of the spectrum, larger than infrared but smaller than ultraviolet light wavelengths. By comparison, the infrared spectrum ranges from about a millimeter to a micrometer in wavelength, overlapping a bit with microwaves and radio waves around a millimeter. That's a lot larger than the visible spectrum, so it is a lot easier for my brain to process, rather than focusing so tightly on one band. The implant can't really help me interpret the data yet, so until it can, I am unable to see in the visible spectrum because it is so tightly focused. It's a trade-off though, because I can see radiowaves, microwaves, ultraviolet light, x-rays, and even gamma rays. The whole spectrum, except for that tiny little bit in the middle."  
"That's pretty interesting, Mr. Laforge." said Chakotay.  
"It is," agreed Boothby, "but what did you do with the antigrav tray Neelix sent to find you? It would be a shame to waste two steaming coffee cups,a bunch of dry towels and those illumasticks."  
Will looked at Geordi. "Antigrav tray? I didn't see any tray."  
"That's because I sent it back to the pilot. He needed it more than we did, anyway."  
Riker groaned. "Coffee would have been really nice right now, Geordi. It would probably have taken the edge off of this mood I'm getting into."  
"Oh, here we go again.. the 'angry, deprived commander' routine again." Geordi smirked and bobbed his eyebrows at Chakotay. "He does this all the time, especially in poker."  
"Which I always win."  
"Except against Commander Shelby."  
"Touche, Mr. Laforge."  
While the two shared their banter, Chakotay was inciting B'elanna and Boothby with comments about routine repairs, and finally succeeded in getting a very dirty and disheveled Torres out from her little alcove. Riker popped an eyebrow and smirked at B'elanna. "Thanks for dressing up, it's nice to see I'm not the only one improperly dressed for the occasion."  
Geordi shifted his feet, managing to back away from Commander Riker, eying B'elanna the whole time. About that time, Chakotay said something else that the half-Klingon found rather inflammatory, and she gave him a sharp slap on the arm for it. "B'Elanna.. Behave..." said a new voice in the doorway. Tom Paris, sloshed into the room through the soggy mess still on the deck and joined everyone in engineering. "Wow. I'm impressed. No more open sea theme and the lights are on already." He nodded at Riker and Geordi. "Well, looks like the calvary's here. Glad you made it. Tell your pilot I admired his landing. Not many make it even into the bay when Seven's alcove is set on defensive mode."  
"Thanks for the welcome." Riker smiled at Tom. "You and I ought to get together for some pilot stories."  
"You're a pilot, Commander?"  
"I was, back in my reckless days before I made Commander." Riker said.  
"And a fair one, if you have to know." Geordi said, chuckling.  
"Fair? Fair? You were there for Beta Foertuna. Tell me that was only 'fair piloting,' if you can."  
"I guess it might have been pretty ok flying."  
Riker groaned: Geordi had found a way to incite him at will. He took great pride in his pilotting skills.  
"What about the time we landed on that planet where Deanna, Chief O'Brien and Commander Data were all possessed by those prisoners? That took more than a little pilotting skill."  
Paris chuckled while the exchange continued: Riker was ignoring everything else as he argued with his Chief Engineer.  
"Well, ok. Maybe that was some impressive flying." Geordi allowed.  
"Aha! And the Quatal run was ten times more difficult than that."  
"OK, ok, so you can fly some. Lieutenant Paris landed Voyager. Multiple times."  
Geordi added.  
The color drained from Riker's face.  
"Really?"  
Geordi strained to keep from laughing, and motioned for Paris to explain.  
"The Intrepid has landing gear, but we had some pretty hairy times."  
Riker nodded.  
"That beats anything I did. Except maybe by that planet in the Briar Patch."  
"Ah, the Riker Maneuver!" said Paris.  
"That's what they're calling it now?" asked Geordi. "Don't let that get out, his head will swell like a balloon."  
There was laughter all about as the officers chatted.  
"Sorry to crash the party," said Chakotay, "But we still have to get the ship out of the sea."  
"That's true." said Riker.  
"How are the transporters functioning? Are they reliable enough to transport inorganic material? We could move large volumes of water out at a time even if the transporters are functioning only minimally. If they aren't, I could set to work on those, if you want."  
"Who can I talk to about this trial?" Asked Riker. "I could help out with that. I've had the chance to work with Captain Picard on a lot these things like when Data was on trial to see if he was a machine or a sentient being, and I listened to him when he spoke about the ones I wasn't there for, like the Ardra trial."  
Riker caught a piece of conversation between the holodoc and Lieutenant Paris.  
"Sickbay as well. He wanted to help out Captain Janeway. He's, rather attached to her and this latest wrinkle isn't sitting well with him and Harry's the type that would rather do than fret, if you know what I mean."

"Sickbay, huh? Should I get down there and talk to Mr. Kim? It might help keep him occupied if he were thinking about the trial and talking about it acitively, you know, the old 'give them a challenge to distract them' tactic."  
Riker looked to Chakotay for a response.  
"Yes, that would work out well. On your way, steal that tray back from your pilot and bring Harry a cup, would you? It would be good for him."  
"Gotcha."  
Riker trotted off towards the Sickbay, making sure his route crossed paths with the main shuttlebay so he could go get that coffee... and a towel. His uniform was still cold and uncomfortable, but it was slowly drying out.  
As soon as he left Engineering, he paused long enough to wring out his sleeves and pantlegs, and to dump out his boots. Sighing contentedly at the drastic change, and the newfound lack of squidgy stepping ability, Will picked up a jog to get the blood pumping. In Engineering, Geordi was having a look at a diagnostic display on one of the computer terminals to B'elanna's right-hand side, examining the available data on the transporters. The water had indeed damaged them, but not irreperably. All he would need to do was activate the isolinear backup to the system, because it had different connections than the bio-neural gel packs did, for situations precisely like this one. Now, with a little luck, Torres wouldn't have toyed with the isolinear system.  
"Hey, B'elanna, do you still have that isolinear backup system you installed back in the Delta Quadrant on this relic?"  
Geordi turned his eyes back to the screen in front of him, his fingers flying over the LCARS interface, performing various diagnostics on the transporter systems, and scanning for rerouting options. 'When in doubt, reroute.' That was the maxim he worked with, and it had proved extremely effective and sound over his years in Starfleet. In his career so far, he'd had the opportunity to make use of that philosophy over and over again, as the Enterprise ran into a plethora of situations that called upon his training as an engineer to bail them out of whatever new crisis had arisen. Subspace strings, subspace slipstreams, crystalline entities, the Borg, soliton waves, and more. Plenty of experience to draw upon here for a simple transporter problem. Unless there were nanites. Geordi hated nanites. The nanites he'd experienced on the Enterprise had gained sentience, so it wasn't that bad, but even non-sentient nanites could wreak havoc with a ship's systems, and make easy repairs into nightmares. He wasn't sure why he was thinking about them now, maybe it was the pessimist in him, but there logically shouldn't run into them here. Voyager hadn't listed any supplies of nanites in their cargo manifest... had they? He couldn't remember. "There aren't any... nanites onboard, are there? Right?"  
The main lights in engineering sputtered and died.  
Geordi opened his mouth to say something, but before he could get to his almost-inoffensive curse, he heard a stream of highly inventive profanity streaming from the mouth of one angry half-Klingon engineer. Geordi closed his mouth slowly, almost afraid to speak. The lights flickered back on, then off again. Geordi stepped away from his panel, over in the direction of Voyager's CEO, only to see his panel spark out and turn off. It was rather lucky that he hadn't been standing there.  
There was a chorus of curses, some mild, some nonsense curses to avoid actual profanity, but all across Engineering, crewmen were cursing this new problem, as systems started going down all over the ship. What was going on? Geordi didn't want to believe in coincidences like that, ruling out nanites for now, but what if it were?  
Jogging over to the last working terminal, he called up a quick display of Voyager's cargo manifest, medical supplies and science experiments. The screen flickered.  
"Not now, come on!" Geordi's hands flew over the LCARS, isolating the terminal from the rest of the computer, tying it into his tricorder so that the nanites couldn't affect it for now. The terminal would use the tricorder for processing power, so it would run much slower, but for now it was safe from nanite infestation because it wasn't accessing the sections of Voyager's computers that were infected just yet. But then again, he didn't know how much of the computer system was infected, and just how a nanite could infect a biologically-based computer system. It was a mystery that would have to wait until he confirmed his suspicions. His VISOR-enhanced ocular implants scanned the scrolling data, his mind searching for one word, searching.. and finding what they were looking for. Nanites. There was a small nanite colony being grown in Cargo Bay... 2. The cargo bay he and Commander Riker had walked through. It had been a mess, filled with water, boxes and containers broken open all over the floor. That was confirmation enough for Geordi: It appeared there was indeed a nanite colony infesting the computer systems on the USS Voyager. "I hate nanites..." Geordi lamented to no one in particular as water sloshed around in his unemptied boots. "I really, really hate nanites."  
===== Will was having a much nicer time. He had made it to the antigrav tray fairly quickly, and found that the pilot had not yet emerged from his shuttle, nor seen the coffee, it seemed. So he'd pirated the whole tray and left for sickbay, sipping on one of the cups contentedly as he made his way towards Sickbay. He'd also pinched one of the towels and used it to dry himself off as much as possible. He strode into Sickbay towelling off his head, a steaming cup of coffee in one hand, and another on the tray behind him. "Comfortable, Commander?" asked the EMH as he walked in.  
"Quite, thank you." came the reply, the famous Riker smile spreading across the Commander's face as he regarded the holodoc. It slowly melted away when Riker saw Captain Janeway. "How is she? And where's Mr. Kim?"  
"The Captain's condition has yet to change, and I don't know where Mr. Kim is."  
"How's Denara Pel?"  
"Suffering from the loss of a child." replied the Doctor in icy tones.  
"Right." Riker winced: That was not a comfortable topic, so he avoided it and walked around Sickbay, not really knowing what to do. Normally, he was a very decisive person, a sort of take-charge-and-act kind of persona, but right now he was at a total loss for what to do. Geordi was in Engineering, so he knew what he was doing-  
The lights sputtered on and off for a few seconds, then went out completely. The red emergency lights came on, casting a hellish glow that reflected off the pools of water about the floor, and the soaked carpets. It shrouded the room with an image of bloody air that struck Riker as rather frightening, considering what could happen if things went the wrong way with this trial. How would Species 8472 deal with a conviction? Was it possible in their legal system to win, or were they like the Cardassians, who only held trials for the public to be entertained by? He didn't know: Riker had been a bit lazy on the reading about Species 8472, a little caught up with recent events in the Briar Patch, and then the return of Voyager itself, and all of the missions he'd been on the Enterprise for since then. He was a busy man as the FIrst Officer of the Federation Flagship, dmnit. 'That's really not an excuse.' He told himself. 'You've been saying the same thing about that jazz club you keep meaning to goto on Earth, for two months now.' His mental diatribe went unanswered as he thought about other things, such as the reason the lights turned off.  
"Doc?"  
There was no answer. The holodoc hadn't been using his holoemitter when then power had flickered. It was sitting there in the container in his office, resting lightly on its plastic case. 'He must have shorted out when the power fuzzed. I'd better fix that'  
"Computer? You there?"  
#Affirmative.# said the soothing, female tones of the computer's voice.  
"Active the EMH."  
The doctor coalesced into view. "Please state the nature of the---" He turned to Riker. "What happened?"  
"You weren't using your emitter and the power shorted out. You went with it."  
"I don't think I'll be doing that again." said the holodoc as he walked over and grabbed his emitter. "Computer, transfer the EMH to the holoemitter."  
#Transfer complete#  
The holodoc's image fizzed for a moment while his program was switched from Voyager's computer back to his holoemitter. "Much better." he said.  
"Alright Doc, let's go find out what's happening."  
"I have to stay here to watch on Ms. Pel and on the Captain."  
"Right. Do that. I'm going to find out what the h*ck is going on here, ok?"  
"Go right ahead. Abandon the courageous holodoctor in the middle of a crisis..."

"Spare me the melodrama, doctor." With that, Riker turned on heel and left, stalking away is his customary partial-slouch posture, bearing down from his imposing height of 6'6 as he power-walked back towards Engineering. Finally, a purpose! Something to focus on, something to do! Riker was finally in his element. He made it back to Engineering very quickly, and looked around, finding Geordi at one terminal, B'elanna at another, and the room shrouded in red emergency light just like the rest of the ship.

-  
(attachments)

Gif: An image spectrum of visible light in a schematic.

Image: An illustration of a nanite in closeup.

Image: B'Elanna looking very sweaty and damp.

Image: Riker with a concerned expression on his face.

Image: Tom Paris at the helm of the Delta Flyer.

Gif: A painting of the interior of the Delta Flyer.

*****************************************

END WEEK TWENTY TWO RECAP 10-01-02

Showcase Site United States

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Site

WEEK TWENTY THREE RECAP 10-01-02

Showcase Site United States

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Site

*******************************

From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : Never Say Die.... Date : Wed, 02 Oct 2002 17:08:42 +0400

Tandem Post 3-way between "Jeff Seltun"  
and "Cassidy Meyers"  
"patti keiper" chat window MSN.

MAINS involved are

Deanna Troi Dr. Crusher Data Seven of Nine Dr. McCoy

FREEuse

Janeway Harry Kim The EMH Dr. Denara Pel The computer

Moriarty gave a likewise encouraging nod and took the tricorder out of Janeway's other hand.  
"And I've got the crew biolifesign watch now so it seems you've got a little freetime on your hands captain..." he said no nonsense.

Janeway shook her head ruefully at the two of them. "Seems like the EMH is rubbing off on you both. You sound just like him."

"We know.." Holozimm and Moriarty said at the same time. "He's linked to us through Byte right now remotely from engineering and he's telling us what to say to you.."

Janeway's mouth dropped in surprise and she began to laugh all the more as she made her way to Denara Pel's bedside where Dr. Crusher and Deanna Troi were leaning over her while she regained wakefulness.

Slowly, Janeway felt herself slip away from all captain to just Kathryn in the space of time it took for her to get to the edge of the sedated woman's biobed. A huge weight of stress lifted from her shoulders as she shifted mentally into being just a woman showing concern for another who's just lost her infant child.

Dr. Pel saw her coming.

"Captain. Is the ship--?"

"Voyager's fine for the moment. We've even taken on board another crew from Starfleet and another light craft, the Darren, sent via the Enterprise.  
A very capable pair is here in engineering.  
I just spoke with them. A Commander Wil Riker and Lt. Commander Geordi LaForge.  
Seems they're making themselves busy with the others. But I'm not here to just tell you the latest developments.  
How are you, Denara?" Janeway asked, she glanced up and saw that already, the baby's body had been interned into stasis and one of the morgue tubes across sickbay was already showing the green light of occupancy.

Kathryn saw the EMH wink back into sickbay to access his manual medical interface on Seven's biomonitor. He glanced up significantly to Janeway for her to occupy Denara until he got there.

He set his holoemitter to dry on its special powered pedestal.

-------------------------------

Deanna Troi stayed in focus and remained quiet when she felt Captain Janeway's worry change from its internal self direction to one that was outwardly directed and barely contained, at Dr. Pel. Troi nodded at Beverly that she was keeping close tabs on all around her. And she had one eye on the viewscreen showing the events unfolding in engineering with Wil and Geordi, the away team, and the draining water. She sent a mental message.

##All's well up here so far,Imzadi..## she sent Wil. ##This captain's fussing, but productively.##

-------------------------------

Dr. Pel gave her best smile back up at Voyager's captain. She saw that the red haired human woman seemed worn, despite the rest she had snatched once her mind meld with the Albino Justice and Spock had ended.  
"I should be asking that of you, captain.  
Death is showcasing in your circumstance a lot more than with mine. My baby is gone,  
yes, but your life is in jeopardy with this whole genocide trial affair and that, is towards which we should be directing our attentions."

It was Janeway's turn to smile bravely.  
"I'm fine. In fact, more than fine. I actually have the luxury of worrying about the ship right now. Voyager's purging successfully,  
our air's good, the rescue ships Neptune and the Caduceus, are only four hours away.  
All in all, the best of a lot of bad.."

From across sickbay Janeway saw a very tall Commander enter sickbay. She immediately knew him to be Wil Riker and saw him stop in front of the EMH to talk.

Then the lights went out and power fluctuated into emergency reds. The EMH winked out and Kathryn watched as Riker reinstated the doctor's program. Biting her lip and fighting her urge to fuss, she let the away team and her first officer handle the latest alarming setback without getting in the way nor tying up the comm grid.  
::I'll learn things here soon enough.:: she decided.

"Alright Doc, let's go find out what's happening." (Riker suggested.)

"I have to stay here to watch on Ms. Pel and on the Captain." (the holodoc countered.)

She could see Wil seemed to be looking for someone. ::Most likely for Harry to learn more about my whole trial business.  
But I don't see him sticking around for very long. He seems an action man to the core even more than Chakotay:  
she thought.

"Right. Do that. I'm going to find out what the h*ck is going on here, ok?"  
"Go right ahead. Abandon the courageous holodoctor in the middle of a crisis..."

"Spare me the melodrama, doctor." With that, Riker turned on heel and left, stalking away is his customary partial-slouch posture, bearing down from his imposing height of 6'6 as he power-walked back towards Engineering. ....... He made it back to Engineering very quickly, and looked around, finding Geordi at one terminal, B'elanna at another, and the room shrouded in red emergency light just like the rest of the ship.

From over the other side of sickbay,  
Kirk must have come to the same conclusion about Riker's personality and restlessness because he came over to stand by Janeway,  
leaving Yar to converse with Ardra.

He didn't bother telling his young security aide to relax the hand his young aide had over her phaser while she tolerated Ardra's activities with the computer which appeared to be giving her information, curiously,  
about Seven's alcove. "It never rains but it pours, Kathryn.  
A new power disruption, this time from--"

Geordi's voice interrupted on all their combadges from engineering as the open channel Janeway had ordered on all of them for Avalonii's benefit chittered into frustrated life..

"There aren't any... nanites onboard, are there? Right?"

Janeway heard him ask B'Elanna remotely.  
::Nannites?:: Then she saw the truth of it on Kirk's face through the reddish gloom of the emergency battery lighting.

Data moved from his place at the tactical station in the ward and played rapid fingers over the computer controls, calling up its battery reserve and isolating its functioning from the new threat even while he learned about it. "Nannites are confirmed.  
Reading a single colony of fifty thousand currently migrating from Cargobay 2 to the aft half of Voyager's computer main frame." he reported. "Being immersed is having no effect on their functioning."

Janeway glanced down when a hand suddenly grasped her own. It was Doctor Pel. "Go.  
I'll be fine here. Something you should know about Vidiians is that we aren't so emotionally effected by emotional grief as are humans.  
I'll be up on my feet and back at work with those Borg bioweapon nanoprobes you wanted me to reexamine in a few minutes."

Unconsciously, Janeway glanced up at Troi, who was seated near Denara. The counselor subtly nodded a confirmation on Dr. Pel's statement.

"Fair enough. Just know that I'm here for you.  
We all are. The EMH included as you well know." and she moved off to accompany Data and Kirk to learn more from Voyager's spotty internal sensors.

Deanna joined Dr. Crusher keeping watch over Seven of Nine's biobed to where she had been moved from the floor. "Beverly.  
Unlike the Enterprise and the time Wesley's lab nannites got out, Voyager's crew seems unconcerned by this new outbreak into the ship's systems. I wonder why.."

Dr. Crusher looked up from where she had recalibrated Seven's biomonitor to local cell power built into the bed to compensate for the loss of main power in sickbay. Her face glowed red in the eerie lighting and her eyes seemed very large in the scarlet semi darkness. "Computer,  
panel lights online display. All stations.."  
she ordered.

Sickbay's lighting improved as wall panel after wall panel ringing sickbay lit up into their desktop ready displays and their lilac, pink, purple, gold and blue graphics illustrations.

##Requested parameter is established#  
the computer warbled. Then it slipped into a new mode. ##Self Defense sentry has been enabled in sickbay. Level One.##

"What?!" Crusher shouted.

Her call immediately drew the attentions of Kirk, Janeway, Ardra, the EMH, Data, Alexander, Yar, Holozimm, Moriarty, McCoy and the Countess up sharply.

Bones McCoy shouted. "What the devil??"

A high tech mean looking apparatus suddenly lowered from the high raised dome in the ceiling and a white sphere inset into its base suddenly crackled with blue staticky power, writhing with barely contained, raw lightning.

Data quickly gave findings. "The sentry has been remotely activated from the main computer core. Its targetting sensors have been configured to automatically strike 8472 biosignatures.."

"What the bloody h*ll does that mean?" Dr. McCoy said from Seven's biobed. He had hastily erected a protective portable forcefield around Seven's still sleeping form and had thrown himself across her torso instinctively until it was out of line of sight with the sentry guard's targetting globe.

Janeway's eyes shot to the main bulkheads as a new person entered sickbay. "Harry! Look out!  
The autoguard's been enabled by nannites!"

Mr. Kim got about two feet inside the main doors when a bolt of azure fire shot out and connected with his body, throwing him with considerable force into one wall. The ensign didn't make a sound as he collapsed, motionless where he had been flung, upright and seated like a hideous smoking marionette.

Dr. Crusher, the EMH and Kirk dove for the downed ensign, suddenly realizing THEY weren't in any danger.  
They began using their own bodies as shields to hide Kim from the guard.

Janeway, with a shock, realized what had happened.  
"D*mn. The sentry must've picked up on the remnant 8472 cells still left in his system from the time when he was infected with biocells in our first encounter with Species 8472. It must have read the antibodies his bloodstream created from them."

She glanced over her shoulder. "Data! Help us drag him into the EMH's office. That transparent aluminum's impervious to the autoguard weapon."

She barely got an equipment cart in front of them before another series of ozone stinking bolts erupted into their direction, trying to connect with Kim once more. They harmlessly hit the metal of the cart, now in the way, just barely.

Doctor Pel jumped from her biobed and ran to a lab locker and keyed it open. From inside,  
she snatched up a couple of test tubes of 8472 blood samples that had been cryo stored there from earlier years and threw them,  
one by one, at the sentry in an attempt to move its target lock from Harry's position.

The guard's aim was changed, and it blew up each flying tube target, once it cleared Denara's grip, identifying them all, as enemy.

Data quickly sprinted across sickbay and snatched Harry up into a shoulder carry and got him to safety behind the thick office transparency divider.

The others followed them into the office while the EMH detoured to get an emergency medkit from a wall compartment.

Data carefully eased Ensign Kim back onto the deck with the aid of the others, onto his back,  
being mindful of his burns and internal injuries.

Out in the ward, the sentry guard remained primed and sparking, but it no longer offered bolts of lightning into their direction. Harry was effectively screened and the 8472 biosignatures coming from Ensign Kim, were now masked. The autoguard dimmed soon afterwards, seemingly content at having destroyed those DNA samples presented by Denara.

Lt. Yar and Captain Kirk immediately countered with phaser fire and got through the guard's shields and thoroughly disabled it into ruin as they finally figured out that a modulating phase variance got through. Both ceased their fire towards the ceiling when the activation light on the guard went out.

The computer, inappropriately, called for a red alert in response and that made all heads in engineering look up to the vid link showing sickbay.

"Thank god that thing wasn't double barrelled."  
Kirk muttered, from his place pressed against the office doorframe. "Or we never would have gotten him in here in one piece." he grinned.

A strangled voice cut through their triumph.

"Captain! Hurry! Harry has gone.." Deanna Troi sobbed from where she had unconsciously crouched behind a monitor.

Everyone looked down and their smiles dropped away. Beneath their hands, Harry was turning blue.

Janeway hastily gripped Harry's throat, checking him. "Doctors. He's lost a carotid pulse."

Grimly, Data started very careful, controlled CPR while Janeway gingerly began the task of breathing for Harry, finally getting past the dicey decision to monkey with his neck bones' alignment to secure a clear airway.

Dr. Crusher and the EMH got set a cortical stimulator and tricorder tie-in and both scrambled to find a hypospray of cordrazine under in the red gloom of the lights in the half minute Data and the Voyager captain bought for them .

Janeway looked up from her hold on Harry's face in between a ventilation set. "There's damage here. I can't get much volume into him." she gasped, wiping away blood that welled up out of his mouth with her free hand, before she bent down once again, continuing her efforts to get air deep inside Harry's lungs.

The holodoc waggled his head.  
"Hang on. Keep going. Some oxygen is better than none. We'll deal with that detail later. Right now, Mr. Kim needs to be converted. Data, that's perfect, you aren't making his injuries worse with those compressions." the EMH said taking a fast reading on how effective a support they were gaining for Harry with his tricorder.

He waited for the telltale neural synapse peak to show, from the newly begun resuscitation attempt at the first minute mark. The cyanotic blue tinge in Harry's hands and lips retreated as Janeway and Data fell into effective rhythm.

The holodoc nodded when a bleeping told him Harry was shockable.  
"Now,.... you two stand back. We're ready to stim his cerebral cardiac reflex."  
and he hissed the hypo of powerful medication into the hollow of Harry's throat and toggled on the cortical device Dr. Crusher had placed on the Ensign's forehead.

Beverly read her own tricorder. "We'll try fifty megajoules. With those injuries, anything stronger will exacerbate them. Concur?" she asked the EMH.

"Whole heartedly. Ten milligrams cordrazine is in. Now, Dr. Crusher." the holodoc ordered.

"Easy..." Janeway said unthinkingly,  
as she watched with her hands held away, as Beverly delivered the computerized jolt to Kim from her tricorder.

The EMH read his own. ""No pulse. No blood pressure. Minimal activity in the midbrain..."  
he sighed in frustration. "Now why does Starfleet always have to make their little toys so lethal?!"

Janeway cleared what she could of the blood in Harry's windpipe with another breath,  
while the cortical unit recharged. ::It's getting harder to do this. He's drowning in blood.::

Data got in another few seconds compressions on his end, too, until the holodoc waved them off.

The doctor didn't hesitate, "Again." Another energy surge was delivered.

A fluting tone started sounding on Bev's scan. She could barely contain her smile, "Doc, we're getting a thready pulse."

"Quickly! Seventy five milligrams ineprovoline!" the EMH shouted.

The lifesign tones were music to Kirk's ears. He stood immobile, holding his breath.

Janeway held tighter to Harry's head, still being Kim's manual supply of air, giving him regular breaths, all the while willing the young ensign to come back to them.

Very soon, Kathryn heard a ragged bubbling gasp begin from him as Kim attempted to inhale. "Got him here too." she said, rising up, suddenly not wanting to touch him much for fear of interfering with his recovery.

"All right, turn him onto his side...."  
the EMH said...and added hastily when he felt Data and the captain did so too fast,  
"CAREfully!!" he snapped. "I'm reading a thoracic spine fracture, a ruptured spleen and left pulmonary lobe. We'll drain those lungs of blood in surgery. Mr. Data, you keep him immobilized.  
Just like you're doing. The back break is right by your hands."

"Did we harm him much by moving him?" Janeway said, looking up in alarm at the doctors.

"We had no choice. It was tackle and run or complete char and carrion for Mr. Kim. We'll do better than the Fabrini book average to regrow those nerve endings once we've repaired his vertebrae. You're forgetting, we've an ace up our sleeves that most sickbays simply don't have.  
We've Seven on our side remember?  
She turned Neelix the corpse into Neelix the cook again with her charming Frankensteinian medical nanoprobes. I'm sure her tiny vanguards can turn the trick for Harry's organ repair here too without any problems." he said, threading an airway into Harry's throat so his breathing could pick up on its own...

Janeway sagged onto her butt, holding soiled hands up away from herself as she let the stress of the moment pass. "That's a relief. I won't have my ship successfully maiming and murdering a member of my crew. Very bad for a captain's reputation."

"Not to mention, mine.." the EMH said.  
"It happened in my sickbay..!!"

A moment later, Kathryn accepted both water and a towel from Crusher, so she could rinse her mouth and wash the gore from her palms.  
Dr. Pel came rushing in from the outer ward.  
"The bioflag system's out off this deck and the others in engineering are demanding to know Harry's condition..." A glance told her the crisis was over. She waved two medtechs into the office to float an antigrav for Kim inside.

"I got it..I'll fill them in." Janeway said. She looked at Kirk.  
"You make sure Voyager can't take a chunk out of our hides in any other way, captain.  
Torres will help you find and thwart those possibilities. This new Geordi might be able to help out on that too."

Denara Pel moved aside so Janeway could get to the viewer vid on the far wall.

Kathryn could see a ring of tight faces in the pickups, intently watching sickbay and the heads they couldn't see from their perspective, of the holodoc's office.

Annoyed and coming down from Harry's close call, she told the computer to stand down red alert. She let Data handle the security personnel who called into sickbay asking what the alarm was about.

Chakotay noticed the blood on Kathryn's face. "You hurt?"

"No."

"How's Harry?"

"Stable. We managed to get him back."

"He was that bad?" Chakotay's asked,  
eyes widening. "Didn't know. The bioflag monitor's out."

"Uh huh. And I'd give two months worth of coffee privileges to find out what ELSE is out because of those escaped nannites.  
What are they up to?" Janeway sighed,  
suddenly fighting a headache she didn't know she had. ::I certainly didn't get one from light glare. These battery reds are hardly cutting the darkness..:: her mind complained. "And I'll just bet those transporters went out because of them too."

Chakotay was thoughtful. "You know something...."

"What?.. I'm not in the mood for guessing games, Chakotay. Never am when I'm forced to perform CPR on one of my crew because of a computer mishap!"

"Maybe we aren't under attack or in any danger."  
came his quiet reply.

"Oh? Pray tell.. Harry's on his way to a surgical biobed right now..I'd say the danger to us is still QUITE real commander.." she snapped.

"Hear me out Kathryn. The transporters worked for K'Ehleyr when she had to get to me in the turboshaft. The computer and power levels were fine, then."

"Yeah?" Janeway said sarcastically rubbing the silver towel over her face in an attempt to scrub away all coppery scented reminders of Harry's rescue off her skin. "Doesn't track now,  
does it? The computer bullseyed Harry just fine without any trouble with the sickbay autoguard..."

"But only because his life scan indicated 8472 traces, Kathryn.."

She sighed in a huff in high irritation. "We're running circles here, Chakotay. Get Torres to work with Kirk and Geordi to make sure Voyager can't off us by any other method those nannites might dream up. And I want it done yesterday! Janeway out.."  
and she ended her audio to engineering.

Chakotay didn't resume his voice tie,  
respecting her desire for time to regroup and recupe. She regarded Chakotay's eyes as he stared into her own through the vid image. But as she oversaw the doctors operating on Kim, his little nagging idea clung inside her thoughts. Clinging tightly.

::Like a tiny metal woodtick parasite.  
No, wait a minute. Maybe he's onto something here. Maybe these nannites aren't the parasites we think they are. Maybe they've an alterior motive. An alterior motive... to be an ally:  
Janeway mulled. ::Maybe they overheard me talking to Dr. Pel to redevelop those bioweapon nanoprobes, in case the Albino Species 8472 faction decided to get invasive into our Space,  
and collectively came up with that autoguard defense against that kind of DNA trace.. They're only newly released and so they can only protect starship wide at this point. Perhaps the Darren's arrival was the trigger for them to mobilize. They sensed then that outside help was finally coming to deal with my trial situation.::

McCoy had long ago freed up Seven from his cocoon of personal flesh and field and was giving her a hypo to hasten her return to wakefulness. "Time to get up again.  
This time it's a Harry Kim you need to fix,  
not just shutting down your alcove's armory." then he looked up. "Say,...."  
he said to the room at large. "Do you think it was the nannites who fired up Seven's alcove and caused the Darren to catch fire with its defensive shielding, by accident?"  
he asked, looking to Janeway.

The Voyager captain didn't reply, only being dimly aware that the older doctor had hit upon the same thought she had thought of just a moment earlier.

Janeway moved to Seven's bed and tossed the towel away before Seven of Nine would see the blood and inquire. ::Time to activate the universal translator. Power from unused decks can be rerouted to drive its energy usage.:: She tapped her combadge.  
"Computer.. Activate the Universal translator to your mainframe in a direct tie in with cargobay two and those areas of your memory showing currently infested with nannites. Implement..."

##W-Working...## came the hesitant machine reply.  
##Established link will commence in five point three four minutes.##

Data piped up from his place back at the computer relay to engineering. "Captain. If I may offer to link up to--"

"Denied.." Janeway said immediately.

"But Captain.."

"No. You are alive and therefore not in the category for risk taking with a nannite unknown. The universal translator, however, is just a program. That can be rewritten in case of failure.." Janeway said evenly. Her eyes never left Seven's as they fluttered open.

Bones leaned over Seven of Nine and snapped his fingers, until he saw her eyes blink reflexively because of their nearness to her face. "Ah,  
there you are. First things first my dear. We need some of your biomorbidity preventative nanoprobes and secondarily, a few others you might need to dream up to fend against wild computer core infesting nannites."

"Specify more detail.." Seven asked McCoy.

Janeway didn't even smile. She was far from feeling those emotions. Before Bones could reply she interrupted. "In short. Harry needs internal repair and so does the computer. Both have been targetted by nannites."

"For or against us?" Seven asked.

"Too soon to tell. We were hoping you could help us with that.." Janeway said. "The universal translator's online, getting set, and Dr. McCoy here's ready to play vampire to get a sample of your blood."

Seven answered through action. She held out her arm so the healer could draw out the nanoagents needed for Ensign Kim when she was done instructing her central node to build them. "But I will need time to design a counter agent against the nannites should they prove hostile, captain. Only careful study will determine their primary objectives."

"All right. You've got that assignment. Grab anyone you feel will be able to help you with that."  
Janeway said. "Try using Holozimm. He's untried,  
but a walking Starfleet Headquarters classified database. Perhaps he's aware of new things we don't yet know."

Seven gave a nod and left the biobed once McCoy had gotten the blood draw completed.

Janeway was very disillusioned and it showed. In a subtle protest, she crumbled up her water cup and threw it at the shattered autoguard above her. It bounced off, sending a rain of ash down towards the carpet, some of which she caught in one hand absently. ::No nannites.:: she concluded. ::At least, they aren't up there anymore.::

Deanna Troi spoke as if clairvoyant. "It's hard to judge an unseen potential enemy. And you have two going at the same moment Captain."

Janeway startled, looking up at the dark eyed counselor she hadn't seen coming in the red lit darkness.  
"How do you mean?"

"Potentially, you've been attacked from two angles today;  
from the Albino Justice and his trial charges from Fluidic Space, and now from your ship's own computer abilities from the nannites."

"That second angle is unverified Troi.." Janeway said, brushing the sentry's ash off of her palm.

"Exactly. And even the first one might have a way to the exit door. A not guilty verdict." Deanna reasoned.

Janeway cast an ironic eye at Ardra, who seemed still lost in her computer studies, as unconcerned by events surrounding Harry as she was the poor lighting around her. "With Ardra, that's a task bordering on the impossible counselor."

"Never say die.. You didn't with Ensign Kim. So don't do it now.." Deanna Troi said levelly. "Or you'll become as lost as this ship once was, forever..."

-  
(attachments)

Image: A passed out burned Kim leaning against the wall

Image: Janeway and Seven of Nine looking up in horror from a tactical console on a darkened bridge

*animated gif* An EKG in white on maroon, tracing a sinus normal rythym.

Image: Dr. Crusher scanning with her medical tricorder.

Image: Mr. Data looking down at something in a medium shot.

Image: Dr. McCoy operating on someone in a surgical field.

Gif: A table showing Bone's medical pouch hypo and components.

Gif: A computer panel display outlining neural cortex activity.

Gif: A datapadd, an engineering one, lit and lying on a table.

*  
From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Tiny Vigilantes~~ Date : Wed, 02 Oct 2002 20:19:32 +0000

Lt. Yar was still aiming her tricorder at the autoguard,  
making sure its demise was a certain one while keeping the other eye on Harry's lifescan to ensure that he wouldn't meet his own. She began to relax by centimeters when McCoy began humming during his surgery to repair Harry with Seven's nanoprobes.  
She finally holstered her scanner and made her way over to where Holozimm and Moriarty and the lady Regina were working on a power and grid isolated computer near Ardra to carry out Captain Janeway's orders. Tasha asked Holozimm, "Anethesthezine canisters offline?"

"That was the first computer autofunction I disabled.  
Not that there were many left in the ventilation shafts still in their housing. Our flooding was forceful."  
Holozimm said. "I also locked gravity to one earth normal so we won't get squashed by any upsurges,  
frozen the heating elements so we can't get cooked,  
and sent the security guards to watch the main cargo and shuttle bay doors so the computer can't release the outer hull hatches on Voyager for a great flood repeat and changed the conductivity of the metal bulkheads around any lifesign so no more ceiling sentrys can operate remotely."

Tasha grinned at the hologram in the white lab coat.  
"Seems like you got all the bases covered."

"Not yet. I'm setting all remote deck holoemitters to just enhance ourselves, " he said indicating the Professor,  
himself, Regina and the holodoc. "...only so we can't be fooled into doing something to harm ourselves."

Tasha frowned. "What about the ship's autodestruct?"

Holozimm jerked a finger over his shoulder to where Kirk and Data had already taken out the main relay junction behind a sickbay terminal which led the route to the matter/antimatter containment pods. "Any impulse from the computer won't get there about THAT either.  
We've just severed the only way that kind of command can travel."

"What's left for Torres to do?" Yar smiled.

"That's her dilemma madaam.." Moriarty sighed,  
rubbing his hands together. "Now. I've been studying this rendering.." he said pointing to the display of the computer core and of Cargobay 2 where the nannites electrical cohesion fields were manifesting. "The nannites growth seems to have been stopped. Not by us. But by them."

"What are they up to?" Tasha whispered. She waved Data near to come and see what Moriarty had discovered.

Data's head angled. "Curious. They're clustered around the communications isolinear connections."

Tasha's eyes got bigger. "Think they caught on to Janeway's activation of the universal translator?"

"Perhaps.." Kirk said from behind them. He had been watching with his arms folded in front of himself.  
He tapped his combadge. =^=Kirk to the nannites inside Voyager's computer core and internal power grid. Please designate yourselves and your intentions to the shipwide comm frequencies band.=^=

Static erupted around sickbay and, from what Kirk could see from the visual tie in to Deck fifteen,  
it was happening in engineering too.

Kirk went on, while the others worked quietly securing vital systems or stood rapt, listening for anything to resolve in the hissing chaos in their ears. "Nannites.  
Your activities have mistakenly labelled a crew member as a hostile. Analyze Ensign Harry Kim's biolife sign.  
He's human with only immuno 8472 biocell signatures.  
Your activating the autoguard, almost ended his life."

The hissing remained the same, growing louder, until Data was forced to lower the volume. Holozimm looked up from his side of the computer console showing nannite locations. "Keep talking captain." Holozimm suggested.  
"Like in any first race contact, the universal translator needs time to find corollaries of syntax and meaning to arrange a link between our lingual commonalities...I am beginning to see a meeting of the minds here. Already, there are regular patterns being formed by Voyager's lights on other decks."

Kirk eyed the ceiling and every visual pickup active in sickbay. He turned to face one of them. "Nannites.  
I am a member of the ship body you are trying to manipulate. Direct your attention to the video sensor nearest me, so we can....talk. You must cease carrying out your agenda, before your blind attempts to master Voyager's systems, is completed. You meant well, arming the autoguard. But it backfired and a man almost died because of you.."

The hissing grew higher pitched and suddenly, the lighting over McCoy and Harry's surgical biobed brightened into day normal. Bones and Dr. Crusher grunted in appreciation at the end of their poor visibility into the ensign's surgery field.  
"Keep it up captain." Beverly said. "Maybe you can sweet talk them into giving us our dermal and ossicular regenerator power back. These hand tools are taking too long. The bioarch would do a faster job.."

Kirk held up a hand for her to keep silent to allow the hidden nannite colony to find him by voice without confusion.. "Working on it doctor.  
Let them come to me first."

Janeway spoke from where she stood, freezing into place as she too eyed the ceiling and surrounding com panels winking around them for any kind of response. "Troi.. anything?"

"They are machine life captain. I can't get any empathic sense from them at all. I'm sorry.." Deanna replied.

Then, Ardra gave a cry of dismay when her library terminal suddenly began scrolling at very high speed through the category index of everything non classified in Voyager's database. "For crying out loud.." she complained. She was about to recommit her search parameter for her court case studies when Kirk pushed her hands away.

"No Ardra. It's the nannites. Not a power malfunction.  
Look at the subject matter they've chosen to locate." Kirk smiled.

Ardra read the screen. "Vocal synthesizer interface maps on board Intrepid class starships..." she squinted in the dim lighting. "...and..tribble psi abilities?"

Bones began to cackle from where he worked on Harry. "Well hannah in a hand basket!" he exclaimed.  
"Looks like my adopted pet's going to be an ambassador."

Janeway didn't grin. She toggled a switch to internal sensors and located the place where Tom Paris stood.

In his hands, was the tribble mother. Imagine his surprise when it began speaking through a glowing field that suddenly appeared around it from the pattern enhancers left switched on by the engineering away team. "So how's my little fur ball. You look like a drowned rat, yes you do.." he cooed to it, thinking he was in some privacy away from the others working in engineering. Tom almost dropped it when it answered his baby talking.

%%Drowned rrrrraaaattttt%%

Kirk hit a second comlink to the startled Lt.  
"Mr. Paris. Don't be alarmed. We've been trying out the universal translator on the loose nannite colony. Looks like it found a way to communicate and it's through that tribble only,  
so far.."

Tom began to chuckle. "Captain...is this some kind of joke? I mean I can see Holozimm or even Barclay rigging this up to lift our spirits down here after Harry's close call. Tribbles can't speak..."

"Lieutenant..." Kirk said, no nonsense. "Does it sound like I'm joking?"

Tom regarded Kirk's image suddenly flicked to his screen, and the image of Janeway standing arms crossed, totally captain behind him, which gave Paris a strong hint that he wasn't. In a second,  
Tom was all business. "Ok... Looks like this tribble's ramblings gets stronger the nearer I move to the pattern enhancer triangle we've got set up down here." and he moved an engineering stool inside the pattern field and set the tribble down on it until it was fully in the signal capturing area and backed away. Torres, on the other side of the room,  
looked up from her work, showing Geordi a listing of Voyager's what if's concerning automated attacks when she doubletaked what her husband was doing. She ambled quietly through the red glowing lights to his side, until she, too,  
could see the tribble, on the stool, in the blue glow of the pattern enhancers. "What are you doing? Has the mother tribble suddenly captured your art sense like a rare dusty old Picasso?"

"Shhh.." Paris hissed. "It's the captains say they've hit upon the idea of using a link between the universal translator and the innate psi ability in Mama over there."

"You've got to be kidding.." Torres grunted.

But then the hissing on the audios faded and the purring transfixed tribble arched its round back until its fur stood out on all ends.  
The sight was so odd, that B'Elanna's mouth flopped open and she waved Geordi and Riker over to witness what she and Tom were seeing.

The tribble's coat began ossilating in patterns of waves and grids until the individual hairs settled into a uniform spread like the head of a dandelion gone to seed. Then the "speaking" began again.  
%%Drownnneeddd rraaatttttt. D-d.. Downedd areee sorrryyy forrr the hurtttt done to liffeeeeformmm EnsignKimHarry%%

Kirk barged closer to his sickbay visual pickup and his nearby view into engineering. He barked an order. "Computer. Isolate and enhance visual grid..." he waved a gimee hand at Janeway..

"Uh,...Beta nine seventeen..." she replied.

Kirk nodded thanks and the widened view of engineering switched to a closeup of the tribble in the pattern triangle field on the stool. He spread his hands knowing that he now was being understood by the nannites.  
And it didn't matter how bizarrely that was happening. "Nannites.. Why have you chosen to act inside this starship out of your holding chambers? The flooding which freed you, was accidental. It was because..."

The nannites voices through the tribble and the computer voice synth resonators interrupted him..%%Otherrr liffeeee came. Other wateerrsss burn ussss and so wwee proteccctt the homme placceeee..%%

Tom frowned. "You mean that when the 8472 rebels came and brought the fetal embryos with them,  
that Fluidic Space not only filled engineering,  
it filled the stasis chambers holding the nannite colony too?"

%%yeesss thatttt is the trueeeee tellinggg.  
We joinnnnnnn the actiionnnnnn to savveeee the homeplacceeeee. Thhee homme nett is ourrr eyeesss and earsss and limbsss to act..%%

Janeway's mouth tightened. "They didn't know what they were doing when they activated the auto sentry. They were simply trying to help."

The nannites spoke again, through the cooing creature on the stool. %%Wweee gooo to thhhee buurrrnnninggg placcceee to biitttee backkkk%%

All color washed from everyone's faces when they realized what the nannites were going to do.

"No!~! " Barclay shouted from his place in engineering. A new glow inside the pattern enhancers started up as the nannites powered up the transporter site to site link there.  
"They're going to Fluidic Space to launch an attack of their own!!! I'm reading a dimensional doorway forming.."

He and Torres, Geordi and Holozimm, all from their respective terminals, tried to stop the dimensional gate from forming.  
To no avail.

A sparkling colony of nannites appeared,  
suspended inside the engineering pattern enhancer field triangle pylons, in a writhing silver blob of agitation, like a swarm of angry bees. Then a power surge pushed the tribble mother out of the way while Fluidic Space blossomed inside the transporter energy envelope they had enabled.  
%%Foorrrrr Voyaaggeerrrr Homeeplaccee!!%%

And they disappeared in a peach plasma fire as the bubble of Fluidic Space accepted their passage into the other realm. And they were gone.

The triangle blue glowing field of the pattern enhancer grid, sputtered and went dead.

Likewise, all Voyager's systems snapped into normal modes as if the power blackout had never occurred. All the computer grids were showing the UPF symbol of starfleet on every screen and under them, the words in standard, "For the Federation.."

"Track them!!" came Janeway's voice from sickbay.

"I can't!! " Holozimm answered. "They've completely phased into Fluidic Space.  
Voyager's sensors can't get a lock onto them there."

A hollow pit in Yar's stomach deepened when she realized the import of what was happening.  
She turned to Kirk. "Sir.. How much damage can nannites do over there? I mean, they need machines to manipulate their environment and Fluidic Space doesn't have any."

Kirk sighed in heavy frustration. "We don't know that 8472 society is totally biological.  
That was an assumption made by Starfleet heads. Purely theoretical."

Janeway's mind raced. "What if they've gone to attack the Albino Justices in their court harbor? They'll do more harm than good."

She leaned in on the computer console and shut down all the images of the symbol of Federation strength. "I don't want any more killing on my hands."

"Just what do you suppose we do then captains?"  
Yar asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine lieutenant."  
"Don't know.." answered both Janeway and Captain Kirk somberly.

Tom's voice came over the engineering pickups.  
"Let's send the tribble over there. At least,  
she can be a voice modulator for the Justices so they know why their domain's being invaded by independent machine life. That way, we won't get any blame if a war breaks out on a new front line."

He held out the mother tribble he had retrieved from the floor. He was comforting her with affectionate scratches from the shove she had received from the departing nannite colony. "Anyone have a better suggestion?" Paris sighed. "If not, then this will be the first away mission, crewed solely by a tribble, in history.."

-  
(attachment)

*animated gif* Kirk getting rained on by tribbles from above.

Image: A promotion of Yar Troi Crusher standing by the center seat in serious poses.

**********************************

From : "Cory Anda" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] The Affliction of Youth Date : Fri, 04 Oct 2002 14:34:40 +0000

He held out the mother tribble he had retrieved from the floor. He was comforting her with affectionate scratches from the shove she had received from the departing nannite colony. "Anyone have a better suggestion?" Paris sighed. "If not, then this will be the first away mission, crewed solely by a tribble, in history.."

"Not solely, lieutenant.." came a deep baritone.

The visual pickups to engineering widened for those in sickbay until it included the speaker.

"Ambassador?" Tom acknowledged, clearly befuddled.

Spock rose from his engineering terminal and walked to Paris until he was next to the dripping soggy helmsman and held out his hand open palmed.

"Oh.." and Tom hastened to give the tribble to the tall Vulcan. "Of course.. But , uh.  
Spock, what do you mean by "Not solely?" "  
He had to speak up asking his question because the soggy tribble was purring so loudly at Spock in affection, that it was necessary to raise a little vocal volume. "Shhh.." he hushed to it.

The tribble mother piped down, but didn't stop her vocal serenade.

Spock glanced up at the viewer to make sure Janeway and Kirk were listening to him from sickbay. "You are forgetting about the ingenuity of my old colleague, Mr. Scott." he said, carefully placing mind probing fingers over the tribble's round body. He took a brief reading of the tribble's state of mind and emotion. "The tribble is unharmed."

Kirk was very quick, his instincts sharpened by the heightened potentially dangerous situation the nannites had instigated. "I see what you're up to Spock. Very clever.."

Tom was clueless, but Bones, over his surgery, began grinning. "Spock you old dog.. gonna use that probe of Scotty's again? What was it called,  
Bit?"

"Byte..." Barclay corrected, and he immediately bit a knuckle for interrupting the senior officers' discussion. But no one seemed to notice Reg's fax paux.

Janeway's knowhow finally connected. "Ahh,  
I see.." she said significantly, "Montgomery's probe was an interface between holographic and androidal systems when we were fighting the fire at Starfleet Headquarters. We used that ability to determine facts about Holozimm's creation during the investigation into Troi's mysterious attack. I assume you mean to use just half that equation this time Spock? Leaving Commander Data at home?"

"Precisely, captain." Spock agreed, raising both of his eyebrows and he glanced at Data from where he stood in sickbay on the viewer. "I am proposing we send, as is logical, the tribble to be the nannites speaking medium to the Albino 8472 faction, but also the holograms with Byte, to act as potential mediators to stave off any future miscomprehension or any retalitory action on the part of Species 8472,  
should the nannites become seriously diligent in their want to end the Justice's power over your situation. "

"Talk about your situation reversals, Spock."  
Janeway sighed. "Now we're the ones with clout in that courtroom, however unintentional it is."  
Her face didn't show amusement, nor relief.  
But her worry did lessen just a shade. "Self appointed champions to my cause?" she mumbled to herself. "And should we run with it?"  
she whispered.

Chakotay spoke up from engineering to Kathryn in sickbay through the visual link. "Captain?"

"Nothing, Chakotay. Just rambling to myself."  
she replied while rubbing her chin. Then, with more confidence, she said, "Mr. Barclay. Make it happen."

Barclay nodded a heads up to Torres. He hadn't missed the slight lifting of spirits in Voyager's captain.  
"Right. I'll get right on it. One surveillance hoverprobe to hologram interface, coming right up." and Reg raised an 'Are you in this too?' glance at Geordi to follow him to the master control panel. "Byte is in sickbay, hovering near Moriarty,Regina and Holozimm. Sending a query for it to rejoin us in engineering." the sandy haired lieutenant stated.

Tom Paris was suddenly distracted. His restlessness about not being able to help the others much finally boiled over. He muttered. "B'Elanna. There's nothing I can do here in engineering any more. All systems are back online and I'd only be in the way of you calibrating the propulsion systems and diagnostics checks. Excuse me darling.. Captains.. Lieutenants,  
and all..." he said to everyone in engineering.  
"I feel like visiting Harry all of the sudden.."  
and he left engineering through the main bulkheads.

Something of his tone sent a wave of apprehension in all the officers. Uncertainty. Doubt. Rippling unspoken in everyone's mind. ::What if our attempt to put a brake on the nannite endeavor fails? What if the Albinos come screaming into Sector Zero Zero One full of righteous vengeance at yet another genocidal incident? What if?:: Reg thought privately to himself.

The awkward silence which prevailed in engineering and sickbay at the helmsman's departure was broken when the doors opened again to emit Byte into the main room. It immediately floated to hover over Spock and Barclay. Reg stabbed a finger at a particular place on his console which had a scanning interface, without looking up. Byte blipped a few electronic bleeps and settled down to the spot the lieutenant had indicated.

Spock hit his combadge.  
=^=Ambassador Spock to Moriarty, Regina and Holozimm.  
Report to engineering at once. We're staging an away mission for you into Fluidic Space.=^=

Moriarty's voice sparkled on the com system and the visual pickup on the tie in between sickbay and engineering focused on the holoexvillian's face. "Oh? How interesting. We're on our way. I'll fill in the Countess on away mission protocols.  
Sickbay out."

Spock set the tribble down on the console next to Byte while he powered up the pattern enhancer triangle once more to the coordinates the nannites had instructed the computer to provide.

The sharp energetic buzz of the field's blue made the tribble quiver in anticipation.

"Easy girl..." Reg said. "You'll get your chance soon enough. " he soothed, stroking her soft brown coat. "We've got to do a few things here first.."

-----------------------------------------------------------

Tom Paris made it to sickbay through blissfully normal looking decks. Even the turbolifts had been autodrained and set back online. ::Well,  
with the exception of the one smashed to bits on Deck Fifteen, following its attempt to squash Commander Chakotay into a pancake when the power went out.::

He nodded to Kirk, Janeway, et al but made straight for Harry's bedside.

Surgery was over and Harry fully repaired and hydrated. He even had been washed clean and warmed by the now working medical arch stretching over him. He lay beneath a silver sheet, dozing.

Tom Paris flipped around a sickbay chair nearest Kim's head and sat down, his medic's eye analyzing his friend's condition. Then he smacked a gentle tap to Harry's bare shoulder. "Hey... Harry... You awake?"

Kim groaned and his forehead furrowed in sudden sleepy interruption. Tom recognized the look of someone being interrupted from a very vivid dream. ". Who wants to know?"  
and Harry drew in a strong sigh, coughing experimentally. Then one eye cracked open.  
"Tom? Shouldn't you be in engineering with B'Elanna, scrambling to get the warp core and impulse engines on line for the "Big Lift" attempt when the Neptune and Caduceus get here? Oww..." he squinted, throwing an arm over his eyes when he realized full normal power was restored. "And kick those overheads down, will you?" and Harry tried to roll over to resume his nap.

"Ohhhhh no you don't. When someone pays a call at your bedside. It's courtesy to carry on a conversation saying things like, how glad I am you came, and thanks for the flowers and datacard...." he hinted.

Harry didn't pull his arm down from over his eyes.  
In fact, he peeled loose a long snoring breath.

Tom could see on Harry's monitor that his ensign buddy wasn't even close to sleep.

"Nice try. But the machines see all Harry. And I'm not going anywhere else until you talk to me."

"Hmmm.." grunted Kim. "Man. Was I having some dream. I mean, you and I were on the holodeck see? In one of our old Captain Proton holonovels.  
We were fighting a hostile takeover of our rocket's systems by microgerms. Heh." he chuckled.  
"Anyway. I got blasted by a ray gun or something and then, when I woke up. I was being kissed by Queen Arachnia.. Eoowww..."

Tom reached over and pulled off Kim's arm from his face affectionately as he toggled the light over Harry's biobed down to a dimmer glow. "That was no dream Harry. That raygun was the sickbay autoguard and those microgerms were nannites escaped from Cargobay 2.  
And that wasn't kissing Harry. Captain Janeway and Data had to resusitate you when your injuries made your heart stop. She was the one locked lip to lip with you for about three minutes until the docs got you going again." he jibbed.

"What??!!" Kim sputtered. His face flushed a very deep red and his mortification showed also on his biomonitor. Tom was pleased as punch when Harry's low blood pressure suddenly peaked into the normal range faster than anything.

Bones McCoy looked up from the data chart he was marking to shoot eyes up at the ensign's readings. He immediately grinned when he realized the probable cause of Harry's embarrassment.

Tom didn't grin at all as he pulled up the sheet around Harry's shoulders up just to have something useful to do. "Now don't go thinking that way Harry. There's a big difference between kissing and mouth to mouth resusitation. Next, I guess you'll blush because Data was fondling your chest."

Kim shot Paris a sarcastic look and glowered.

"That's better." Paris said. "Didn't think that image would bother you at all. And the first one shouldn't have mattered either so stop your blushing.. Would you have minded if Data had been the one in her place?"

"No, he's an android. " Harry said empathetically.

"Uh huh.. And do you think the captain was thinking anything other than the business at hand while trying to revive you?"

Again, Harry flushed and again, McCoy hid a tiny smirk from where he had one eye on their conversation.

Tom leaned in close to Harry's bed. "I'll let you in on a little secret Harry. Just because a person you admire helped you out doesn't mean it's something ELSE in a resusitative medical situation. Captain Janeway and Chakotay are an item. Correct?" he ventured, changing tact.

Harry's blush rose to new heights. "Tommm."  
he hissed, trying to make Paris pipe down. "Don't you think we should leave THAT particular subject matter alone? She might hear you.." he said,  
glancing at Janeway's back over on the other side of sickbay near where Kirk and she were talking to Barclay and Spock in engineering.

"I'm just trying to alleviate your blush Harry.  
And boost your vitals through a little constructive psychology. So give me brownie points for trying.."  
Paris drolled.

"I will.." Troi said suddenly, from her seat by the wall.

Tom and Harry jumped. They hadn't seen her observing them from around her sandwich eating session. They both stared deadpan at her significantly and Tom tapped his foot.

Troi's wide black eyes got even wider.  
"Oh. Sorry you two. It's just that the degree of the ensign's embarrassment flared up to such high levels that I couldn't help but notice it oc---" Deanna broke off and gave them a mousy wave turning her back to them to afford them the illusion of privacy.

It was Beverly's turn to grin at Deanna getting caught. She and McCoy traded amused grins about the whole affair.

Harry noticed them. "Oh. So why don't we broadcast this whole conversation to EVERYone in SICKbay?!" he said getting louder and louder..

"Ensign.. is there a problem?" Janeway said, suddenly arriving at the foot of Kim's bed.

Kim was mortified and drew the sheet up to his chin when he realized he had no clothes on under his very thin sheeting. "Uh, what? uh..No!...no. no no. Not at all. Captain. I uh, Tom here was just saying that I should be grateful that you were uh,...." Harry broke off.

Tom finished his unfinished statement.  
"So close at hand to save my life..." he prompted for Harry.

"Uh.." Kim peeped, willing away another blush.  
"Yeah. That."

Janeway tilted her head. "You getting a fever or something ensign? You look a bit flushed." she said,  
looking up at Harry's biomonitor with her hands on her hips.

Paris flicked it off before the captain could read the clear signs of embarrassment that were there in Kim's vital tracing.

Bones and the EMH looked up but didn't protest. They knew a face saving move when they saw one.

"Uh, he's fine captain. Kim's still coming out of anesthesia. Bound to be a little confused..."  
he said neutrally, but his eyes shot a significant warning at Harry to hush to save the show.  
"Causes that skin reddening too. Called erticaria.  
I know.. because I used to help out the doc all the time in surgery..." he concluded lamely. "And that sometimes happens in trauma fast healing cases like his.."

"Oh." Janeway said with discovery. "All right."  
She turned away to leave, but then turned back to add, "Glad you're awake Harry. You look a lot better than when you were spitting up blood into my face and mouth.."  
Kim struggled to keep his utter mortification from showing on his face as Kathryn leaned in and patted Harry on the shoulder. "Believe me, you're much cuter alive than dead ensign." she teased. "So don't gross out. I didn't."

And she marched serenely away from them, holding an admonishing finger in the air. "Tom Paris, you know better than to interrupt sickbay biotelemetry. Turn that monitor back on and Harry, I promise I won't tell about your unfortunate episode of 'erticaria' to another living soul..."

Paris waited for a few beats, then said,  
"How about that Harry? She thinks you're cute."

Kim waited until Captain Janeway was fully out of eyeshot before he delivered a sharp smack to Tom's arm. "Would you shut up?!"  
he hissed angrily.

"Oww!!" Paris complained, while he rubbed his sore spot. Then he started grinning.

Harry, still didn't. "I really hate that four letter word. And the fact the captain used it to describe me is even worse." he said slumping in pure distress.

Paris started parroting it. "Cute. cute. cute."  
He raised his voice. "Hey everyone.. The captain thinks Harry Kim's really c--"

Harry silenced his irritating crewmate with a ballistic sickbay pillow.

---------------------------------------------------------

Janeway was still grinning lightly to herself as she rejoined Kirk to stand in front of him and the others showing on the viewscreen to engineering.

The EMH asked. "Everything all right over there?"

"Everything is fine. Just an incident of.... extreme youth and an example of the clouded perceptions it can cause." she articulated, returning to her computer scans of Byte that Barclay and Spock were sending her.

"Were we ever that young?" Chakotay asked.

"Yes." came Janeway's immediate reply. Then she chuckled. "Just realized that Kim's gift of perpetual fresh youth over time served with his captain is still staggering."

Kirk smiled and shrugged. "Get him a girlfriend.  
Worked for me.."

"Or give him that promotion..." came a second voice from engineering.

Janeway rolled her eyes while Chakotay laughed.

Soon, everyone was lost in their work, readying the three holograms for their trip to the wild side.

Tom got bored when Harry requested a sedative to get in some solid sleep time to escape away from him into a drugged nap.

Satisfied his buddy was really ok, Paris joined the senior officers, offering his own two cents worth in all their planning in his usual I'm-blind-to-higher-rank manner.

Harry's blush, finally, went away.

-----------------------------------------

But, in Fluidic Space, all h*ll broke loose.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Spock staring at you intently.

Image: Harry Kim and Barclay sharing a joke.

Image: B'Elanna, Seven of Nine and Chakotay working with datapadds and transporter enhancer beams.

Image: Janeway giving Kim a reassuring pat.

Image: Tom talking to Harry, matter of factly.

Image: Voyager being surrounded by Fluidic Space.

*

From: "Katherine Bird" .uk Date: Sat, 5 Oct 2002 17:05:50 +0100 (BST) Subject: [voyagerliveaction] Turncoats

"Hey, B'elanna, do you still have that isolinear backup system you installed back in the Delta Quadrant on this relic?"  
Geordi asked.

"Relic?? LaForge. I protest that terminology.  
Only the Prometheus is more advanced than Voyager." B'Elanna looked up from the now dead pattern enhancers sitting in a triangle in the middle of the floor as she tried to trace what coordinates and formula the nannites used to open the door into Fluidic Space."Voyager's been sitting in a museum for five years while she waits for a refit slot at Utopia Planetia for her second mission assignment,  
so don't blame me for a little dust. They didn't cut me a credit balance to maintain her while she waits in line. Civilian citizens have seen more of this ship's systems than I lately. Yes. That ODN backup you're asking about is still very much in place. Last time I worked with it, we were screaming through the Queen Borg Conduit with two angry Borg Spheres hot on our tail. I needed the backup to implement the slip stream drive while still in warp inside the Conduit Otherspace."  
Then she mumbled to herself. "Come to think of it.  
I wonder if that drive's technology still even works.  
Starfleet's engineers and Building Five highbrows were all over it the second Voyager got home." she groaned. "Chalk up another two hours to even look at the SS drive."  
She tossed her head over to Geordi to join her. "As soon as we're through. I've a task list a light year long for us to start with to double check to make sure the Nannite colony didn't leave any calling cards. Glad you're here. And don't listen to the command types if they ask you how long before the impulse and warp engines are online. Take your estimate and add three hours.. They wouldn't know the seriousness of a ship's dunking if it jumped up and bit them in the rear."

Riker popped an eyebrow and smirked at B'elanna. "Thanks for dressing up, it's nice to see I'm not the only one improperly dressed for the occasion."

"Oh, you mean the drippy sagging annoying excuse of a uniform I'm wearing? I peeled off the sea soaked jacket an hour ago." she moaned. "Not too fond of baths. I'm more of a sonic shower person. I sent Neelix to fetch me a clean dry uniform now that the lights and full power are back on and we've confirmation that the pressure purge is holding."  
Torres hit her combadge. =^=Torres to sickbay.=^= And simultaneously, she waved over Chakotay to pay attention to her next words.

"Go ahead.." "Kirk here." came Janeway and Kirk's voices on two com links.

::Man. They even answer in the same tone of voice:  
B'Elanna thought ruefully. But then she remembered why she had contacted them. "Things look almost normal around here. Amazing, but I think the nannites only utilized the ship's defensive grid such as the sickbay sentry and Seven's alcove to try to help protect the ship against our 8472 friends out there.. And who's been the one to offline all the autofunctions on the computer main frame panel display? You've left nothing for me to do to carry out Captain Kirk's assignment of making sure Voyager can't attack us through nannite means."

Janeway piped up, grinning. "You're complaining of work being finished instantly? Amazing.  
But, for your information. That was Yar, Captain Kirk and Holozimm. The second Harry was safely in surgery, they tore through that little problem record time. Funny how it takes the ship's commandeered defenses to get us to work so fast."

"Really. Maybe I should assembly sentry guards in all our ceilings to zap sluggish crewman whenever they fall behind.." Torres quipped. But then her easy smile fell away. "Captain. How's Harry? When I saw Data's head bobbing up and down behind the doctor's desk on the pickups.."

"He's fine Torres. We only had to cardiopulmonarily resusitate him for about three minutes before the doctors got their act together. Lucky Harry for "dying" in sickbay. Seven's even had a crack at repairing him. He's resting and fully healed. Didn't you see Tom and he chatting just a minute ago on the viewscreen?" Janeway asked.

"No. I was buried inside another computer terminal because lunch was over. Geordi here's going to help run the diagnostics we need to get this ship flight ready. He's already picking on me for letting Voyager turn into a relic."

"Voyager IS officially, a relic. A borrowed one for the museum circuit while awaiting refit." Janeway said deadpan with a hint of humor in her eyes.

"Not you too.. I hate that word." B'Elanna protested.

"Sort of like how Harry hates the word 'Cute'?"

"Yes. Only my dislike for "relic" is ten times worse than his pet peeve. Cute is a compliment on people whereas relic is an insult to any starship.."

Chakotay piped up from where he had been listening in on Torres's comm to sickbay.  
"Only in how you look at it Torres. Voyager is still in modern times and far from antiquated labelling.  
Don't sweat the small at the second meaning for that word."

"I have.. I still don't have to like it Chakotay.."  
and B'Elanna set down her dynoscanner onto a dewy console with a thud. She looked up.  
"Ahhh, Mr. Neelix.. Come save me from hypocrites."

The bubby Talaxian was positively profusive cheer now that the lights were back on and all the water had stopped filling his boots. "Huh? Hippo what?  
Is that an engineering problem I haven't heard about yet?"

"In a way.. Yes.." B'Elanna said, snatching the uniform Neelix had delivered to her. "Thanks for this."  
and she promptly started changing around the other side of the dark warp core stack which was only wide enough to hide her torso from the others. Chakotay, Geordi, Riker and most of the men in engineering hastily turned their backs while Torres stripped and changed without modesty.

"You need to change too Commander and Lieutenant Commander?" Neelix asked Geordi and Riker. "I've got all Voyager's replicators working like a charm."  
The Talaxian of course didn't turn away from Torres nor feel the need to do so, innocently enough. But he was so eager to help the others around him that he didn't look either.

Riker and Geordi kept their eyes to the ground while Torres dressed even though they were facing their backs to her. "Why not..." the tall Enterprise commander smile wanely. " But uh, but show us the nearest empty room for changing would you?" Riker quipped.

"Oh?....." Neelix said, still not understanding the other gender privacy taboo among Voyager's crew. "Uh, ok.." he said cheerfully. He neatly caught the sodden uniform B'Elanna flung his way from around the warp core and bundled it up for his next trip back to main store the other side of the corridor.

"Is she through??" Geordi asked pantomiming to Neelix about B'Elanna's activity.

"Uh, through with what?" Neelix inquired, peering in Torres direction to see what engineering work she had been working on.

"Never mind.." Chakotay smiled. "Carry on Mr Neelix." he said, also about faced with amused hands on his hips.

He heard a vexed swearing start up and without checking said, "She's through. B'Elanna reserves those particular colorful metaphors only for computer consoles.." Chakotay stated.

Gingerly, Riker and Geordi and the other male complement in engineering relaxed.

Sure enough, B'Elanna was buried back inside the guts of the Main Power Relay station, comfortably clothed in her new dry uniform. She began speaking,  
still comm linked to Janeway and Kirk. "Looks like they used the bioneural gel pack fluid lines to navigate the ship inside the computer core. Nothing's been damaged.." she said. Then her questioning hand couldn't find the dynoscanner she had left there on the panelling and she popped back out in irritation to connect with it.

Janeway caught her attention on the vid.  
"Uh, Lt. How long before we can lift off the seafloor under the rescue ships tractors with impulse power?"

B'Elanna cast a meaningful eye at Geordi and said very clearly. "Four hours.."

"Fair enough. Janeway out."

Chakotay's attention was captured when a new sensor tone on the tactical tie from the engineering Bridge station began to sing. Khan in sickbay went to a matching station in sickbay. "Commander.  
There's something you should see outside your solar system.."

"On screen." Chakotay said.

It was a feed from Starfleet Civilian Headquarters News Grid. And the newscasters were scrambling to take in an image of space just located within thr range of Earth's outer surveillance satellites. A crisp "time now" image through Starfleet's Public Release Channel jumped into life as Khan switched on the Earth Vid Station to Voyager's viewers shipwide.

"This just in.." came the voice of a famous Federation reporter. "The Head Defense Secretary for the Federation has just confirmed what civilian craft have been claiming. A dimensional rift is opening up inside the Oort Cloud and the signature is a confirmed 8472 entry window. Only this portal is over half a light year wide."

The image on their viewers shifted to show, suddenly San Francisco Bay and the bridge and the place where hover craft were circling above the submerged Voyager,  
just visible beneath the blue daylit waves.

The announcer voice went on. "Commentators are speculating that the unauthorized subspace transport which came from Voyager's engineering section a few minutes ago, was actually caused by released nannites with a pension for avenging the commander of their ship home, Captain Janeway..And that the nannites themselves engineered the rift summons."

Chakotay's eyes bugged out as he absorbed the news broadcast. "That was a fast security leak."

Even Torres was transfixed.

"Relax folks. The Midas array confirms that the Fluidic Space window is simply open. No signs of bioship forces are in evidence.. Can this be a prelude to the invasion Starfleet has long feared to happen following the Borg's flightpath through the Federation? It wouldn't be the first time innocent Federation Worlds were caught in the middle of other species war. It is well known that Borg and 8472 have been squaring off for centuries."  
the announcer's blue Bolian skin flushed an even brighter sky blue, "Could Voyager's emergency ditch into the bay be a coverup for her real mission's activity? Could the whole rumor about Captain Janeway's imminent trial on the charge of genocide be a farce?..."

"Not bloodly likely.." Chakotay mumbled to himself and at the sensationalized newcast.

"....So far, the rift into Fluidic Space has been self contained. No signs of life appearing on sensors. Nor have their been any indication that Species 8472 is attempting to enter Sector Zero Zero One. In fact, the whole incident seems to be puzzling President Avalonii's offices even now.. So far, no word from the Red Room. The President is expected to make an official statement shortly.." and the monitor snicked off as Khan finished his playback.

"That's d*mned peculiar.." Chakotay heard Kirk say through a reactivated commline to Engineering.  
"Thank you Khan. Keep all vid feeds from the orbitors coming to our tactical station.."

"Yes of course.." came Khan's reply.

Chakotay turned to Boothby. "Where's the Neptune and the Caduceus in relation to that rift?"

Boothby toggled his flight projections next to the coordinal map of the Fluidic Space rupture.  
"They are reporting as half a parsec away. A light hour outside Earth's home system. And they say all their systems are unharmed. I just checked. Not even the telltale 8472 static is coming through on their Chambers Coils. Their commanders say that the sight is...."colorful...but biologically inactive." "

B'Elanna spoke up as the image suddenly changed.  
"What in the world is that??" she gasped.

All eyes shifted to the rift tactical image.

"Enhance by two hundred percent.." Chakotay snapped to Torres.

"Understood. I want to see what's happening better too. Oh, my god.." Torres whispered.

On the main viewer, shapes were pouring out of the rift. Gray, nebulous, almost spidery small forms were cascading like plankton into normal space from the open portal of peach fire. Millions of them.

::No, more like a billion.:: The moment that thought was uttered in his mind, Chakotay's heart skipped a beat. "Lifesigns!!" he shouted.

"None sir.." came Barclay's instant reply.  
Reg automatically flicked in a tighter image on a horrific sight.

The shrivelled forms were....bodies... Skeletal 8472 husks. Old ones. Dusty and moldy, even through the dim light of outer space. One vid view showed a close up of the head of one of them. It was decimated of moisture but intact and grimacing.

The EMH piped up.. "Commander,.. this is extraordinary..." he said playing holofingers over the telemetry he was receiving from Starfleet to compensate for Voyager's own inability to use her own sensors out to space. "These carcasses are very recent, chronologically. I'd say they have all been dead only about five years."

In sickbay, Janeway paled.. "Oh, my god. The nannites have uncovered the mass grave of the genocide victims I've been accused of killing.."

The billion corpses flooded out of the rift and then the great half light year wide tear of Fluidic Space sealed.

A silvery peppery powder like cloud emerged from the billion corpses floating in open space under the light of the rescue ships, Caduceus and the Neptune's projected sensor energy beams.

"Nannites!" K'Ehleyr exclaimed. "They surfed out of the portal inside of them..."

"Beam one of the bodies to sickbay.. " the EMH ordered. "Immediately. I want to take a closer look."

Janeway and Kirk and Chakotay didn't stop either his order nor his departure from engineering.

They were stunned.

-----------------------------------------------

The EMH grimly held a tricorder over the frozen nannite sprinkled body of a five year dead 8472 female. The nannites were leaving the dessicated flesh and flowing back into Voyager's communications circuitry, this time without disrupting main power.

The universal translator kicked in automatically without the need for the tribble to boost the signal.

%%Weee haavveee foounndd yourrrr ssouurrcee offf shammeee anndddnd ittt isss a falllsseee onnneee....%% The nannites told Janeway through the UT.

Janeway stood transfixed before the biobed next to Harry's.

The young ensign awoke from his drugged sleep and muttered. "What's that horrible smell?"

"Yes, Indeed.." the EMH said. "How can a five year dead corpse smell rotten? Especially one supposedly killed by our supposedly wildfire spread nanoprobe bioweapon? Captain. This 8472's body is completely and utterly....uncrystallized."

"What?" Janeway said numbly..That face of one of her victims lying on the bed was haunting her in the worst way and she felt denial shutting down her cognitive functions, even though, physically, she was far from a faint.

The holodoc turned and grasped Janeway by the shoulders seeing her eyes were glazing over in mental reaction. "Uncrystallized... captain, absolutely.  
This female wasn't killed by Voyager's bioweapon. I would be surprised if any of those billion bodies of these out there were. Remember we crafted that weapon's spread to microcrystallize the 8472 bioships and their pilots? Well none of that is here. You are innocent captain.  
You are innocent of any charges..."

From the companel in sickbay, Ardra snapped her fingers. "Of course.. No murder trial can happen without a body. And so the nannites brought the bodies to us and found the truth of their deaths inadvertantly." Then she did blink.  
"So, doctor, what did kill the 8472 billion littering the Oort Cloud? The nannites are like cats in a way here, bringing home the dead birds to the doorstep.." and she shiver chuckled as she leaned in to take a closer look at the rotten mummified corpse on the bed.

The EMH scanned deeper.  
"I'm reading massive hard radiation damage. These cellular lesions are indicative of... Hawking radiation.. Now since thoroughly decayed to harmlessness."

"Hawking energy? But doctor. That's a short lived byproduct of ..." Holozimm began.

"Yes.." came Spock's reply.. "Of a super nova.  
among other causes."

%%Yyessss, ttthhheee ppllaassmma ddweellerrrrss ceaaasseeeddd Lifeeee bbeecauuuseee offf aa Sttar'sss eennddiiinngg thhrrooouugghh mmacchhineee meaannss.%%

Then all the pieces fell into place for all of them.  
"The Terrasphere was destroyed by a super nova.  
We just discovered that when we tried to contact them to discuss the Treaty with them.."

"Oh my god.. And you were just theorizing on the bridge that the Albino faction did it.." Deanna Troi whispered.

"Could that super nova been artificially induced to blow?  
And directed somehow to explode inside Fluidic Space to kill those billion?"

Yar folded her arms and shivered. "I wouldn't put it past anyone. Especially with such a warlike Species like the 8472 being stuck fighting the Borg."

Tasha's comment struck Janeway back into clarity.  
"A developed bioweapon of their own tried and failed against the Borg?" the captain mused.

"The Queen was certainly well advanced in her society at the Borg City..." Chakotay remembered.  
"It's possible she outfoxed the Albino 8472 and ricochetted their supernova weapon right back at them. You remember how Voyager's phasers didn't work against her Sphere.."

"Yes..I remember. " Janeway sighed.

"Its looking more and more like the Albino Justices came here trying to cover up a massacre commited by their own hands by using Janeway as their scape goat to throw off the suspicions of their young now in power in their society.." Moriarty surmised.

"Captain.. Hang on.." said Ardra.. " In our Treaty with the 8472 Terrasphere. I read this.." and she called up the treaty on her library terminal back up. "It says that no 8472 faction shall possess bioweaponry on pain of death or Fludic Space expulsion exile. It is one of the highest laws in 8472 religious dictates.  
Sort of like how we seek out and ban all experiments on the Omega particle here in the Federation."

"Ardra... " Janeway said, fear high in her throat.

"Yes captain darling?"

"Say that last line you just said, again..."

"..Sort of like how we seek out and ban all experiments on the Omega Particle here in the Federation..."

"Hawking radiation... Omega Directive.." Janeway whispered. "Chakotay.. are you thinking what I'm thinking..?"

"Yes.. I think so.. "

Data spoke up setting their new terror deep into concrete. "It is highly probable that the Albino Faction sent the 8472 rebels to Voyager to find information regarding Omega particle research.  
With Omega in 8472 possession, all Borg could, theoretically, be utterly destroyed."

"And Omega could be used, theoretically, to set off a..." Janeway gasped. "a....supernova?"

Data nodded animatedly eager.

The EMH turned to the computer once more.  
"Nannites.. Did you find, anywhere, in the 8472 realm,  
this molecule.?" and he projected the horrifically perfect beautiful but deadly geometry of Omega to the mainviewer.

%%Thereeee isssss ssuuccchhh mmattteerrrr iinn thheee ooraaanngggeee sseaassss yeess.  
Whhaatt isss thaattt ceelll? Ittt iissss vverryyy hharrmmonniioousss...%%

All the senior officers of Voyager blanched.

And Seven of Nine rose up. "Captain. We must stop them from destroying the Borg with Omega.  
If the Albino Faction accomplishes that goal,  
all normal space and subspace everywhere, will fall into chaos.. Everything and everyone not in the safety of Fluidic Space, will die."

-  
(attachments)

Image: The EMH with Seven examining an 8472 mummy on a biobed.

Image: B'Elanna, Janeway and the EMH looking very tense, looking at something in sickbay.

Image: A borg schematic of the Omega molecule in all its sinister perfection.

*************************************

From : "patti keiper" Subject :[voyagerliveaction] And then there was one... Date : Mon, 07 Oct 2002 16:45:26 +0000

And Seven of Nine rose up. "Captain. We must stop them from destroying the Borg with Omega.  
If the Albino Faction accomplishes that goal,  
all normal space and subspace everywhere, will fall into chaos.. Everything and everyone not in the safety of Fluidic Space, will die."

"Now wait just a g*dd*mned minute here!!" Bones McCoy shouted. He had been silent while absorbing the suddenly disturbing, highly specific conversation going on between the command grade officers.  
"I'm just an old country doctor at heart.. And I've been all over the galaxy with James Kirk. And in all that time, I've NEVER heard of ANY matter that can annihilate all space and life with such alactrity!  
Omega? Just what the h*ll is that?! Sounds like a military Starfleet call sign created by secretive high rank types who make it a regular habit to keep most of us, not fortunate enough to wear at least one pip on the collar, in the dark !!"

Kirk lifted his hands as he too, felt under informed.  
He was more calm about the oversight though, as he said, "Bones. Calm yourself. If you let the Voyager crew explain themselves a little more,  
than perhaps you and I wou--"

"Jim!! I'm sick and tired of all these little games Starfleet likes to play with us!" McCoy sputtered,  
practically throwing the datapadd he had been updating about Harry down on the equipment cart.  
"First it was the Romulans lording it over the Neutral Zone, taking potshots at our outlying colonies,  
then it was those drugged out muscleheads the Gum'Headers or whatever the h*ll they were called practically eating us for dinner during the war with the Cardys and Founders , h*ll, before that,  
it was the Borg, waltzing on through, neat as you please,  
assimilating people and places and all the while, Starfleet just sat right back on their self righteous butts, saying that all was just fine while they sent whole fleets of ships and people to their yes-sir-it's-my-sworn-starfleet-duty-to-serve deaths!  
Omega sounds like a cover for 'we really screwed up here royally folks! '."

"Doctor that's enough!.." Janeway snapped. "I don't know how you've managed to keep your rank as a lieutenant commander so long getting away with autrocious conduct like that, But Voyager's NOT the Enterprise. So I strongly suggest you just pipe down and keep a civil tongue in your mouth. Blowing off inproprieties in sickbay, let alone in front of higher ranking officers, is falling just short of insubordination in my line of thinking!"

McCoy actually blinked.  
His angry scowl flicked off into a look of surprise.

Harry winced in sympathy. He full well knew the power of one of Janeway's dressing down speeches.  
::She doesn't just reprimand, she rakes one's point of view over the rocks and then hands it back to you in a million pieces in about two microseconds..::

Before McCoy could recover composure, K'Ehleyr neatly interjected over the com. "Hearing about this new doom and gloom, however secretive or common knowledge, is just peachy all. But quite frankly, everything I've seen and heard so far is extremely counterproductive.  
I'm just a lowly Federation ambassador minding my own politically correct business here. But, if Omega is such a threat to all we Starfleet types hold near and dear, why are we just sitting around here at the bottom of the ocean, arguing about it?"

Alexander spoke up from where he was standing.  
"Because the ship won't go?" he said in a very very tiny voice.

Just, then, K'Ehleyr arrived in sickbay. The others hadn't even heard nor seen her leave engineering to take a turbo to them while she was speaking over all their combadges. Reflexively, Harry looked to the viewer into engineering, wondering how the tall woman had moved between decks so fast.  
Then he noticed the portable transporter arm band she was wearing on one arm.

K'Ehleyr recognized barely suppressed terror when she heard it. She strode to her ramrod still son and swept him up into her arms and said calmly. "Why don't we start over from the beginning of this nonconversation and retell it into means that ALL of us can understand,  
shall we? Forewarned is forearmed...." she said, on the word "all" she glanced significantly down at her Klingon child who was sucking on his fingers like a boy far younger than his years would.

Bones blanched when he saw Alexander as an innocent witnessing something he didn't really want to see from the grownups around him.

To his credit, Alexander was masterful in hiding his true feelings of utter fright.  
"S..so what are we going to do about it?" he squeaked.

Janeway and McCoy both looked to the floor, each mentally berating the other for not thinking ahead about children being in the room while they washed the egg off their faces.

Seven of Nine moved nearer to mother and son and said.  
"My experience with this molecule will aid us in tracking and stopping our adversary from committing this unhonorable act of war, Alexander." her eyes shot up to regard all the others with barely veiled worry even as her voice's tone lied about it. "They cannot succeed."

Chakotay, ever the voice of reason, spoke up from engineering's viewer.  
"I suggest we all convene in a briefing room to go over the options. Work on the engines can wait. I know full well that B'Elanna's estimate of four hours to completion is just a tale.."

Tom Paris chuckled, a rich warm wonderful laugh which sliced through the tension in both department areas of Voyager. "Hear that B'Elanna? Your miracle working secret has just been unearthed. Care to defend yourself?"

Torres said abruptly, "Later. Let's go. Cargobay briefing three. We might as well be next to the spot the Albino Justice may appear into. Seven, I suggest you power up your alcove database to spit out every scrap of information you have on Omega."

-----------------------------------------------------

Bones McCoy didn't pay attention to exactly how many showed up immediately to the meeting room Torres specified. He was too busy keeping his nerves from jumping out of his skin. Those same nerves made him speak first once everyone initially arrived,  
seated. "Captain. " he asked Janeway.  
"If this Omega Directive is something that all Starship captains learn upon graduation,  
how come Jim doesn't know about it?"

Boothby, to McCoy's left interjected, "Because we didn't find out about the threat until the Vulcan science colony blew itself and half their moon up with it. That occurred about thirteen years after Captain Kirk here, retired."

"Ok, so it's a RECENT coverup.." he snorted sarcastically.

Janeway rolled her eyes in exasperation as hints of McCoy's insubordination returned to tone and body. But it wasn't aimed at her nor her crew, but at Boothby, so she let it slide,  
contenting herself with just taking another sip of her now cold coffee.

Neelix noticed her grimace and hastily traded it for a steaming hot one craftily. He smiled weakly for the oversight when Janeway looked at him without thinking. She was far too enraptured with the horror at hand. And she was tired, partially from relief from learning about her innocence of killing the billion 8472 and partially from the extreme weight of the knowledge of truly knowing about Omega.  
"Neelix." she said. "Have you slept at all?"

"Uh, eh, no captain. We have been rather busy.  
heh." he whispered softly tense.

"Maybe you should catch a few winks in your quarters.." she said.

Neelix recognized an unspoken order when he heard one. He finally returned his tray of coffee back to the replicator and left.

"Why did you do that for?" K'Ehleyr asked.  
"Isn't complete disclosure the goal we wanted to accomplish for all the crew in this briefing?"

The EMH sighed from his seat around the black marble briefing table. "Captain Janeway is protecting Neelix from himself ambassador. He's.... his own worst enemy with ship unknowns.."

"oh." she replied. Then she turned back to Boothby,  
who had risen and moved to a computer display screen and reshown the image of Omega from Voyager's "need to know only" hidden secret files.

He told everyone about Omega's portent and possible ways of eliminating any molecules found.  
The only snafu presenting itself that Boothby couldn't explain his way out of, was the fact that conventional Starfleet ship and civilian satellite weapons, didn't work in Fluidic Space. He went on with his report on Omega. "Now, there are other things Starfleet knows that wasn't given to all starship captains about Omega beyond their seek and destroy at all costs directive.." he said suddenly sheepish.

Janeway's head snapped around to look at her old mentor in shock. "What do you mean Boothby?  
I thought we captains had been told everything.."  
she said dangerously soft.

Boothby didn't back down his attitude, nor his conviction. " 'Need to know' captain. Works the other way around, too, I'm afraid. And this new information about which I'm going to tell you is from what only I, Avalonii the Federation President and T'Pau herself, knows."

Spock straightened in his chair at the mention of such a high ranking non military ambassador as his ancestress.

K'Ehleyr too, shifted in discomforture. ::Now I know about how my son feels about hearing what you don't want to listen to..::

Boothby looked far older suddenly than the centuries that the two captains sitting before him knew him to be during the next moments to come.  
"Omega was indeed discovered by the Vulcans, and it's true it is they who found out about the incredible destructive power the molecule has when it chain reacts. But it was Sarek who learned that experimenting with Omega attracted the unwanted attention of the Q, who in turn, eventually pulled a lone starship into the home territory of the Borg."

Riker sat up with greater attention. He remembered all too clearly that awful day when Q and Guinan squared off in ten forward and the Enterprise suddenly became the drilling fodder for a Borg first one ever.

Boothby went on. "Now the Q, were afraid. They were afraid of Omega and its power because, unlike Fluidic Space, the Q continuum was just as vulnerable to the destruction that could be wrought from it, as normal and warp space regions were. And then they found out about the Borg religion of seeking perfection.  
They thought, if anyone can stop Omega from falling into the wrong hands, it would be they.."

"Hang on a minute here.." McCoy spat angrily.  
"Are you telling me that Wolf 359 and the almost Borg invasion of Earth was the result of the Q's desire to sic the Borg onto the Omega threat?"

"Yes.." Boothby said quietly. "Only no one counted on how much tenacity other races in the galaxy had, to acquire the molecule.."

Janeway paled. "The post technological people I discovered with Omega in the Delta Quadrant trying to repower their dying world.. and now, the Albino 8472 faction, trying to eliminate their own worst enemy; ironically, the Borg, who're possibly the only ones who can control and stop Omega from being utilized by anyone."

Boothby nodded in affirmation, once.

In his seat, Spock was deeply sick inside.  
::My father knew of Omega and how the Q used Earth to be the lure for the all invasive Borg?  
He knew that Wolf 359 was just the first result of this action of eliminating those races who might give in to temptation to use Omega:  
He began to think of all the ways that he, as ambassador, could have stopped the Borg from ever reaching Sector Zero Zero One. And part of himself began to mourn.. for all those killed by the advancing front line of Cubes.  
The older Vulcan made a small sound in his throat of pain.

It caught Bone's attention and he leaned forward to whisper.  
"Spock? You ok?"

Spock nodded fractionally and held up a subtle hand saying ' I'm all right..' But he didn't speak.

That was enough for McCoy and he leaned back,  
keeping one ear on Boothby and one eye on Spock.

When Boothby was through, Chakotay spoke quietly. "So what are you proposing we do?"  
the commander asked him.

Boothby leaned onto the long round table and barked an order. "We go to Fluidic Space with a white flag. And discuss it with them."

----------------------------------------------

Tom Paris visibly shuddered as most of those from engineering and sickbay who attended the Cargobay meeting room briefing, crowded onto his beloved ship.  
"All right, all right. We're going. Now everyone get belted up. I don't want anything to go wrong. I just spent months with this ship refitting her, in a barn on the Janeway farm. Ho! Alexander.. Feet down off the dashboard."

Harry looked at Tom, in his ship's pilot seat from his place at the Delta Flyer's navigational station. "So you really don't have any qualms about leaving Voyager on the bottom of the bay while we go on this mission?"

Tom rolled his eyes as he broke the Flyer out of the waves and into Earth's skies, headed out to the Oort cloud and the direction the last Fluidic Space rift, had formed. "No, of course not. Did you see Janeway and Chakotay getting cold feet about doing it? Voyager's safe. Her flood water's purged and all systems are powered up again. No rule that says her on board crew has to stay there during a routine salvage operation.  
Besides, Janeway's arranged for us all to redock with Voyager once she's freed to outer space if need be to handle things if they get out of hand."

He cast a hand about the Delta Flyer's crowded cabin. "Even the holograms are with us, Harry.  
And the tribble. I don't think a single person on Voyager has chosen to stay there, well, except for those security teams. I guess we'll find out who chose to stay behind when they don't show up here at the helm bugging us with the question,  
'Are we there yet? ' " he teased. "So Fluidic Space we're bound.." he said mysteriously. "I don't know about you, but I will give anything to see that courtroom Janeway and Seven were held in earlier.. Sounds downright creepy.."

Kim gave a shudder, which prompted Tom to turn up the heat. "You still cold buddy? You are only two hours after dying you know.." Paris quipped.

"Oh, ha. ha. I'm fine. That was an anticipatory chill completely Tom. Remember my history with the 8472? All I remember from Voyager days is that their biocells wanted to eat me for lunch.."

Paris studied their course through the solar system and waved as they passed the Neptune and the Caduceus and waggled the Delta Flyer's wings in a patriotic show of thanks for their future upcoming rescue mission to raise Voyager from the ocean on Earth.

Janeway was no nonsense. "Fly straight Lieutenant.."  
But Tom heard the smile in her voice.

It was several minutes later beyond the comforting glow of Sol three that Harry saw the ending shadow of the Oort cloud and the veil of 8472 bodies floating there. "So, uh, Tom. Just how do you propose we get into Fluidic Space? If the 8472 public gets wind that Janeway's on board...."

"Relax pal.." Tom sighed. "The doc's got something up his sleeve.."

"I sure do.. " said the EMH from his place standing over Kim and Paris's shoulder. "And I haven't a single hypospray up my sleeve. Not one. We'll be able to get right up close and personal with Janeway's persecuting Justices without one single confrontation."

"How...?" Harry asked.

The doctor hit his combadge.. "EMH to the nannites on the Delta Flyer's outer hull. We're ready.."

%%Ppllleeaaasseee ssttannndddbyy..%% they replied and all saw the sparklets of metal that were the nannite colony, mist off the Delta Flyer's skin and into the field of corpses they had brought to normal space. There was a blaze of nanoenergy and a fair number of the dessicated dead coalesced into a globe and floated back to the Delta Flyer.

Hollow bangs and shudders filled the Flyer as the "bodies bag" settled in, completely encircling the ship by magnetism with the hull through the nannites coating their shells.

K'Ehleyr smiled in appreciating. "Ah,, camouflage.."

"No.." said the holodoc immediately. "We're displaying evidence in broad sweeping neon letters... The Justices can't justify sending 8472 bioships after us for invading their home turf if we're wearing the whole truth of Janeway's innocence about us. The public population will see the dead aren't smelling like Starfleet crystallization and let us pass to see what we're up to at the Justice's house.." he smiled.

"Who thought of this tactic?" K'Ehleyr asked.

Everyone in earshot in the passenger's seats pointed at Khan.

"Nice thinking, Khan.." she said as she dipped her head.

"I was inspired.." he admitted. "By the natives on Ceti Alpha Five, who sometimes wore the skins of livestock already taken by the ceti eels to keep the mind predators from preying on themselves.."

It went slick as planned. The Delta Flyer gained an entry door into Fluidic Space using the coordinates B'Elanna got from the nannites, on sensor data alone since the net of carcasses around the ship fully visually blocked any viewscreen or window port. And then Tom cruised to the place Spock told him was the realm of the Albino Justices the ambassador had recalled from his desperate mindmeld with Janeway.

All the way, the universal translator filled with the angry hisses of arriving bioships and free swimming Species 8472 individuals scenting Delta Flyer and then changing to questioning ones when the massacred victims were beheld free of Federation bioweapon contamination, a finding different from that which their media had informed to them.

Finally, there was a blaze of energy and a pale light through the peach plasma drew the Delta Flyer into the "courtroom" where Janeway and Seven and Spock had mentally been before.

From over the very ordinary Earth wood podium,  
the Albino Justice appeared. ##What is this travesty?##

"No hoax.." Janeway said. "I claim the 8472 right of self defense against false charges. Around this shuttle lies the evidence proving my innocence from the evil deed you've accused me and my ship of doing five years ago.  
These dead are from your billion genocide victims. Killed by a supernova created from a forbidden molecule engineered to target the Borg from your own faction Justice. I'm surprised you're so defiant here."

Moriarty piped up in challenge.. "How say you fie beast?!"

Holozimm gave a comm signal and the nannites let go their magnetism on the bodies and they sickeningly piled,  
a few hundred high on the courtroom flooring of living fire.

Then Tom lifted the Flyer free of them, hovering in the limitless space above the Albino Justice and its two other high ranked companions.  
As he did so, the glowing sky around the court room began filling with the righteously angry public who had seen the Delta Flyer and her grotesque coat of their fallen, fly overhead through their home seas.  
Then the nannites formed a single symbol in the glowing Fluidic Space around them for all to see. The Greek Symbol Omega.

A disgusted hiss of disapproval rose from the mob around the podium and courtroom and they began to press in on the Albino Justices.

##Wait! If you move we shall use the particles against our Adversaries in the Cubes and end it all for the black stars and space fleshed ones..## he shouted telepathically to his own hostile peers in the jeering crowds. The pressing circle of individual 8472s backed away falling silent. But then one very very tall Golden 8472 appeared from their midst.

And everyone watching through the viewer on Delta Flyer recognized him.

"It's the Hunter!" Mccoy gasped.

The Hunter 8472 strode forward to stand face to face with the Albino Justice who had given voice to blasphemy and shook his head slowly.  
##The killing must end. Even now, our young is surrounding all who mark as Albinos, Justice Prime.  
And they are exiling them. If you kindle another star with the molecule, know that you will be burning your own kind in turn into the Final Black.##

With that, the Albino Justices fled into a doorway and escaped. The Hunter flung a talon up to the crowd to pursue him. ##Do not let him not pay for our dead.  
Go Seek him. Smell his trail. And avenge our betrayed Fallen Generation. And find the molecules Omega. Show it to the Flesh Ones' ship so that they may eradicate it.##

Tom didn't know which suddenly appearing 8472 bioship to follow, so he waited.

Chakotay hit his combadge to the 8472 Hunter standing below Delta Flier in the peach ether and asked.  
"What about the billion in the Oort Cloud and these fallen here? Do you need us to arrange their honorable burials?"

The Hunter swam up until he was facing the shuttle's visual pickups. ##Send them back to the Homeseas.  
They are only sediment now. Let them nourish the Fluid Spaces which sustains all 8472..##

"Very well.." Janeway said. "And Hunter. I forgive you for kidnapping us mentally." she said, indicating Seven and herself.

##I was simply carrying out my appointed task. It is unfortunate that task was done in the name of a traitor Justice. Gratitude for your peace captain#  
and he was gone, in hot pursuit of the one who sent him to find and harm an innocent Other named Janeway.

The burning courtroom of peach fire disappeared and so did the odd earthlike wooden podium in a wash of light.

They were alone.

Tom turned to his captain.  
"So, where to? Do we help the citizen 8472 find the pockets out there containing hidden Omega? No doubt Seven here can program the Delta Flyer's systems to do a great job sniffing them out."

"Stay put Tom. I don't like flying blind in unknown spaces. Granted we've all been in Fluidic Space before but not much beyond one battle ground and this courtroom anchor point."

"Yes Maa---"

A huge rippling wave of energy suddenly picked up Delta Flyer and flung it wildly. All damage control hooters went off simultaneously and Paris was lifted by momentum and flung bodily down against his helm controls. He was knocked unconscious.

Likewise, everyone non hologram was knocked about too as Holozimm leaped for the helm controls to turn the Flyer into the wash colliding with them.  
As he did so, the wild pitching and spinning ceased.

A reading on the console began to flash ominously through the acrid smoke inside the shuttle.  
Holozimm shouted. "Hawking's radiation! Off the scale."

The EMH shouted. "We need shields! That's lethal concentration!" he said looking at the warning's readings.

Holozimm looked down. "They're already up. But I didn't do it.." he said with puzzlement as he watched the EMH kneel down by Tom to offer medical help.

%%Wweeeee ddiddd. Thheeee Hoomeeeppeeeoopplee muussttt bbeeee pprroottecccttteeedd%  
sent the nannites through the Delta Flyer's universal translator.

"What the h*ll happened?!" McCoy shouted over the din as he started to fling off his belt to locate downed people.

%%A ssttarrrr hhass eennddeddd frommm aaa hharrmmonniuuss ceell exppaanndddiiinnggg%%

Holozimm couldn't see the condition of any of the others. It was too smoky. He did the next best thing. "Computer. Report on all lifeforms on Delta Flyer. Immediate!"

##Several showing depressed vital functions. One dead beyond recovery.##

Shock ran through Holozimm. "Who? Computer!  
Who is it? Report!!"

-  
(attachments)

Image : The 8472 Albino Justice, snarling.

Image: Nannite and nanoprobes in a collective soup.

Image: Janeway standing before a display outlining Omega.

Image: Explosions in a shuttle right near Janeway and Chakotay's chairs.

Image: Bones McCoy, screaming his head off.

Image: K'Ehleyr, recoiling in pain.

Image: Tom Paris getting flung into his Delta Flyer helm station with force enough to injure.

Image: Boothby, grim in a Voyager briefing room seated in a close shot.

Image: A staring mad, 8472 eye in extreme close range, showing the crossed pupil.

*************************************

From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Headcount... Date :Tue, 08 Oct 2002 09:16:22 +0400

Chakotay coughed in the smoke and stirred.  
He groped and found a sniffing crying Alexander still buckled to his seat. But passed him by when he saw another shadow, K'Ehleyr, move close to comfort him.

He saw Holozimm and Moriarty at the shuttle's controls working to stabilize her tumbling course to assure all their safety while the EMH triaged the Delta Flyer's battered passengers.

Chakotay drew out his tricorder at Holozimm's frantic shout.

Holozimm couldn't see the condition of any of the others. It was too smoky. He did the next best thing. "Computer. Report on all lifeforms on Delta Flyer. Immediate!"

##Several showing depressed vital functions. One dead beyond recovery.##

Shock ran through Holozimm. "Who? Computer!  
Who is it? Report!!"

But only static came from the Flyer's internal speaker's as the blistering Hawking's radiation growing about the ship soared into intense levels, knocking out the internal chambers coil and all computer/crew adaptive communications interfaces.

The commander shouted louder than the hooters announcing shuttle system internal damage.  
"Everyone, Sound off!!"

Moriarity, Khan, McCoy, K'Ehleyr, Kirk, Yar,  
the Countess Regina, Neelix, Dr. Crusher, Spock,  
Barclay, Boothby, Harry, the EMH, Alexander,  
K'Ehleyr and Holozimm promptly chorused, 'Here' in seventeen voices through the thickening smoke.

Chakotay mentally counted. ::That leaves eleven unaccounted for verbally. But I'm reading eight aft in the cargohold. That leaves, three people down up here, one is irreversibly dead. Who is it?!! :: his thoughts screamed.

Chakotay's breathing came in shuddering frightful gasps as he got a better reading on the freshly dead on his tricorder barely working over the radiation background interfering with it. The lock on no vitals was coming from his right about three meters away on the floor. In the direction of his seatmate before the accident.. "Kathryn!!??"

He began pushing debris, field packs and equipment out of the way, heading into a molasses thick state of mental disbelief towards the negative lifesign. He fell over the last seat, somehow torn from its anchoring, to the floor, and landed on Captain Janeway. ::Oh no...:: and his fingers reached for her throat.

Much to his shock and relief, he found a heartbeat.

She was out cold, but breathing. For long seconds,  
he just lay there, across her stomach, absorbing the fact she was all right. Then the wrenching critical life termination tones on his tricorder dragged his eyes away from her unconscious face to his scanner's screen.

::That lifeless signal's right here. But where?:: Then he realized it was still half a meter down from his position and immediately next to the floor. He rolled Kathryn gently over to one side and found the source of death. :: The mother tribble lay flattened and still. A section of solid bulkhead had crushed most of her body mass. Already, the tiny furred body was cooling.

Shaking from stress and from the discovery that Kathryn was fine, Chakotay slumped to the deck by Kathryn's head.  
Breathing in the acrid air, he took several cleansing breaths to wash away his adrenaline rush past the twitchy phase.  
Then he grabbed a medkit to get set for one of the doctors to attend her. ::Bones isn't going to be happy about this. Neither is Alexander. Or Kathryn for that matter,  
she's the one who most likely landed on the tribble,  
killing it after the piece of bulkhead had pinned it so it couldn't move out of the way. But I'm not the one who's going to break that news to any of them..::

He heard soft voices behind him, K'Ehleyr's and Alexander's; while his mother soothed him to wakefulness nearby in the heavily coolant leaked foggy cabin. He hurriedly covered the mutilated tiny body with a fallen engineering tarp.

Beneath his hands, Kathryn groaned and began to move. "Oh, my head..."

"Stay still. Your vitals are fine but your loss of consciousness just now, may mean more. The doctors are working on others I think." he guessed as neither Bashir, the EMH or Dr.  
Crusher or Dr. Pel materialized from the front of the Delta Flyer's main compartment to answer Janeway's sudden return to clarity.

"Injury and casuality report..." Janeway slowly ordered. Each spoken word, was a small triumph.

"Later.. Just rest.."

"Chakotay. That was an order.." she said opening her eyes and partially lifting her head. She immediately laid back down when a viscious stab lanced front to back across her forehead. She felt a rising welt there. A groan slipped out.

"Easy.."

"How long was I out? And what made the shuttle lose control?"

"About two minutes and another supernova.  
The nannites are making sure our hull integrity's intact."

"What?! I've got to get to the tactical station.  
The radiation that will come off the initial shockwave will be Ahh.." she said, trying to sit up but dizziness almost made her fall back.

Fighting for balance as the world spun, her hand fell on the carpetting near where the tarp lay. A sticky wetness was glistening in the light of the yellow collision klaxon light and was running slowly from under the tarp. The way Chakotay tried to pull it back down clued Janeway in to what it was. "We lost someone?"

"The mother tribble. It ..it looks like it happened fast." Chakotay said, being vague. His eyes got wider when he saw Kathryn's questing hand find more of the fluid on the back of her shoulder.

"oh, no.." Kathryn's face twisted in horror and then her eyes teared in utter sadness and shock.  
"I was responsible for her d--?" and suddenly,  
the sickening ache in her stomach boiled over in an acid rush and she leaned over, getting ill behind a seat.

Chakotay just held her.  
"It wasn't your fault Kathryn. There was a piece of wreckage that had pinned her first. H*ll she may have already been dead before you landed there."

Kathryn heaved violently around her nauseated stomach only able to hear her fiercely pounding head, not even listening or feeling Chakotay's hands supporting her head and chin while she emptied her stomach, until Beverly Crusher pressed a cool hypo to her neck and made the vomitting go away.

Captain Janeway gasped once more and then motioned that she wanted to sit up against the wall with their help the moment her muscles began obeying the stomach calming medication. She groaned again, when one last wave of intense nausea got through the preventative.

Chakotay tried to distract her. "You nearly made my hair turn completely gray just now, when I got that negative bioreading.."

The pit of her stomach finally numbed and she afforded both of them a weak smile.  
Then she remembered what her first officer had just said to her.  
"And I thought it was you, Chakotay. I came to for a few seconds after I was thrown out of my seat and I heard Holozimm shouting about it to the computer. I tried to find you, but couldn't. Then I must have..blacked out.."  
Kathryn closed her grief stricken eyes, trying to dry the streams running from them by blinking. She hadn't yet the strength to lift her hands up to wipe them away.

"Yes well, both you and the commander are doing just fine medically speaking.  
How's the nausea now?" Beverly said once she finished delivering the anti-emetic to her. "I'm reading only a moderate concussion here."  
she said, hefting her medtricorder.

"Gone.."

"Can you move your legs and arms freely?"

Janeway opened her eyes again and just nodded.

Dr. Crusher noted Chakotay's glance down at the concealing tarp in hidden meaning and saw the tiniest shake of his head about it. Dr. Crusher didn't have to be a xenologist expert to know leptus blood when she saw it there and on the back of Janeway's uniform when she concluded her rapid examination of her physical state.

Janeway didn't miss the doctor's quietness as Beverly wrestled internally to find something encouraging to say. "D- Don't tell the boy." she whispered to Dr. Crusher, growing more relaxed as the warmth Tom had called for before the accident lulled her into a healing doze.

Beverly and Chakotay helped Janeway ease back down onto the floor and covered her with a silver sheet.

"You won't need to watch her Commander This head injury is minor.."  
Then the red haired physician shouted through the smoke to the front. "Dr. Bashir. She's fine. Awake and oriented,now resting. No compromised motor function.  
Moving on to the aft compartment to fire up the diagnostic medical bed for her for a more detailed scan in the cargo hold. Also looking for other casualties."

"Understood.." came Julian's reply.. "Can you do something to clear the air in here Holozimm?"

Holozimm didn't look up from the panel his holofingers were working on to tighten the link between nannites and failing shuttle computer. "Not at present. The coolant fumes are annoying but still not at dangerous levels doctor.." he replied.

"Do what you can.." Beverly said and she disappeared through the aft hatch with her medical kit."Commander Chakotay, I'll be right back to give you my injuries report."

Chakotay rose, giving Janeway one last glance back before he stumbled to the front helm station where the holodoc was working.  
He nodded to Kirk and Yar monitoring the navigation station while the shockwave continued to sweep them into unknown parts of Fluidic Space. He squeezed past them to crouch down near the EMH.  
"How's Tom doing?"

"Apart from the nap he's taking from getting the wind knocked clean out of him? He's fine. I'm just making sure the wind does come back. " the doctor sniffed, holding a hand to Paris's chest.  
He wasn't yet respiring. That alarmed Chakotay but then.  
"Ahhh.." the doctor said as Paris's solar plexus finally unlocked from its paralytic reflex from impacting the helm panel. "There we go. Right as rain.. And looks like he won't need any medication either. Just a few minutes KO time to get those brain cells revitalized and he'll be swearing worse than Kim did coming out of his surgery repair.."

"Doctor!!" Kim protested.

"What? It's not uncommon for anesthesia patients to awaken pissed off. It's a well known medical fact. It wasn't a surprise about your chemically induced anger back then on Voyager ensign.  
Everyone heard you clear to Sunday in sickbay for a few minutes until your higher brain decided normal sleep was better than the fight or flight instinct.." the holdoc rattled on.

"Yeah, but they aren't dwelling on it like you are."  
Harry complained.

"I was just making a nonjudgemental comparison projected with what Paris might do on regaining his consciousness. And that was the closest parallel.  
I don't see how this would create that blush you're now suffering.." the holodoc stated.

Harry turned red from anger too, and escaped slowly on his way to the aft cargo hold to join Beverly Crusher's sweep for more injuries.  
he was sidetracked by checking on Janeway and looking under the tarp.

Chakotay said to the holodoc. "Why'd do that for? Harry was worried enough about our situation as it was. Now he's mad at you.."

"Great. That was my goal to begin with.  
Constructive anger will make him not think about how bad off our shuttle pod is right now. I don't know if you noticed how hard the nannites are working to keep us glow in the dark free commander.."

"Really?" Chakotay said, glancing up and seeing the writhing radiation rainbow hues outside the outer viewport surrounding the pilot and navigational seats. He saw more than one nannite expire in the wild energy impacting the Flyer but equally fast, the colony replicated its lost members rapidly to fill in the gap of the protective net they were maintaining underneath the defensive shielding.

The holodoc went on.. "Boy will Mr Paris be mad when he wakes up to see the mess the supernova made of all his lovely summer repair jobs."

"Of that I have no doubt.." Chakotay said.

He moved away from Kim and the EMH to find and check out the others. So far,  
all lifesigns on his tricorder were stable.  
::Maybe we got off easy here..::

---------------------------------------

"Beverly! Over here.." Dr. Crusher heard the moment she stepped through into the Delta Flyer's rear compartment. It was Troi.

"Deanna??"

"Come quick.. It's Mr. Data. Dr. Pel and Ardra and I can't get him to respond to us.  
He's off line.."

Dr. Crusher found them easily as the ozone scented air was clearer in the hold and she knelt down over Data. He was wide eyed and staring. Totally motionless.  
Dr. Crusher scanned him but got only gibberish.. She shook her head in frustration.  
"I'm not an engineer. But it may be the Hawking's radiation, however faintly, that's still getting into the main cabin, it could be shutting down his positronic net. I'm seeing some of it reverberating inside his dionode relays in his hands. He must have been touching that scanner panel when the shockwave hit. " she said, indicating the panel beneath a sparking nannite energy isofield which had separated the rad leaking pad from the rest of the aft compartment.  
She shifted her scanner to geiger mode.  
"So far so good. None of that active radiation's getting through to us. But there's no saying it might not later on. " Dr. Crusher stated.

"Anyone out there hurt bad?" Denara asked.

"No. Fortunately. Tom Paris had the wind knocked out of him and Captain Janeway a nasty bump on the head but that's just about all I know so far. Bashir's still seeing to the others and I've come back here to find and see to the rest. "

Deanna studied Dr. Crusher's face and found a concealing emotion. "You're not telling us everything. Are you?"

Beverly sighed during her attempt to restart Mr. Data using his on and off switch.  
The android simply did not respond to it.  
"The tribble was crushed to death and Captain Janeway is blaming herself for possibly falling on her when she blacked out trying to find Commander Chakotay."

"Oh.. That's awful. Shall I go talk with her?"

"She's sleeping. And Chakotay will undoubtly be there the instant she's awake again to deal with just that.."

"Sleeps the best thing after murdering someone counselor.." Ardra laughed irreverently.

Dr. Crusher shot the leather clad woman a bitter look.

Troi looked once more at the thin nannite shield covering the slow deadly radiation leak from the sensor panel over Data.  
It's close proximity to her made her skin crawl in sympathetic reaction even though the geiger counter on Beverly's tricorder remained quiescent. "Ok.. Understood.  
I sure hope our tiny friends up there can keep us safe while this initial shockwave passes by. I shudder to think what will happen when the debris ring reaches us later on and we're still driveless.."

"The engines are off line?" Dr. Pel asked.

"I don't rightly know. I'm assuming they are because Holozimm hasn't taken a course away from the supernova's origin point.  
Dr. McCoy and the rest of us started right away on triage and left Holozimm to his own devices.  
I suppose B'Elanna will let us know either way about that." Beverly said.

"Torres..." Troi said... "and Seven.. Those are two unaccounted for. Beverly, I had twenty on my head count up front. And with the tribble's fatality, that's twenty one.  
We're still four shy here from our total away crew.. Now that I come to think about it..I haven't seen Riker or Geordi either." she said thoughtfully."Wouldn't they have come back here to check on the engine nacelles following that blast we took?"  
Deanna asked.

"I guess so, the computer's out or we'd be able to find out the answer to that question by querying the combadge proximity program."  
Dr. Crusher said and she struggled to make sense out of her tricorder while the interference from the leak above them all fuzzed out her data.. but partial information finally came in.  
"So far.... I'm only getting the two Klingon bioreadings from the forward section.  
K'Ehleyr and Alexander. And no Borg signatures.  
Holo and human lifesigns for me right now are getting thoroughly scrambled."

Dr. Pel got up and started calling. "Then they must all be back here somewhere..Seven of Nine! B'Elanna ! Can you hear me..? Shout if you're all right..!"

"Commander Riker? Geordi? Data's down.  
We need your help!" Deanna added following Denara's yell.

The four woman encircling Data's still form in Delta Flyer's aft section,  
waited with bated breath for a reply.

Just beyond the hull, the muted howl of stellar matter violated Fluidic Space boiled about the Flyer, growing stronger by the minute.

-  
(attachments)

Image: The brown mother Tribble.

Audio : a Tribble's cooing sounds.

Image : Counselor Troi looking at a com panel

Image: Dr. Crusher's face in a close up, blue lit from a radiation leak.

*  
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 11:40:10 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeff Seltun" | Subject: Stupid Stunts--

3 way Tandem Post between 'Katherine Bird' 'Jeff Seltun' and 'Clairissa Fox'  
via Yahoo chat instant messenger, post manually editted through Edit Pad Classic.

MAINs Involved

Data Seven of Nine Neelix B'Elanna Torres Alexander

FREE Use characters

Chakotay The EMH Boothby Harry Kim Tom Paris

Dr. Pel got up and started calling. "Then they must all be back here somewhere..Seven of Nine! B'Elanna ! Can you hear me..? Shout if you're all right..!"

The four woman encircling Data's still form in Delta Flyer's aft section,  
waited with bated breath for a reply.

There was a rustling from a jeffries tube leading from the port nacelle chamber.  
Seven of Nine opened a hatch from on her back and slid out from the tube with the top hand grips. "Is there a problem doctor?" Seven asked Dr. Pel.

"Yes! In case you hadn't noticed, we're surrounded by Hawking's radiation, coursing in the middle of a primary shockwave of a supernova, full of injured and dead crewmen and we're hulled through with a radiation leak.." she said, pointing to the eerily glowing sensor panel the nannite isofield was covering.

Seven clambered out of the tube and shut the hatch, still clutching an engineering kit.  
"Technically, we've a set of shields between us and the Hawking's energy, we're only traveling half the speed of the shockwave, and we're only full of three injured and one dead crewman, and secondarily resonating that radiation leak with no hull breaches in evidence."

"Spock's rubbing off on you Seven."  
Dr. Crusher chuckled.

"I did not know my thought processes and cognitive deductions mirrored Vulcan patterns. I was merely making Dr. Pel's statements more accurate."

"See?" Deanna smiled. "If I close my eyes, I could be hearing Spock right now.."

Seven tilted her head and replied. "Strange. My voice modulation is very different from the ambassador's." Then she noticed Commander Data powerless on the floor. "I noticed Data was overloaded about three point five seconds after the shockwave hit. Then the nannites informed me through my cranial central node that there was a radiation leak through that conduit. I have shut down the bussard collectors so we have the option of warp factor three without utilizing the impulse engines first once the turbulence around us has subsided. Is Captain Janeway awake?"

"No. She's resting Dr. Crusher says." Ardra admitted.  
"No doubt coming to terms with the fact that she's killed a passenger."

Seven's forehead wrinked in puzzlement.  
"I don't understand."

"Never mind darling.. Don't worry your pretty head about that... Is B'Elanna still crawling around in the bowels of the Flyer with you in there? You can tell her that her fly boy husband is fine."  
Ardra said.

"Lt. Torres is checking the integrity of our impulse field generator. Hawking's radiation has a tendency to distort any inertial space field generated in the presence of plasma matter." Seven said.

"Such as Fluidic Space..." Ardra mumbled.  
"Which is LIVING plasma.."

Dr. Pel's amused expression changed to worry, "Commander Riker and Geordi LaForge haven't been seen."

Seven shrugged. "There is no indication of abnormal biosigns doctor so it's most likely they are working to stabilize the Delta Flyer's condition as Lt Torres and I have done during the last five minutes."

The blond woman knelt and shot out assimilation tubes into Commander Data's stomach and delivered some scouting servo nanoprobes. Immediately, nannites started jumping off Data's hair, uniform and from his mouth. When the last nannite was clear, Seven of Nine reached down and activated Data's online switch.

Data sat up and instantly ran through a check of his systems in moments. Soon, he realized where he was and what he had been doing. "Thankyou Seven of Nine. The nannites thought my positronic net was made to be energy free and had it drained so I couldn't autostart myself once I disengaged from the Hawking's radiation tainted sensor panel."

"What was his problem Seven?" Dr. Pel asked.  
"We all tried to switch Data on but it didn't work..."

Seven blinked. "He was infested with repair nannites who were too young to figure out Mr. Data's complex makeup. They did more harm than good. I told them to leave immediately using my nanoprobes which will now serve as a nannite repellent so they don't mistake Mr. Data as a piece of machinery fit to carry out their will."

"In other words, I had the fleas doctor."  
And Data got to his feet and summoned his tricorder to learn what events he had missed.  
"Hmm, this leak is contained by the nannites,  
and all injuries have been treated already.  
Seven, what is the condition of the flight nacelles?"

"They have built up a static charge and ambient real space aura. I would not recommend we initiate an impulse field as long as this Hawking's radiation is present about the Flyer." she reported. "I have placed a shunt to drain off the excess charges to the main hull's deflector shields."

"A wise precaution.." Data said and he started towards the hatch leading to the front compartment.

"Hang on a minute there Mr. Data. Are you sure you're all right? People don't just get up from being completely unresponsive and just walk away seconds later.."  
Dr. Pel said, placing a hand on his chest.

"Androids can, and do, doctor." and he smiled like Pinnochio at the tiny Vidiian as he slid past her and through the hatchway.

Deanna and Dr. Crusher shrugged at Dr. Pel and their looks alone calmed down the doctor a whole lot more than anything said out loud.

---------------------------------------------

Harry Kim had just cracked the aft hatch open when Mr. Data came hurrying through.  
They collided, with Harry bouncing off his chest and landing up on the floor.

"Whoa!!" Harry said. "Sorry Commander. I didn't see you in time. There's still a lot of smoke up here. I'm reading a slight radiation leak, we've got to hurry! It's in the aft starboard sensor panel conducting through the bussard collector relays.."

Data didn't budge out of the way, but afforded Ensign Kim an extended hand to help him up off the decking. "The nannites have things fully contained Mr. Kim. And B'Elanna's working on a diagnostic of our impulse engines so that we may use them to navigate out of Fluidic Space the next opportunity a dimensional doorway presents itself. Seven has rigged a high speed thrust bypass so that we may escape the next debris layer that is coming from the super nova's coordinates."

"Oh. Fine. Uh, things are ok up here too.  
Well, actually they're not. We lost the tribble when we hit the shockwave. Let's see,  
this coolant leak fog isn't at critically dangerous levels yet, and only two crewmen are injured enough to be temporarily out of commission.. C-" Kim started to say.

"Captain Janeway and Lt. Paris. Yes. I have their biostatuses called up on my tricorder.."  
Data told the young nervous ensign.  
"Where is Commander Chakotay?"

"Uh, most likely right by Captain Janeway.  
Holozimm and Moriarty are at the helm and navigation stations keeping the Delta Flyer turned into the nova wave."

"Thankyou.." and Data and Seven of Nine squeezed by Mr. Kim to reach the commander.

Chakotay was explaining to Alexander, who was sitting in his mother's lap, getting a tiny cut on his cheek healed by the EMH, gently about what was going on outside the shuttle and why they weren't yet returning to real space. "You see, it's simply a matter of waiting for the "wind" to die down Alexander. We're safe hull wise even in this radiation because we're in Fluidic Space. But if we step "outside"  
the "water" we'd feel the wind more, so we're going to camp out for a while until the "storm"  
dies down."

Alexander sniffled as K'Ehleyr wiped the last of his tears away. Youre sure the Delta Flyer can keep us safe?

Chakotay looked up at Data as he arrived with Seven of Nine with a significant look. Both Seven and Data gave a small nod concerning the radiation leak in the back.  
Chakotay sighed. "Yes. Data and Seven have made sure of that. So rest up. The doc's almost finished leaving that "battle scar" on your face.." he quipped. Then he stood up,  
giving K'Ehleyr's shoulder an encouraging squeeze.

"Done.." the holodoc said. "Nice and pink.  
Now you'll have a scar to match the one your mother has on her stomach from fighting the Phagemind on Excelsior.."  
he told the boy.

Goodie! But then I smelled something very wrong in the air around the machine gas stuff. Then I knew. The Vmeer! The Vdmeer! Somebody help her! No! Mother let me go!! Ive got to go help the Vdmeer!

I struggled but both my mum and Chakoty kept me from standing up.

Seven of Nine knelt by the boy as new tears coursed down Alexander's face. "Alexander.  
Listen to me. I will not lie to you. You're right in detecting something amiss. You see.."

K'Ehleyr spoke up, finishing what Seven of Nine was trying to break gently to the tiny child.  
"That is the smell of death Alexander. Do not be afraid of it. The Vdmeer has died trying to help the others. I saw her move towards the Voyager captain when she was tossed from her restraints."

No. I sniffed. I want her back.

Then Harry Kim knelt down. "Alexander. You remember the litter she had. They're most likely still on the Excelsior or even hanging around Starfleet Headquarters. I'm sure Doctor McCoy won't mind if you adopted one of her children when we get back to Earth.."

I looked up at Kim and saw he knew about honor giving and Klingon houses.  
Yes. I shall honor the Vdmeers family by being their Koptak who tells the story of how one of their own went to Stovokor and I shall be that ones adopted father until it has a family of its own. Mum can I?

K'Ehleyr nodded slowly yes, picking debris out of her son's hair with a slight smile of pride.

Just then, Tom Paris moaned from his place on the floor beneath the helm console where the EMH had left him to recover wakefulness. "The ship...Got to.." he coughed, sitting up quickly. But he wasn't yet fully in control of his coordination.

"Relax Lieutenant.. Holozimm has everything covered." Chakotay said, holding Tom against the wall until he regained full focus.

"What WAS that? Last thing I remember was my fly board coming up to punch my face.."  
Paris groaned.

"The Albino Justice used Omega to blow another star. And this one was very near to Fluidic Space. We're in the Hawking's radiation wash, with a debris layer due in an hour."

"Shields??" Tom said quickly, struggling rapidly almost to his feet.

"Up and solid. Thanks to the Nannites.."  
Chakotay replied grabbing Tom's arm to steady him. "Let the doctor check you out again. So far, you only had the wind knocked out of you."

"I'm * cough* fine Chakotay. Just.. where's B'Elanna? It's going to be tricky making us flight ready again with those readings. We'll have to repair that slow coolant leak fogging the air in here first.." Paris said, pulling to his feet using the sooty helm console. He grinned down at Holozimm and Moriarty keeping the Delta Flyer from spinning in the flowing shockwave rushing by them. "Thanks for taking over. I'll be right back to relieve you..." he told the hologram.

The EMH stepped up and ran a baseline check on the bedraggled helmsman. "Ah, you're awake. I trust you had a good nap?"

Tom rolled his eyes. Then he noticed the stained tarp lying near a prone Captain Janeway and saw that Julian Bashir had opened a stasis tube from one wall. "Who's dead? Not Captain Janeway..." he startled.

"No. She's fine.." Chakotay said. "She's just getting over a moderate concussion and some nausea from it."

The Vdmeer went to meet Kahless Mr Paris.  
She left being very brave

"Oh, I see Alexander. I'm sorry she was killed."  
Tom told the boy.

Thats ok. She died well.

Tom glanced around the crowded forward cabin and didn't see B'Elanna. "Where's Torres, Seven?  
Did she go with you to check out the aft propulsion systems?"

"Yes, she is in the jeffries tubes now."  
Seven replied.

"Ooo, a little cramped in there." Tom grinned.  
"Is everything ok with the impulse and warp drives. We .." he cleared his throat uncomfortably,  
"..didn't take on any damage ?"  
he said, trying to not let the idea that his beloved ship was well and truly scratched up bother him. He was unsuccessful.

"One secondary conductive rad seep,  
now sealing. I closed the bussard collectors it was originating from and the nannites have isolated that panel behind an isofield until the computer returns online to decontam that area.." Seven answered.

"The main computer's offline?" Tom asked.

"Yes." Chakotay said. "The radiation has knocked out all the interface voice tie ins."

"oh. Easy fix.. Here.." and Tom moved to lean over Holozimm where he was pilotting and pulled one shiny tall lever down and flicked two lit red rods into a down position.. "I..took the liberty of installing a copilot computer for the main frame. Made sense that if there were redundant circuits in all the systems that the computer brain should have some too."

The computer bleeped through all their combadges. ##Secondary mainframe enabled. Warning. Slow coolant leak. Hydrozine levels at..##

"Skip that computer.." Tom Paris said.  
"Move onto crew status.."

##Twenty Seven biosigns registering in Delta Flyer. One dead beyond recovery.##

"Wait a minute.. Twenty seven?? " Tom asked the computer.. "Chakotay. We have twenty eight here not counting the tribble. What's going..." his face suddenly paled when he had a nasty suspicion.. "Computer.. anomalous combadge ID."

##B'Elanna Torres is no longer on board Delta Flyer..##

"What?!" Tom and Chakotay gasped.

Paris set off for the rear aft section as fast as he could go in the misting smoke.  
"Explain.."

##Lt Torres went EVA at 0230. Port airlock.##

The EMH ran after him and so did Harry, Seven,  
Data and Chakotay.

Tom Paris ran to the hatch the computer told him B'Elanna had used and hit his combadge to end his query to the computer.  
"Oh, no.. Why'd she do something so d*mned foolhardy. The impulse drive's not that important a system to check!"

Chakotay hit his combadge.. =^=Chakotay to Torres. Come in..=^=

Static met them.

Seven of Nine tilted her head. "The chambers coil is still overloaded. It won't reach past the hull."

"B'Elanna!!" Tom said hitting the airlock door with his fist when it didn't open to his codes.

"Let me.. "Boothby said. "When I took over Voyager's command codes. The Delta Flyer automatically gave me her command codes too." and he toggled an override on the first hatch between them and the angry boiling sparking Fluidic Space. It opened. And they could see a delicate tether leading to an EVA suit that was occupied.

"Is she ok doc?" Tom gasped. "I'm not getting anything on my tricorder..

"Neither am I.. "the EMH said. "The radiation is interfering with my scans. And it looks like B'Elanna's combadge is malfunctioning."

Data said, "I can go get her. My structure can withstand Hawking's radiation without becoming contaminated. Move aside.." and the android crouched into the tiny airlock and nodded at Boothby to close the inner hatch and evacuate it.

"She's still not moving.." Tom shouted.

"Tom.. The computer will know how she is the moment Data brings her back inside the Flyer. Hang on.." Chakotay said.

Seven of Nine said. "She must have gone EVA to set up nannite repulsor fields around the exhaust manifolds so we could use them once repairs were complete.  
I have overlooked that complication.."

Harry said. "I'll go get the decontam chamber ready. If she's been out there longer than three minutes, that suit'll be hotter than anything.." and he strode to the other side of the aft chamber to call up that order on the computer.

They saw Data open the outer lock and grip the edge of the Flyer's hull with his legs around the two handhold bars made for open space walking. He grabbed the tether connecting B'Elanna to the Delta Flier and dragged her away from the deflector shields back to the airlock. As he did so, he noticed the concentration of nannites forming a thicker shielding with their bodies,  
blocking the worst of the "wind" reaching them. His tactical sensors did not find any radiation deeper than suit deep on B'Elanna. But she was slumped against her faceplate and her eyes were closed.

Data got them both back into the airlock and sealed the outer doors. Harry's hastily programmed decontam finally swept over them and Data cracked open Torres's helmet the moment the internal atmosphere light was green.

The computer snapped online almost immediately. ##B'Elanna Torres is now aboard the Delta Flyer.##

"Biosigns!" the EMH ordered.

##Blood pressure 90/40, Pulse 120. Respiration 32..Ambient body tempera--##

"Computer cease bio report.." the holodoc said. "She's alive but shocky.  
I'll know more once this inner hatch is released."

Inside the airlock.. Data shook B'Elanna while he waited for the Flyer to cycle open the inner airlock door. He knew Boothby was the one to give that pad command once again.  
"Lt. Torres.. Can you hear me?"

"ughh.." she moaned, but didn't awaken further.

Data tapped his combadge.  
"She's semi conscious. Note to the EMH that she's taken 134 rads Hawking's radiation. The meter on her EVAC suit is showing orange.. The nannites tell me she came outside before they could provide additional cover from the shockwave's energy even with the deflector shields being in place. They told me microleaks occurred whenever one of their number died and that Torres ignored their warnings to return to the ship.."

"Just get her in here.." Tom snarled.

The EMH spoke up. "Not so fast,  
radiation levels even that low can spread to others. Everyone out of the aft section. I'll let you know when Data and I have B'Elanna fully decontaminated."

"But.."

"No buts Mr. Paris. The faster you get out of here. The faster I can examine and help her. Kapesh?"

Tom and the others got out of there in seconds. But Paris claimed the transparency looking into the aft compartment once they were all back forward. He pressed his nose against it, trying to see what was happening to B'Elanna.

::Nothing says I can't be in there audibly..:: And he tapped his combadge.  
=^=Paris to Torres.. B'Elanna.. Honey,  
can you hear me? Say anything. Wave a hand. You've got a lot of us worried in here..=^= he kept on pleading with his wife in a steady stream.

The EMH stayed quiet while he and Data peeled off B'Elanna's EVAC suit and placed her on the medical bed set with decontam protocols. A simple water wash began to soak Torres down while the holodoc got a more detail medical reading on Torres's condition. Data, meanwhile, shoved the hot EVAC suit back into the inner airlock and shut the hatch.

From the nannite shield over the sensor panel,  
a small stream of them flowed down over the wall and into the biobed controls controlling the decontam cycle playing over B'Elanna. The field's intensity brightened as the tiny machine life sped up the effectiveness of the process.

Data angled his head when a mechanical whisper met his ears. "Doctor. The nannites have hastened the Radiation Wash. Torres is now showing rad free."

The Holodoc continued his scan on B'Elanna and grunted. "Hmm. And I thought Seven's nanoprobes worked fast." He gave the half out engineer a hypo to boost her consciousness level. "Looks like she just fainted. There's no signs of trauma past that initial rad exposure. And that condition is no longer present."

Tom's voice was growing more insistent and louder as the minute grew longer until the EMH said. "Pipe down Mr. Paris. She just has some dizziness to work through. She's almost oriented.."

A loud thump reverberated through the room as Data and the EMH heard Paris impact fists against the hatch.  
"Let me in there doc! You know full well the radiation's gone!!"

Sighing. The EMH nodded to Boothby who hit the open switch too fast. Tom came stumbling down the stairs and nearly fell to the deck in his haste to make it to B'Elanna's medbed side.

"No need to twist an ankle lieutenant.  
She's going to be just fine.." the EMH admonished gently.

Tom ignored the smiling EMH and leaned down to B'Elanna, setting a hand on her stomach even as the medtable's air vents dried Torres's body and uniform. "Hey.. How are you doing?" he said.

The EMH and Data left them alone to give Chakotay their report on her.

B'Elanna's eyes fluttered open but they were still spinning. "A...a little dizzy... S-sorry Tom. Should have told somebody first. I thought I could handle the Gee forces out there. But d*mn it.. I had to make sure we could get the h*ll out of the shockwave yesterday.."  
she grimaced, holding her vertigo filled head.

"Stupid B'Elanna stunt number five hundred six.." Paris grinned.  
"I'm glad you're going to get away with this one. Be glad the captain's still asleep or she'd be all over you for this.." Paris said.

"A-asleep? How bad is it up front?"

"Relax.. She just had a bump on the head and I took a good punch."

B'Elanna's eyes looked up at the now active computer status report.. "Twenty eight registering biosigns?"she tried to sit up, but Tom held her down keeping a hand on her stomach to restrain her. "Who'd we lose Tom? Oh my god.."

"Now B'Elanna. It was Mama. So lie right back down and let the doc's medication start working. She was going to comfort the captain when a bulkhead from the ceiling fell on top of her."

"How's Alexander taking it?" B'Elanna asked.

I have a firm heart Belanna. I offered my pledge to be adoptive Elder to one of the Vdmeers family. said the boy from the doorway.

Tom and B'Elanna looked up at him.

Paris thought. ::He must have snuck passed the doc to visit..:: he smiled.  
"Come here Alexander.."

Is Belanna going to be ok? I just checked on Captain Janeway and shes almost awake too.

"I'm just fine now.. I just bit off more than I could chew out there Alexander."

I know how that feels. That happens to me all the time when I call up one of fathers battle programs without telling the computer Im not a fully grown Klingon. I shall inform the other doctors of your improved condition. The boy said seriously. Ill let you two get all kissy faced. And he disappeared back into the forward hold.

"Smart boy.." Tom said. "So, should I make up with you for that foolhardy Evac in the middle of a supernova Mrs.  
Paris? "

Torres grinned with affection as he leaned in to wipe some sweat off her lips with gentle fingers. "Should I make up with you for not wearing your pilotting belt? I'd be surprised if the doc didn't find permanent Starfleet stencilling on your sternum after your chest hit the control panel like that.." she said, crossing her arms defiantly where she lay, staring up at him. "I almost punched you myself after I found out you still had a pulse."

"Guilty as charged." Tom rolled his eyes. "I will if you will.."

"Deal.." and they met in a kiss that spoke just how much each had been worried about the other.

From the doorway, Alexander giggled.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Torres unconscious in an Evac spacesuit. Image: B'Elanna and Seven of Nine standing in an engineering compartment on board the Delta Flyer.

Image: Tom feeling for B'Elanna's breathing rate while she lies in the Delta Flyer's med bed aft.

*******************************

END WEEK TWENTY THREE RECAP 10-09-02

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WEEK TWENTY FOUR RECAP 10-11-02

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*  
From : "Tyler Sherkin" t_ Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Systems Analysis Date : Thu, 10 Oct 2002 17:43:08 -0400 Riker groaned loudly from his less-than-comfortable position on the floor in the rear of the Delta Flyer. His head hurt, his back ached, and he could feel blood running down his limbs from little cuts all over his body. When the Flyer had gone out of control, he'd been tossed into the wall, and then into the floor, knocked unconscious for... seconds? Minutes? Hours? He didn't know.  
Shifting his eyes around the room while he still l ay on the floor, neck uncomfortably craned against the wall, he saw Geordi clinging to a wall panel for support... No, not for support: Geordi didn't need help to stand, it looked like. The panel was probably what he had held onto to prevent from falling.  
"G-geordi?" Riker's voice croaked out of his throat, dry and cracked. It got the engineer's attention though, he turned his head and looked at Commander Riker.  
"Commander! Are you alright?"  
"I'm fi-ow, I'm fine. Just a couple of cuts, really."  
Riker heaved himself to his feet, dragging his six-and-a-half foot Alaskan frame off the ground, groaning all the while. He put his hand on his back, leaned over some, and looked at Geordi out of the side of his eyes as he tilted his head, eyebrows risen to the top of his forehead in his traditional visage. "Whew, that wasn't too much fun..."  
"You sure you're alright, Commander?"  
"Yeah, I'm fine Geordi."  
Dr. Pel got up and started calling. "They must all be back here somewhere..Seven of Nine! B'Elanna ! Can you hear me..? Shout if you're all right..!" "Commander Riker? Geordi? Data's down. We need your help!" Deanna added following Denara's yell.  
"We're over here!" Riker yelled, bullying his voice into working clearly, without hinting anything about his physical condition.  
Riker stepped forward, only to have his leg collapse out from underneath him, but fortunately Geordi caught him before he could fall.  
"That looks like your ankle, Commander. Better let me help you."  
"Right, thanks."  
Lifting Riker's arm around his shoulder, Geordi helped the Commander into the other section, over by where Data lay still and prone.  
"Counsellor Troi! We're right here. I think Commander Riker has a broken ankle, or at least sprained."  
"Alright, the doctor should be here in a second."  
Geordi helped Riker to sit down, propped up against one of the bulkheads, and had the replicator produce a few pillows to put under the injured ankle. Shortly, when the holodoc was making his rounds, he found Riker and whipped out his tricorder, scanning Riker's ankle.  
"Well, it's not broken, but it's a nasty sprain. Hmm...."  
Reaching into his medkit, the doctor pulled out a slim tool with a multiemitter head on it. "This should do the trick. Alright, let's off with that boot."  
And the boot came off... very, very slowly. Riker winced everytime anything was moved against his skin, but the boot came off fairly easily, and when it did, the Doctor activated the tool he had in his hand. It made a little high-pitched whine as it worked, shining down a cerulean ray on Riker's ankle. Before everyone's eyes, the swelling went down, and Riker visibly relaxed.  
"Now," the Doctor began. "Don't go running around or anything. I just took the swelling down. The ankle is still going to be tender, so I'll get a brace for you." The Doctor disappeared back to that same replicator Geordi had used to make the pillows, and returned with a black device that was all straps and padding. He wrapped it around the ankle and bound it not tight, but firm.  
"You should still be able to fit the boot on, it's not that thick, but take it easy: Try not to move around as much as possible. Maybe you should man one of these stations, or something. Didn't you say you were a pilot?"  
"Maybe we should leave that up to the Captain. Tom won't be out too much longer, right?" Asked Geordi.  
"I don't know, really. But whatever the Commander does, it should be something that doesn't require a great deal of movement, understood?" He looked at Riker, eyes challenging him to say something in defiance of his medical orders.  
"Understood, Doctor."  
Shortly, Seven of Nine arrived. She explained Mr. Data's condition, and her command to the nanites, and then the android Lieutenant-Commander "woke up." Geordi listened intently as the current situation was described, with the nanites, and the Hawking's radiation denying them the ability to use the impulse engines by distorting the intertial field Seven spoke of.  
"But if the radiation is distorting the field we use for impulse, won't it also distort the field when we goto warp? We use the same kind of subspace field to assist our impulse engines that we do our warp engines, only on a lesser scale. For the most part, the impulse engines are not powerful enough to move something of this mass, so we use the subspace fields to alter that mass, or at least the physics for that mass, so that the engines can f unction. It's in the technical guides at the Academy. What do we do?"  
Geordi listened as Seven explained how she was draining off the excess charges using the deflector shield, and how that would help their situation.  
"That's a good idea. Why don't we create a repulsion field, a sort of null space between us and the plasma? Or if that doesn't work, we can just extend the shields beyond the range of the subspace field, and expel all the plasma from inside the shield using active transport with the navigational deflector. That way, we increase the distance between the ship and the plasma, so the radiation won't affect our subspace field so much. Then we can just monitor it and adjust it accordingly to match the radiation distortion levels."  
About that time, Tom rose to his feet and was looked after. Geordi was about to ask him if he knew anything about the ship, being the main designer, that would help them repair it more quickly, but then B'elanna was found to be EVA, and unconscious. Communications were attempted, but failed due to the radiation, and an apparently malfunctioning commbadge. Data left the ship and retrieved her, and the two went through a makeshift radiation decontamination process. The nanites assisted the process, hurrying it up as much as they could, until Torres was free of radiation (and Data, too, though Torres' suit remained in the airlock), whereupon Tom came rushing to B'elanna's side. "So what do you think, B'elanna?" Geordi asked, after asking the half-Klingon engineer what she thought of his plan for getting the Flyer back on track.

Elsewhere in space, the Hunter shivered with anticipation: His prey was near at hand, he could sense it with the telepathic abilities that each and every member of Species 8472 was heir to. The Albino Justice was nearby, he felt, and he was afraid. Afraid of the Hunter, afraid of Omega, afraid of Janeway and her little people inside their lifeless ships. 'How could they live in those?' He was thinking. Yes, he was definitely nearby. The Hunter had followed the traitorous Justice through Fluidic Space, back into normal space just as he activated Omega and exploded the star, emerging in some obscure system that the humans probably had some lifeless, bland name for that had several numbers and letters and one name. So tasteless, so... vampiric, in its way: It sucked the life qualities out of a system, labeling it that way. But that was not his focus, the Justice was, and he was near. His mind sought and found contact with the Justice, the Albino 8472's fear levels spiking well above the healthy threshold as the Hunter found him, emerging from his ship onto the asteroid where the Justice was hiding. In a cave, no less, like a wounded young hiding from a Hirogen hunter. Contemptible. Stalking through the cave's opening, he searched through the cave, silent as death. He knew precisely where the Justice was, had cornered him. Now all that mattered was the doing. Quivering with anticipation, he flung himself into the room... colliding in midair with the Justice who was leaping, as expected. The Hunter rolled with it, and the two gigantic creatures hit the cave floor, bouncing off and floating some, until the Hunter kicked out, hurtling the Justice into a wall, pinning him there.  
##Now you will be held accountable for YOUR sins, you traitorous coward#  
The Hunter screamed into the Albino Justice's mind, twisting his feet and rending flesh with his claws. The Hunter pounced upon the prone Justice and tore him to pieces, slicing soundlessly in the vacuum of space. It moments, it was over, the Justice dead beyond the capacities of even the impressive regenerative abilities of their species.

-  
(attachments) :

Gif: Delta flyer schematic

Image: Geordi-FirstContact.

Image series- Many pictures of Riker. One of them showing him injured.

Image: An 8472, the Hunter.

Image: The 8472 Terrasphere.

*********************************

Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 12:24:04 -0700 (PDT) From: "Myron Ojala" Subject: The Pure Light

"Should I make up with you for not wearing your pilotting belt? I'd be surprised if the doc didn't find permanent Starfleet stencilling on your sternum after your chest hit the control panel like that.." she(Torres) said, crossing her arms defiantly where she lay, staring up at him. "I almost punched you myself after I found out you still had a pulse."

"Guilty as charged." Tom rolled his eyes. "I will if you will.."

"Deal.." and they met in a kiss that spoke just how much each had been worried about the other.

From the doorway, Alexander giggled.

"So what do you think, B'elanna?" Geordi asked, after asking the half-Klingon engineer what she thought of his plan for getting the Flyer back on track.

Dr. Julian Bashir looked into the hatchway around Geordi's shoulder to reconfirm what the EMH had shared with him verbally about B'Elanna being awake and oriented.

He smiled hugely when he heard Geordi's question go ignored by the long kissing couple. "Uh, Lieutenant.. I think that shuttle repairs are the LAST thing on their minds. Give them a few minutes alone to get over the fact that they are really still together again. Tom might be able to help you with your shield extension modifications once he's ..... well, finished here.." he said, indicating a gesture at the deeply embracing lip locked, husband and wife. "Or you and Holozimm could work on your idea without you having to wait for Lt. Paris or B'Elanna to join up with you. Might be faster that way.. " he said, then he began to blush when his tricorder began to pick up more visible signs of ardor on his scan of B'Elanna. He blushed and gently drew Geordi and Alexander from the aft compartment. "I think we'd better leave these two alone. They might get embarrassed when they stop themselves and we're all still here gawking at them."

Then Dr. Bashir remembered that Commander Riker was still aft too, against a bulkhead, foot brace raised on pillows. His face more than agreed with Julian's suggestion to skidaddle. "Discretion is definitely in order doctor. Take me with you.." Riker said quickly. So Julian hastened with Moriarty to help the Enterprise Commander move to the front compartment, aided, and hobbling between the two of them.

They got him settled into a flight seat not ripped free of its floor moorings and resettled him with his pillows across from where Janeway was stretched on the floor. The big commander became concerned as he watched her face for signs of wakefulness and waited for report on her condition from one of the doctors.

Geordi glanced back at the door separating aft and fore compartments and chuckled lightly so only Riker and Julian heard him as it clanged shut, leaving Tom and B'Elanna to themselves.  
"Remind me to remember that being married means that the makeups more than compensate for all the worrying.."

Julian saw that Geordi, too became all attention when they both noticed Captain Janeway still on the deck. "She's fine, a moderate concussion.  
She had some nausea to work through but that's now ended. The EMH gave her a steroidal hypo to stave off any intracranial edema. She's resting without sedation.." he told the two men.  
Then he examined the EMH's handywork on Wil's foot. "Too bad Seven's so busy or we could have her innoculate you with medical nanoprobes and fix this right off.." Dr. Bashir said. "But it's fine for now. Not like there's a lot of room in here for people to move around, is there?"

Khan, had wisely remained in his seat the whole time since the "collision". He knew full well that there were more than enough doctors to attend to any medical matter so he concentrated on being vigilant OUTside the tiny ship. He had on an external sensor array, on a display behind Holozimm's helm seat. "Chakotay. I'm reading three headings bearing Omega trails beyond the nova's wake. Those areas are filled with high concentrations of 8472 lifesigns and bioships."

Chakotay grinned. "Looks like our righteous crowd out there from the courtroom has accomplished our mission for us and have located where the Albino Justice and his faction have hidden sources of the Omega molecule. The Hunter did ask them " to find the molecules Omega.." I just hope they are able to move them without any danger to themselves or before another of the Justice's albinos tries to detonate more of it."

Khan said. "Never underestimate the power of a population who's been betrayed when they band together to right it. We shall have no more supernovas."

"Hope you're right, Khan.." Chakotay said.

Dr. Bashir finished his check on Geordi and found he was unmarked. He started to spot heal Riker's many shrapnel nicks to make him more comfortable. "There's always a radical who gets away and there's nothing more dangerous then one who has no where else to run.."

Khan sat straighter in his seat when a new blip returned on his screen from a calm spot towards the Delta Flier's position. "I'm getting something."  
he said. "The shockwave's force is dying out but the radiation is keeping me from resolving a clear picture. Something is on an intercept course with the Delta Flier." and he put it on a main viewer on one undamaged wall.

Everyone squinted as Boothby played fingers over the controls to clean up the image and sound being presented to them. Slowly, the image of single 8472 bioship came out of the fuzz. A familiar non human face flicked on. ##We are avenged!  
The traitorous one has met the dishonor of the Final Black by the Judgement of the Claw. ##

Dr. Julian Bashir noted the fresh 8472 blood on the Hunter's face and suddenly understood that the Albino Justice had been executed by him. "We understand and... we're grateful."

The Hunter seemed to peer into the Delta Flyer through the eyes of its own living ship.  
##Where is the leader woman? She should rejoice that she is vindicated in freedom..##

Julian said. "She's was injured when the star was eaten by Omega."

The Hunter swayed on its tail and looked,  
to Khan, discomforted. ##Your ship did not soften the seas when the big wave came?##

"No.." Chakotay said. "Our ship.. is made of metal, which isn't very pliable."

The Hunter considered the concept.  
##Then make it alive and it will partner more efficiently with your pilot..##

"Uh,, I'll keep that in mind.." Chakotay said,  
grinning ruefully. Then he added, "We see your people are gathering around places where the Albino faction has hidden Omega.  
We both need to work together to dispose of it from both our realms before another disaster like this can happen."

##We possess the senses to track this blashphemous cell and how to anger it. We do not know how to kill it..##

Dr. Julian Bashir said. "Captain Janeway knows how to destroy Omega. She's done it once before in the Delta Quadrant. Er,, a place in the black with stars seventy human years away from us at warp. No doubt she can again once she's back on her feet."

##Tell her to hurry. We cannot stand to see the ugly cell which can be so large a tooth to bite any longer! We place it in a solid mass for you to take with you.##

Chakotay and the others all saw a very normal looking asteroid being dragged along behind the bioship and it was glowing ominously white blue with Omega's odd energy signature. "Thank you, Hunter. But the Hawking's radiation has disabled our..."Legs". We cannot move yet from Fluidic Space."

##The minor stinging hurts your shell ship? Odd.  
Just tell your ship skin to run and heal it.##

Khan spoke again. "Hunter. You are forgetting.  
Our shuttle is made of dead material. A metal.  
Now how can something that is dead listen to you in that way?" he said into the commlink.

The Hunter swayed on its big limbs. ##I see the difficulty. So much is dead and empty in your realm. The black spaces and many stars.  
You can only all build with the materials left to you. How primitive..##

"We make due..." Spock said from his place by another sensor panel.

##Ah, so the stinging hurt keeps your feet from carrying you, yes?##

Chakotay considered that. "The Hawking's radiation is dampening and distorting our warp and impulse fields, keeping them from operating, yes."

##Then we shall carry you like a sick young and take you from this place.. A home shell should be able to convey its partners.## the Hunter said.

Immediately, Holozimm protested.  
"Commander. No! Fluidic Space is still the best cushion for us to block the effects of the supernova still ongoing in normal space, for it is liquid. If we go back into unprotected open normal space with nannites peppering our deflector shields.."

##The small machine life are strong. They are most like the armor of a Home. You shall feel no more sting for they, are alive#  
Hunter concluded, learning fast.

Khan said. "That much is certain Commander.  
The computer shows the tensile strength of our shields will quadruple once we transpose back into the solar system."

Holozimm ran a hasty check on the computer and concurred. "Oh. uh, I see that now. Sorry.  
I am still preoccupied with keeping us steady in this stellar current."

Chakotay looked at the Hunter who was almost the same color as his living ship around him and finally said. "All right. We'll accept your offer of a tow. How long will it take to make the transition?"

##An hour of your human time. We have to go slowly through the portal leading to your native realm because of the machine life.  
We don't want to harm them..## the Hunter replied.

"We're ready... Chakotay said. "Once we're through. We'll wait for Voyager to be recovered from our home planet and then show you how to destroy Omega in case you find any more of it later on in your home seas."

##Gratitude, Fleshed one..## and the Hunter's image left the comm screen.

Boothby sighed as he relaxed in his seat.  
"I'm sure glad the 8472 are on our side.  
I shudder to think what would happen if something else would happen to tick them off like Janeway's persecution did."

"Count your blessings, gardener of captains."  
Khan said.

"Oh believe me, I do! Each and every day.."  
Boothby grunted. "And all I have to do is look at those I've shaped like Captain Janeway and Captain Kirk, to know that I've made a difference against all that nasty chaos and entropy out there."

Khan smiled.

Right then,.. the Delta Flyer gave a slight lurch as the Hunter became true to his word.  
Holozimm saw a bioship tentacle coil and wrap around the deflector shields as the assisted tow towards normal dimensions began.

Dr. Julian Bashir glanced down at the floor when Janeway began moaning in her sleep.  
"Captain?" he said and he knelt down by her side, waving the EMH over when he found that her vital signs were changing.

"Got..to.. Got to get out! The wavefront will crush us....l-- like a tin can..." she stuttered, still half asleep. She began tossing her head from side to side.

"Easy Captain. "He said and placed two hands on either side of her head to immobilize her until she finished waking up.  
"Hold still or you'll get nauseated again.."

He smiled for her benefit when her eyes opened,  
clear and focused. A large improvement over last time.

The EMH said. "Not to worry. The Hunter's returned and he's got all the Omega they've found so far, with him, contained inside a meteor. We're being tugged away from the supernova's pollution by the Hunter's bioship and back towards home..ETA, one hour or so.  
And captain. The Albino Justice has been found.  
He's been executed in your name. "

Janeway stopped thrashing as her grogginess from her short nap left. "huh? Oh. At least some of that is good news.. I don't condone killing for my sake in any circumstance.." she said, smiling weakly. Then she looked around. "Where's Tom and B'Elanna? You think they'd be fussing over the Flyer like two mother hens with this alien tow going on..." she coughed.

Chakotay and Dr. Bashir and the EMH changed ironic looks and with subtle cues, they each placed both their hands on Janeway's shoulders for their next announcement.

"B'Elanna..sort of....took a little space walk."  
Chakotay said meekly.

"What?!" Janeway said, immediately trying to sit up. But firm grips kept her flat. The Voyager captain glanced at them in irritation. "All right,  
I'll stay down. That reply just took me by surprise that's all.. Is she ok? D*mned stupid going out there with the deflectors taking on heavy radiation like that..."

"She's ok. Just Gee forced fainted when the shockwave velocity we were traveling at got to her. Data retrieved her and she's already been decontaminated. She's recupe bound on the aft biobed for a half hour or so." Dr. Bashir reported. "Now.. about you.." and he raised a tricorder. "That nausea in the background yet?"

"Yes." Janeway said. "Let me up. I want to-"

"Not so fast.. Follow my finger without moving your head. " he said, holding an index finger over her eyes and bringing it side to side. He watched the captain do so, but her skin paled a few shades during the neural test. "Queasy eh?"

"A little.."

"Aren't you glad you didn't sit up.." the EMH said sarcastically. "Your brain is still deciding to do the cha cha. But you're improving. Enjoy the view of the ceiling captain. Because you're going to be staring at it for the next hour or so,  
lying just as you are.."

"But doctor.."

"Ah. ah ah! We'll sedate you if we have to for that part of your treatment.." the holodoc countered. "Mess around and you'll be right back to square one with that uncontrolled vomitting."

"Ok. " she pursed her lips firmly. "Your way. I'm a spectator.." she grumbled.

"Good girl.." Boothby commented.

Janeway sighed. "Ok, Chakotay. Give me your datapadd. I want all the updates you have from stem to stern, including all the medical reports.." she said, holding out her hand with give me fingers.

Chakotay tossed the padd he knew she would demand onto her stomach.  
"There you go.. Happy reading..I'll stop back when you're through.."  
he said and he left to go stand by Holozimm while he monitored the bioship's tow on Delta Flyer from that station.

Janeway had gotten a few pages into the information when she noticed Riker propped up with his pillows. "Trade you my head for that ankle. At least, you can hop around.."  
she complained.

Riker afforded her an ironic look.

------------------------------

Khan was preoccupied with the monitor screen aimed at the stone mass full of Omega particles dragging behind them on another bioship tentacle. He zoomed in on the sight, and told the computer to give him an internal scan of the asteroid. It did so and soon, his eyes were captivated by the perfect,  
blue white dancing energy of the deadly molecules trapped there. They were frustratingly un aligned and achingly chaotic. It began to seem like a desire of the sweetest kind to want to see that chaos tamed and slipped into the perfect harmonious shape that he could almost see. Almost..

Their sparkles filled his eyes and a subtle desire inside of him that he thought he had long supressed, returned. ::Here's power beyond imagining. Just for anyone's taking. :: His fist clenched as he sucked in a long controlling breath.  
He didn't even feel the rasp of coolant bite in his chest as he called zoom after zoom onto the Omega view until he was at the microscopular level.

Then he noticed Seven of Nine, called up on a similar screen, just as mesmerized as he.  
::Seven called Omega the ultimate perfection.  
I am beginning to see why..:: Khan thought.  
::She and I...are going to have to talk. For I see the same desire to see Omega fully fulfilled and in perfect conformation as well. They say a whole Borg religion was created by just one glance at Omega?  
I am ...captivated..utterly....:: Khan said,  
and he suddenly felt washed away by the power of avarice..

He approached Seven of Nine and the blue clad woman looked up, almost embarrassed at having been caught viewing Omega's heart by another. She flicked her screen off, but Khan slipped a hand over her own and turned it back on, until the achingly pure light of it sharpened the blue of her eyes. "Seven of Nine. Are you once again going to let your superiors destroy such beauty? Such ....perfection.." he whispered into her ear. "Omega should be treasured and admired as the weapon and jewel that it is.. don't you think?" he said to her.

Seven's face filled with the same ache she felt so long ago on Voyager when she was there on the brink of Omega almost stabilizing into the ideal structure before her eyes. And suddenly, she wanted nothing more than to experience that inner elation and overwhelming joy, again.

A single tear coursed down her haunted face and seared into her skin as that unforgettable memory and moment replayed in her mind.  
That ultimate natural euphoria.  
"Yes..." she sighed.

Khan knew right then. That he had her.  
"Then let us allow Omega to perfect itself once more. You and I. Without the others. Working as one. Please.  
Seven of Nine.. I beg you.  
Before this chance, slips by us utterly,  
when the captains band together to destroy it... I....must.....see..it.  
And I know you desire the same sight....."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Seven of Nine mesmerized by the sight of Omega.

Image: Khan looking passionate, talking about his cause.

Image: Dr. Julian Bashir sitting on a shuttle's stoop.

*  
From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Ripple Effect... Date : Mon, 14 Oct 2002 00:34:48 +0400 Counselor Troi was almost smiling. The solid fact that the Delta Flyer was being aided out of the danger zone had marvelous effects on the emotions of the crewman around her. ::Even Geordi is pleased.  
The Hawking's radiation is only nuisance level now on his sensors. I can tell. For he hasn't smoothed his hair yet in frustration. One small point for progress..:: she thought.

She eyed Riker and Janeway sharing light talk and Alexander and his mother planning when they were going to collect one of the baby V'Dmeers from Starfleet when they got back to Earth. Kirk, McCoy and Yar were helping Chakotay clear away the loose debris and seats out of the way so there'd be more room for people to move into the cramped foward section. Data and Barclay and Spock were almost matching in their intense curiosity about the bioship towing them and the three were scanning the Hunter's craft in detail. ::I'd do that too. Must be the rare chance to even see one that wasn't attacking you.:: Moriarty and Countess Regina were attending to the body of the tribble and setting it into a stasis chamber and stasering the deck clean and disposing of the soiled tarp so that Captain Janeway wouldn't have to continue to look at it. ::That was very thoughtful of those two..:: Deanna marveled. ::And Tom and B'Elanna are....::

Troi grinned and turned down her empathetic shields. They just caught themselves from a deeply amorous moment and had supressed it with embarrassment when they realized the rest of the crew had left them alone in the back of the shuttle just a short minute before. Deanna looked up at Beverly. "Everyone accounted for Beverly?  
Got a little hairy there for a while."

"Yes. Dr. Bashir's just following up on treatments in greater depth because the EMH was in triage mode, doing only that treatment needed in the crew to prevent shock and further injury."

Deanna crouched by where Beverly was resealing up all the medkits people had torn down from the walls. "You're still there too. In doctor mode."  
she added when Beverly's glance showed her that Crusher was dragging herself away from disturbing thoughts. "Is there something you aren't telling me?"

Dr. Crusher sighed and dropped her head in exasperation. "I can't feel anything without you noticing now can I? I keep thinking about those areas outside this Space which may have been effected by that supernova.. How many have died or are injured? We still don't know if the star that went was in a populated region or not.. We just can't see it being in another dimension like this.. If it was this bad inside this living plasma, how bad was it in unprotected open space?"

Troi looked up to the forward view to the sight of the bioship tentacle wrapped around the Delta Flyer and the slowly calming peach liquid beyond. "I'm not reading any undue distress from the Hunter. "

"Yeah, but how concerned is he with races that aren't Species 8472? They aren't very neighborly and only come out of their dimension to fight the Borg.."  
Dr. Crusher sighed.

"They ARE one track minded to the exclusion of all else." she agreed, widening her ability. And gasped when she caught a surge of strong craving from Seven...and..Khan.. "Now what are you up to ?"  
she whispered to herself. She saw the two of them at the computer displays of Omega, very close together, almost in secret confidence.

Troi felt a tug on her dusty sleeve. "Hey, Deanna. Your hackles just went up. I saw it just now. Care to share?"  
Dr. Crusher said, raising her eyebrows.

Troi ignored her as she tried to pin down Seven and Khan's veiled emotions truly. But then Chakotay interrupted her in a shout and the chance was gone. "Counselor.." he called out.

"It may be nothing, Beverly. Anyway,  
it's gone.." Deanna's impressions of Khan and Seven washed away when her concentration was shattered. "Yes Commander?"

"Can you get a sense of the rest of the 8472 out there? I need to know if there are any albino outcasts still not located by the crowds.  
There still may be pockets of Omega hidden by them." Chakotay said from his place standing over Holozimm's shoulder.

Deanna grinned. It always surprised her that people who didn't know her very well always thought she had superhumanoid telepathic abilities. "I can only get a sense from the Hunter alone, since he is allowing me to read him. Anything else is being clouded by the living bioship and Fluidic Space's natural living presence overlaying that."

"Oh, I just thought that-"

"I am only half Betazed Commander. My long range empathy only works for those I'm close to."

Chakotay didn't miss her glance at Wil Riker a few seats away. "Oh..." he said with surprise. "All right. " Then he leaned in and asked. "How's Kathryn? I know she's blaming herself for the death of Mama at least partially. I could tell because she didn't seem that elated the Albino Justice was no longer a threat to her."

Deanna smiled, all business. "Now that is going on confidential ground Chakotay.  
Why don't you trust your instincts on that matter and let Kathryn herself decide how she feels.  
She'll no doubt come to you if she needs to vent."

Chakotay wasn't taken aback by Deanna's gentle rebuttal. "Fair enough. Thanks.."  
and he turned back to his work helping Geordi and Barclay repair the helm console. "ETA back to Earth is fifty minutes.."

Dr. Crusher completed her equipment stashing and looked up from where she was crouched.  
"Now that was interesting."

"What was?" Troi asked her.

"Chakotay's concern for his captain was very like the concern Wil has for you whenever you get into hot water.." Beverly said unmercifully.

Deanna's mouth shaped a little O as her shipmate's tease got through her defenses. "You know full well that Wil and I have come to terms with our current relationship."

"Yes. His head may have, but I think his heart is still out for the count on that one.  
Has been for years. I'm surprised you hadn't noticed considering how long you've known him and how tight you say your bond is to him as friends."

Deanna shook her head dismissing Bev's comment. ::Right. If I am as blind as that,  
you must be too, about Captain Picard,  
Beverly..:: she thought privately..::That same concern I've seen for years, in HIM for YOU my fine physician friend..:: "Hmm, physician heal thyself.." she teased out loud.

Beverly afforded Deanna a wry look and And she rose, heading off to meet B'Elanna and Tom as the two of them entered from through the aft hatch. ::And there goes the EMH to lecture her about getting up off the biobed too early..:: "Excuse me, Deanna,  
but I'm going to go head off a little 'storm' of my own."

Troi smiled when she felt the beginnings of B'Elanna's ire build as she saw the EMH coming to berate her. "Better hurry.."  
she called after Dr. Crusher.

At that, Deanna felt a sense of dread that she couldn't name.

---------------------------------------------

Back in the solar system of Earth, The Argus Array noted the death of 147-18PSN coming through the Hirogen sensor net poised on the local outskirts of the Oort cloud.

Those people still manning stations at Project Pathfinder were surprised. The head admiral there rubbed his bare scalp. "That's two supernovas in the same day. Just what the h*ll is going on.. Step up Voyager's recovery son.." he snapped at his closest aide. "I want Janeway and her bunch to have full ability to get to the bottom of this Omega scare."

"Right away sir.."

Then the quiescent, dying Borg Transwarp Conduit nearby began to shudder and quake in the partial shockwave its nether end had taken, from the violent ends of those two stars in uninhabited space. The rift opening portal subspace iris started to open and shut, sputtering like a dying light bulb enough for Port Authority to warn travelers to the Delta Quadrant away from using it.

::Dmn.:: thought the admiral. ::That half dead network of slipstreams is unpredictable as it is without more of them caving in. I hope we don't lose so many that we can't reach the Delta Quadrant anymore. That would be a terrible loss. :: A part of him realized that there was one crew member with Janeway's away mission shuttle that came from that part of space. Neelix.  
::If the worse happens. He won't be too pleased that he'll never see his family again in his lifetime..::

The highbrow intently watched as the sensors from Project Pathfinder continued to show more and more decaying slip stream conduits, winking out on the map B'Elanna Torres had made for them when she came through to answer the Vidiian Phage outbreak on Talon.

Then the shuddering slowed as the supernova shockwave lost intensity on the other side of the Conduit Hub and its force diffused out.

The Hawking's radiation now streaming out of the entry portal to the network was easily deflected into the sun by the encircling monitoring satellites marking the place where the necrotic Conduit Superhighway was located. And Earth got the benefit of the energy flow boost routed to Utopia Planetia's power store and the agricultural expanse array terraforming Mars. ::Just like a windmill..:: the admiral grinned.  
It hadn't been too long ago that stellar destructive power was just simply a navigational hazard to be avoided.

It had been the brainchild of Barclay to channel any nova near enough into the leftover Borg Remnant Conduit hub for harvesting by Earth. ::Thank you again Janeway for showing us a slipstream from it to Earth on your way home. Now we've that new energy resource to give our allies in the Klingon Empire so they can rebuild themselves after the Praxis moon disaster.. One more step towards Galactic peace.:: he sighed.  
::But two novas in two days? That might even overload the Conduit's ability to contain and channel it. The whole Hub may collapse.::

The admiral began to breathe easier, when no problems emerged, from his place in front of the Midas Array's many tactical screens.

-  
In Fluidic Space, flanking the area where the supernova spat and spread, something other than Hawking's radiation emerged from violated normal space into the peach fire of plasma in the nether region through a temporary tear.

It shot through at the topmost velocity it could manage. And it was being chased by another form almost its same size.

The one fleeing was Tinman,.... its living sides scorched by the nova, wounded.

And behind it screamed a Borg Cube, firing impotent green bolts towards Tinman, but soon, it was forced to content itself with hot pursuit as the muffling liquid of Fluidic Space took effect to render its weapons and tractors completely useless.

Onboard Tinman.. Tam Elbrun shouted mentally as loud as he could to the one he remembered as his salvation in an early phase of his existence before his joining with Tinman. He turned up his full Betazed telepathic channel and let loose. ##Deanna!! Run.. ! You are all in danger!! I can't stop them. Oh, please Deanna!! Hear me!  
They have gone mad!!##

And Tinman likewise, cast out a desperate keening to impact the android it knew was in the vast sea now surrounding it.  
~~Datalife! Assistance! Hurt! Enemy attacks! Tam/Pilot must not terminate!!~~

On Delta Flyer, Deanna suddenly reeled and fell to her knees. Likewise, Data stiffened as he felt a mental contact he had long since decided that he would never know again. "Gom'Tuu?!" Data said, frowning.  
Instant joy turned to terror in him.

Troi gave a cry to the others.  
"Borg! They've entered Fluidic Space!  
And a living ship I know called Tinman!  
He's being chased by the Cube!  
We've got to save them both! Tam Elbrun, his pilot is desperate about it and about them!"

"What?!" Kirk shouted.

Just then, the Hunter's bioship jolted to a halt and started hissing, turning in the direction of the new invasion to its home seas. It dropped Delta Flyer from its tow like an old discarded food can and shot towards the Soulless One scent it had detected. As yet, it didn't call for help from other bioships. %%The Enemy comes here? Where?%% it said as it swam away from the Federation people,  
leaving them still inside the crippling Hawking's radiation wake.

##No! Don't! ## everyone on Delta Flyer suddenly heard in their heads from Tam,  
directed to the Hunter's ship. Then again at themselves. ##Don't let this Borg Cube envoke a berserker state in Species 8472. The battle will weaken Omega's stability here in this dimension even further!! The nova has heavily damaged Borg Territory.. And they KNOW who did it! Oh, g*d! Don't let it begin! We don't want this galaxy to die#  
~~We don't want this galaxy to die!!~~ both ship and Betazed pilot keened in intense emotional pain.

Dr. Crusher immediately turned on the Universal translator. "Tam Elbrun? Captain,  
he's an old patient of Troi's. His ship's power is immense. If it dies of its injuries Tam goes with it!"

In an instant, everyone shot into action.

-  
(attachments)

Image : Deanna Troi talking to Beverly.

Image: Data and the Betazed Tam Elbrun.

Image: The living ship Gom'Tuu (Tinman)

*animated gif * A Borg Cube zooming right at you.

*  
From : "Cory Anda" Subject : We're Going In... Date : Tue, 15 Oct 2002 19:24:49 +0000

##No! Don't! ## everyone on Delta Flyer suddenly heard in their heads from Tam,  
directed to the Hunter's ship. Then again at themselves. ##Don't let this Borg Cube envoke a berserker state in Species 8472. The battle will weaken Omega's stability here in this dimension even further!! The nova has heavily damaged Borg Territory.. And they KNOW who did it! Oh, g*d! Don't let it begin!

In an instant, everyone shot into action.

Ambassador Spock had an image of Tam Elbrun instantly from his deep recall and knew right away what he was dealing with.

Reginald, was simply terrified, and it showed on his face. He fluttered over the tactical panel uselessly.

Spock gave him an order. "Lt. Barclay. Extend shields two thousand meters forward!"

Nervousness made Reg commit the order in seconds. Delta Flyer's deflectors groaned as they decorporealized and formed to their new configuration and the hull protested.

Inside everyone ducked as metal complained loudly from the vacuum pressure change forcing living liquid forward as it progressed.

The apex of the shields impacted the bioship in its charge towards the Borg Cube and it went spinning. Its rear tentacle dropped the stone locked Omega cluster it had forgotten about. It spun once, as if eyeing the Delta Flyer in puzzlement, but then the Hunter brought its attention to bear on the Borg Cube approaching sharply. It coursed daintily, skirting around Tinman at high speed and darted out of sight, leaving the Omega'ed stone mass behind.

Spock finetuned the shields to bubble around the Omega comet, drawing it inside the field to where the nannites could reach the meteor. They used their abilities to slow its momentum as Spock had Reg reshrink the shields back to their normal shape once more to nestle around Delta Flyer.

Reg finally understood what Spock had done.  
"You took the grenade out of the Hunter's hands.." he said wanly with partial amazement.

Spock said. "Only temporarily. No doubt when the bioship's attention shifts away from fury,  
it will remember the only weapon still functional in here. Until then, we should find a way to conceal it. "

On the tactical screen that Holozimm had up on their positioning, bioship and Borg Cube seemed to merge as they began to face each other in a testing circle,  
Both were winking orange on the display,  
showing impotent weapons because of the supernova's radiation wash. Barclay sighed in relief at that finding.

Spock told the others to leave the combatants alone when Chakotay started to scramble for a way to get their own weapons on line. "They cannot engage each other, nor communicate to the outside to gain reinforcements. It is quite an advantage for us to have Hawking's radiation filling this region and surrounding both the Cube and the Hunter's bioship."

Chakotay stood. "Let me get this straight. You mean that other podship and its crew of one isn't dangerous?" he asked the cabin crew at large.

"No, they aren't." Deanna said, rising to her feet.  
"Tam and Gom'tuu aren't on the offense. In fact, they're doing quite the opposite."

Data spoke, finally in control of his emotion chip from the fright he had of an old friend maybe being in harm's way. "Commander, send an away team over to Gom'tuu. Its injuries are severe. Tam may yet lose his telepathic tie to him unless we move quickly to prevent it."

Reginald's memory had finally punched through his panic mode. "I agree Chakotay. I.. uh,  
it's all coming back to me now about Tinman.  
The mental link with ship and pilot weakens when either one is physically damaged. If.  
if..if..we contact Tam. Perhaps he can have Tinman dock us internally so we can just.  
just.. open a hatch then, to..assist them.."

Janeway was closely listening from her place on the floor. "Do it.. The sooner we confirm their alliance to Delta Flyer, the better chance we have of surviving an encounter with the Cube if it manages to ram its way past the 8472 bioship.  
That Borg vessel doesn't have to have weapons at this point to do serious damage. Delta Flyer's an ant in size comparison. All it has to do is rub us the wrong way to breach our hull through the shields. And I shudder to think what might happen if the Borg catch wind that we are in possession of even more Omega.."

Seven's head lifted from her place near Khan and she spoke up. "Captain. They must not have Omega. If the Collective at large learns of its abundant existence here, there'd be no stopping a fatal resurgence in the 8472/Borg conflict." she said, trembling. The impact of feeling Omega's nearness was deeply effecting her.

Khan smiled and said nothing.

Spock added, "Yes, I see. Fatal, as in meaning our own demise..."

Janeway started to get up but Riker pinned down her shoulder with a boot with his good leg in a gentle reminder about her positional nausea. "D*mn,  
that's right. I hate this.." she muttered.  
"Spock. Get Tam Elbrun on comm. Dr.  
Crusher's got the right idea turning on the universal translator. We might not be able to count on that man's telepathy to send to us everything Gom'tuu is thinking.." Her eyes darted around as she fought to keep still on her back to avoid getting green.

Barclay spoke up. "Already done.."  
When Spock turned to him to raise an amazed eyebrow, he replied.  
"I anticipated that possibility once Tam screamed that part about not wanting to lose our galaxy.. Kind galvanizes you into instant action don't you think?" Barclay cleared his throat dryly when everyone looked at him as if he had suddenly sprung a third eyeball. He filled the awkward pause.  
"Um*cough*.. Channel open sir, uh sirs.."

Chakotay put his hands on his hips.  
"Tam Elbrun. This is the Delta Flyer.  
Take us on board. The Cube has paused in pursuit. A more attractive target has their interests. We need to meet to discuss our situation. We are prepared to aid you. We have four doctors and two chief engineers on board.."

*static..*..."...It's ..t...hard.. I can't..hol.  
for mu...ong..er.. I..."

"Let us help you.." Dr. Crusher spoke up.  
"Tam. It's Beverly. There's only twenty or so of us over here. Our "noise" won't be a burden to you at all.."

Tam could be heard gasping and Barclay's subtle manipulation of frequencies cleared up the Hawking's interference. "...All right.. all right. I'll tell him.. Hurry.."  
Elbrun said.

A few moments after that, the main viewer on Delta Flyer's side wall, split from the tactical on Borg and 8472 and showed a live image of the body liquid weeping Gom'tuu,  
opening its maw. Its skin rings were fluctuating with distress as its own movements carrying out Tam's mental order made its pain spike to new levels. It's terminal mouth stopped irising open and it began to writhe in discomfort as it tried to obey.

Data spoke. "Gom'tuu. Focus on what this will gain for you. We will be able to see each other again... and.. I have many many stories to share with you since we last saw each other. Delta Flyer is not big. Twenty by thirty meters is sufficient for engulfment."

Tinman's keen sounded like a speared Earth humpback as it settled and accepted the new information. %% Androidlife. I understand. I hurt, but we must connect.  
My heart was wounded by the dying star.  
I feel it beginning to fail. %%

Everyone heard that pronouncement with a shock. Bashir and the other doctors frowned and all suddenly hit upon the idea of turning on their medical tricorders to scan Tinman as he took Delta Flyer out of the radiant fire of contaminated Fluidic Space and into its huge body. Delta Flyer was just a mote inside Gom'tuu as it settled on Gom'tuu's 'tongue'. The great maw closed, shutting out the blinding light of the outside.

Darkness filled Delta Flyer..

"Lights!" Barclay said. And the cabin's front compartment illuminated with what light panels weren't damaged. He glanced down at his sensor readings. "There's breathable atmosphere and sufficient heat surrounding Delta Flyer.."

"Let's go.. Everybody out..We have to get out of this coolant gas leak, now. Take medkits and any equipment needed. Tam might be hiding injuries. Moriarty, Regina.. You help Riker to the aft hatch." Chakotay said. "We'll take what supplies and equipment we need to help Tinman." he glanced at Geordi.. "Glad you brought that personal engineering equipment along specific to bioneural technology. Perhaps Gom'tuu's no different than Voyager. Then you will be able to help out greatly.."

Geordi said. "But isn't Gom'tuu alive? If he's suffering a trauma related heart attack, the doctors would be better off h--"

"He's still a ship in a ship's configuration. Your knowledge will still be valuable in aiding the doctors while they try to treat him.."  
Chakotay replied. "B'Elanna will be right beside you all the way.."

"You bet I will." Torres muttered. "And Tom will be our medic's advisor about any physiological details."

Paris protested. "I don't know Tinman's anatomy.."

"No, but you can recognize a neural pathway.  
Or signs of shock when you see it.." The EMH added. "Lord knows Kes and I taught you well enough to do at least that.. Keep these bumbling grease monkeys over here from screwing things up while they're working.." he said, about Geordi and Torres.

Both engineers grunted in muffled snorts at the holodoc's sarcasm.

Boothby spoke up. "This is proving to be a very interesting away mission. Jeered at by raving 8472 citizens, butt kicked by a supernova and eaten like Jonah all in the same day.. What joy.."

Chakotay grinned, and so did all the others. The commander shifted out of the way while Riker was hobbled aft towards the airlock. He continued his gameplan. "Holozimm, Data, get a litter for Kathryn. No doubt there will be enough space out there to park her once we're off the Flyer." he told those two quietly, so Captain Janeway wouldn't overhear.  
"She isn't going to like continuing to be an invalid like this. So we'd better get her near the action in the meantime."

Data spoke up. "Commander. Torres's irradiated biosuit is blocking our exit out the airlock. It will have to be removed before we can proceed disembarking.."

"Oh. That's right." Chakotay frowned.

Tam's emotional tenor boomed around them through the comm and inside their heads. ##That won't be a difficulty.  
Gom'tuu can dispose of it through his atmosphere tube...Just hurry.. I can feel him growing more chaotic and he isn't telling me all that's wrong with him.##

Dr. Pel thought. ::That's because your faithful ship is trying to keep YOU from fussing Tam Elbrun.:: "We'll be able to give you answers very soon, Tam.." she said, hefting her tricorder.  
"So far, Gom'tuu's lifesigns are still strong."

##Do you want me to direct him to take us out of the radiation swathe?## Tam asked.

"No.. " Chakotay said. "That Hawking's energy is now our best friend. Inside of it,  
Neither the Borg nor the Hunter can use their weapons on us as long as we're under it. " On a thought, the Commander asked. "Tam,.. can Tinman see what the Cube and Bioship are doing? Our own sensors are blocked right now."

##They are staring each other down and issuing threats to each other..##

Captain Janeway smiled. "They've no bite so they'll just bark alot.." she said as she was lifting from the floor on an antigrav.."Typical of both of them.."

Barclay shivered. "Until the Hunter remembers we took his bolo away."

Spock spoke up. "Omega is now concealed.  
And so are we. If we have Gom'tuu emit some of Delta Flyer's thruster exhaust down stream, it may trick them into thinking we've regained propulsion and have disappeared out of Fluidic Space."

"Begging your pardon, sir. But shouldn't we be leaving for home right about now? I..I ..I think that Starfleet should know that a Borg/8472 hotspot might be about to erupt.." Reg asked.

"They don't know we're here lieutenant. Borg are very literal minded. They need their Queen to think globally and I took care of her permanently, five years ago. " she grinned. "They'll just see Tinman and the trail and think the only option they can conclude from it."

The Vulcan ambassador folded his hands into his robe's sleeves as he considered. "We are now responsible to deal with Omega, as is the captain's primary directive now, lieutenant.  
Janeway had no choice but to follow it once more to the exclusion of all else."

McCoy piped up. "And that means, we don't go home anytime soon.."

Reg's face fell.

Soon, the aft hatch was clear of the hot EVA suit and the false engine trail released out of Gom'tuu to the currents.

Everyone in Delta Flyer, laden with the injured,  
equipment and rations, entered Tinman.

Tam Elbrun met them personally outside Delta Flyer. He no longer had to use his telepathy to speak to everyone. "Hello.  
Deanna. It's good to see you again.. Data.  
And all.. Please.. Come this way.. Don't worry about me.. This bruise is superficial."  
he said feeling the lump on his cheek when the doctors tried to descend on him. He backed away as the presence of other minds into his own after years of solitude with only Tinman's thoughts smothered him.

Troi spoke up. "Tam remember what I taught you.." she said intently, touching his arm.  
"Think of something else.."

Tam jerked his arm away, recoiling for a second. "I'm sorry. Give me a moment.  
It's.. it's so loud. I'm fine. I'll be fine...."

Spock allowed Counselor Troi to speak with Tam calming him down and he thought.  
::His situation of uncontrolled telepathic contact had been a case of much study for those Vulcans suffering Bendai's syndrome.  
What the Betazeds learned from Tam helped my father gain a few years of mental clarity.  
I should like to help Tam block out other minds if I can. No doubt no Vulcan has had the chance to see Tam before he ran away with Gom'tuu..::

Captain Janeway's antigrav stretcher was floating nearby and she spoke up. "Tam Elbrun. We need to know Gom'tuu's condition and a few tactical facts about his strengths.. If the Borg decides to attack you again--"

Elbrun put a hand to his temple as he fought to tone down the noise in his head. His expressions shifted from struggle to polite mannerisms in a blink,  
but he said. "We weren't attacked captain. The supernova wounded Tinman.  
We just got the Cube angry enough to pursue us instead of going straight to the remnant Queen Borg City with its report on the presence of Omega here in Fluidic Space."

Janeway said. "You mean they don't know it's here? "

"Only that Cube out there knows.." Tam said, biting his lip in stress and worry for Gom'tuu. The living ship grunted in pain in a cacaphony in the background as its heart beat sped up on the spike of a cramp. Elbrun grasped his own chest in a grip. "Easy Gom'tuu. The doctors are here.." Tam said gently. "They'll be able to help you.."

Dr. Pel and the EMH were discussing options very fast a little ways past the group speaking with Tam Elbrun..

"I know we don't possible have the ability to medicate a ship the size of Gom'tuu!"  
the EMH shouted at Denara.. "I wasn't even going to have us attempt that. But have you ever heard of acupuncture and pressure points?  
We could use repelling pegs to use to treat him.."

"Oh, and what about his cardiac function?  
We can't just seal up his wounds there with phasers.." she argued.

"And why not..?" Holozim countered.  
"Janeway did it with a spatial creature once with Voyager's.."

"And Seven of Nine might be persuaded to use her medical nanoprobes to repair his tissues.." the EMH added.

"Don't forget the nannites.." Holozimm piped up. "They're itching for permission to leave Delta Flyer to go exploring."

"They both stay where they are.." Dr. Pel snapped. "Last thing Tinman needs is a million foreign bodies spreading like an infection.. He might have an allergic reaction to them."

Julian Bashir said. "I agree with Dr. Pel.  
First do no harm.."

Dr. Crusher said, "Maybe we can find a happy medium. Localize the micro repairs to only one wound at a time using them. Gom'tuu's immunity should be able to handle a small bioinvasion like that. He's already handling the Hawking's radiation impacting his hull lacerations.."

"Hadn't thought of that.." the EMH said.

"Fine then.. " Dr. Pel said, "We're in consensus. First, I think we should let the engineers see what they can do before we--"

A shout drew all four doctors attentions back over to the group meeting Tam.  
It was Barclay..

"Come quickly!! Something's happening to Captain Janeway and Commander Riker!"

The doctors all rushed over as fast as they could over Tinman's flesh to their side.

Riker was grimacing and gripping his injured ankle while Janeway was doing the same with her head with both hands.

"Captain? Commander? What's wrong..?"  
the EMH shouted at them as they all pulled out their medical tricorders and passed bioprobes for an initial status reading.

Janeway's face twisted and she didn't speak, until... her mouth burst open with tremendous laughter.. "Ahh! It tickles!  
It started a few seconds ago." she trickled. "First, my skin started crawling and then.. Hey.." she said, when the sensation suddenly left. "It's gone.."

Then she knew.. "My head.. It's better.."

"What?" Chakotay said, steadying her floating antigrav..

"No, I'm serious.. I think I can-" and then she did sit up. Three of the doctors hastily shot out protective arms but the captain did not get ill nor dizzy. At all.

There was no sign of head injury any more in Kathryn.

Tam spoke up.. "Oh, I forgot to tell you about Gom'tuu's quirk. He likes to faun over guests.  
He's imparted some of his bioenergy to heal all your injuries.."

"That's sheer craziness!!" McCoy complained.

Dr. Pel said. "I agree. He should be conserving that strength for himself to deal with his internal injuries.!!"

Tam held up defensive hands. "What's just an atom of a drop of energy to a living ship Tinman's size? Remember how tiny we are in relation to him. Relax.. Now, he just told me he did so because he needed his new helpers intact enough to render aid,  
now let's not hurt his feelings by being ungrateful.. ok??" he said.

Janeway swung her legs over the side of the litter and the EMH hastily adjusted its height so all she had to do was step off to be standing. "Thank you Tam for setting us straight. And thank you Gom'tuu." she said,  
patting a protuberance near her. "We'll do everything we can to return the favor."

She silently gestured for Chakotay and the doctors and all to start heading to the area of the worst cardiac damage in Gom'tuu.

She glanced back at Riker to see how he had fared with his foot during the bizarre application from the living ship.

Tam turned, saying to Data and Counselor Troi. "I'm so glad I remembered you two.  
Tinman had forgotten about Enterprise once we were together. But I had much of my humanity left still even after our permanent bonding. Guess you can't drum out your natural heritage."

"Boy do I understand that.." said both Holozimm and the EMH simultaneously.

"And I.." said Seven thoughtfully.

"And I.." said Khan, with hidden meaning.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Barclay looking calm. (Zounds, that can happen?)

*animated gif* Spock raising his eyebrow.

Image: Janeway injured, on her back

Image: Data and Tam inside Gom'tuu.

*****************************

From: "Cassidy Meyers" Date: Sun Oct 20, 2002 6:33 pm Subject: Heart Drive..

Tam turned, saying to Data and Counselor Troi. "I'm so glad I remembered you two.  
Tinman had forgotten about Enterprise once we were together. But I had much of my humanity left still even after our permanent bonding. Guess you can't drum out your natural heritage."

"Boy do I understand that.." said both Holozimm and the EMH simultaneously.

"And I.." said Seven thoughtfully.

"And I.." said Khan, with hidden meaning.

Dr. Crusher had put away her tricorder once she realized that Gom'tuu's healing had no ill effects on Riker nor Janeway.

It had been years since the Tinman incident and the events of that time were still very very fresh in her mind. She wondered if Tam Elbrun was indeed changed from the anxiety ridden, nervous wreck he had been before the living ship had found and accepted Tam as his new pilot. ::If anything. He looks much much more directed and focused then when Deanna and I last saw him on the Enterprise.:: She smiled and crouched by Tam's side, by seating on a niche in the wall. Tinman's substance felt warm underneath her and she had the overwhelming sensation of being warmly regarded by Gom'tuu. ::If I can feel that, I'm sure Deanna must be dripping the sensation out of every pore.. It must be some innate projected empathy Gom'tuu must be able to project to any crew.:: "Tam, you look well. I hope having only the twenty eight of us here won't be too much of a mental burden concerning your continuous telepathic link syndrome."

Tam smiled and focused his very very black eyes on the doctor and took her hand. "My dear Beverly. Forgive my earlier reactions when Gom'tuu first took your shuttlecraft on board.  
It was just the residuals you all were having on losing one of your crewmates and the memory of the way the Albino 8472 had treated you. I....had no idea that any 8472 could be so,... callous towards any other race besides the Borg. It just shocked me for a moment, that's all."

Beverly's mouth flopped open and she waved Troi over to join them when she saw she was done assuring herself that Janeway and Wil were all right. "Tam, you mean you have a continuous link with all the 8472 that's mutual unlike the one way connection you have with other humanoids?"

"Yes." Elbrun sighed. "I become aware of them whenever a faction of them comes into this dimension to harrass the Borg.  
They are sort of a spectator's hobby for Tinman.." he said with a touch of embarrassement.

"Then you know everything that's happened to us on Earth and about Captain Janeway's thwarted trial." Troi said.

"Oh, yes.. That's when Tinman and I decided to try and find you all. Normally, we mind our own businesses by traveling from galaxy to galaxy trying to find other telepaths like me who want come aboard Gom'tuu to be part of the crew. I...I..usually screen perspectives on trading worlds. I remembered how much Deanna here was attached to Commander Riker and his people so we came to see if the 8472 had a hidden agenda to add Earth to their list of conquest targets."

"So are they?" Deanna asked frankly.

"Oh, no.. it was just as the Hunter 8472 said. An isolated satellite aging faction with inflated delusions of right and wrong."  
Tam sighed in muted admiration for his link with the Hunter whenever the bounty seeker chose to give him details on what Tam learned just by "listening".;  
"What a wonderfully ordered mind that one has. He's a true patriarch for all that's civil and traditional for his people.  
He's dead set on ending the Albino faction's throwback behaviors and is greatly ashamed for the harm done to you all by them."

"He is?" Beverly asked. Somehow, in her mind, picturing the huge towering Hunter 8472 being embarrassed for them seemed an impossible concept.

Deanna caught some of Beverly's amusement on the idea for she suddenly laughed openly.  
"I'm sorry Beverly, but your split emotions right now learning about that are very refreshing.."

Gom'tuu around them brightened physically as he picked up on Tam reading the same story from his guests. But then the ship subtly shifted under their feet as its wounds begun to hurt it again.

Tam likewise winced in sympathy. "We must go to Gom'tuu's heart chamber right away.  
I thought some idle conversation with you through me for him might help in eliminating some of his pain but it isn't working.."

"Show us the way.." the EMH said. "We've only a few medkits but B'Elanna Torres and Geordi LaForge here are top of the line ship's engineers. They will be able to do more.."

"We know.." Tam said to the holodoc.  
"I can read their minds, remember?  
Permanent channel on, in here.." he said,  
tapping his head.

"Oh..." said the EMH. "I've heard of your disorder in the annuals of Betazed medicine at Starfleet Academy where I lecture nowadays.  
I was wondering if you might clarify a few things about some of the worse of your symptoms on bad days. We didn't have much to add to that chapter when you and Tinman bonded and suddenly departed this galaxy back then."

"I'll try to correct that oversight.." Tam Elbrun said eagerly. "But first, let's see to Gom'tuu.  
He's really feeling his wounds now.."

"Of course.." Beverly said.

Chakotay and Captain Janeway chose to accompany this first trip to Gom'tuu's heart drive. They left it open for the others to choose to come along or to remain behind with the Delta Flier for food and rest.

All four holograms came with the group.

Tam paused as they walked by Seven of Nine. Elbrun suddenly gripped Seven's face in a very tender touch with both hands as a teacher would a student. "I know how it is to be without a sense of individuality Seven. But you are fast becoming yourself even more than you realize. Just hang in there. The Borg didn't dampened your soul in the slightest despite their rearing you.  
I've been in your shoes about not knowing "who I am" in relation to others. Stay going just as you are and pursue what you know will make you happy and you'll find peace.  
I and Gom'tuu both, can sense this about you."

Seven didn't know how to respond to Elbrun and simply said, "Thankyou.. I shall endeavor to further my individuality.  
Captain Janeway has been greatly influentual in aiding me in my studies so far at the Academy."

Chakotay turned to speak when Tam finally rejoined him at the front of the group while they walked with medkits and scanning and engineering equipment to help Tinman's heart drive troubles.  
"Not that I don't trust the abilities of Gom'tuu to protect the Delta Flyer,  
but are you sure your continuous tie to the 8472 won't give away our position inside Gom'tuu?"

"Oh, no Commander. Can you tell where a radio station is by listening to a music program? No, we are aware of each other and each other's thoughts but that's all. They know I've stopped Tinman here in Fluidic Space for repairs and surgery but that's all. Gom'tuu is blotting out any mention or thought we may have on Omega. Have no fear. Tinman's synergy with me gives me partial control of what I do or don't broadcast through my mind."

Chakotay relaxed and he nodded to Janeway.

Kathryn was marvelling at Gom'tuu's internal features. "So Gom'tuu is truly a living ship? Like an 8472 bioship?"

"He is a living being, captain." Tam explained.  
"The bioships are just living machines. Completely different, Kathryn. uh, I may call you Kathryn? I'm sorry. It's just that I already know everything about you."

Captain Janeway nodded accomodatingly.  
"Don't worry about it. That is my name.  
And this is a recovery mission for Tinman.  
Here we're just two people with ailing ships."

"Delta Flyer isn't that badly damaged is it?"  
Elbrun said with some worry.

"Not especially, some radiation scorching and coolant leaks. I'm sure Tom Paris will get her in order as quick as he can."  
Janeway reassurred him.

Holozimm was like a kid in a candy store.  
"Wow. It's so different seeing the real Gom'tuu after all those Starfleet records I downloaded about him. They just don't do him justice.." he said at large.

The EMH chided the young hologram.  
"Since when has any Starfleet report given the whole picture of any encounter with an alien lifeform..?" he said sarcastically.

The Countess Regina was entranced.  
"Mort.." she addressed Moriarty. "Is this truly a space going whale we're inside?"

Moriarty took her hand and led her around some glowing filaments as the group progressed to their destination. "More like a very large gastropod pet. One that befriends and serves his crew through bonds. Although at the moment. It seems his only one is Tam Elbrun.."

Regina's face fell at that. "Oh, he must be very lonely.."

"Not really. Didn't you hear what the gentleman has imparted to all of us darling? He needs the solitude to ease his mental noise from others."  
When her faced frowned on the idea of telepathy he added. "It's like being in a very very crowded room, where people are talking so much and you can hear them so well, that it overwhelms you."

Regina asked innocently sensible. "Well can't he just cover his ears..?"

"Never mind.." Moriarty said gently.  
"Watch your step dear."

Khan was watching Tam Elbrun closely,  
and it seemed that the Betazed couldn't read genetically engineered human thoughts.  
::Good.:: he thought. ::Then he won't know what I'm up to. And so far, Seven of Nine has managed to hide our secret as well. :  
He smiled deeply as he followed the others.

Every once in a while, Deanna held out her hand to touch Tinman. She could vaguely sense his emotions, but even those were drowned out by the continuous defensive backwash Tam was casting out unconsciously.  
::Tam's forgotten all my mind exercises.  
I hope Mr. Spock can quickly teach him control. Lord knows what might happen to Tam if Gom'tuu has to head into the solar system for repairs from Starfleet Medical.::

Then they were all there and what they found stunned them all.

Gom'tuu's heart drive was massive,  
about what they expected, a bleeding wounded sixteen meter high organ,  
but it was shot through with pock marks and the holes were ..glowing....

Dr. Crusher gasped when she lifted her tricorder.. "Oh, my god.. are these what I think they are?"

Tam held a hand to a chamber wall of his friend. "Gom'tuu.. Why didn't you tell me this was happening?!"

Janeway's eyes widened in shock.  
"There's Omega crystals in this tissue.. And they're growing...."

-  
(attachments)

Image: Dr. Crusher with long hair in a cargobay.

Image: Deanna Troi with Commander Riker in the background.

Image: Tinman in orbit of a star.

Image: Omega as seen on a Borg Schematic.

*  
From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Cardiac Countermeasures~~ Date : Sun, 27 Oct 2002 12:50:31 +0000

Tam held a hand to a chamber wall of his friend. "Gom'tuu.. Why didn't you tell me this was happening?!"

Janeway's eyes widened in shock.  
"There's Omega crystals in this tissue.. And they're growing...."

Tasha Yar felt distinctly uneasy at that discovery, and rubbed her arms in a sudden chill. "Does that mean that Tinman has become some kind of flying bomb? From what Holozimm has shown me, Omega molecules are highly unstable."

Captain Janeway regarded Lt. Yar with a thoughtful expression. "My guess is that Gom'Tuu has metabolic processes which can halt any of Omega's inherent instabilities. Why else would they be growing into larger crystals here.  
Extraordinary.." she said, leaning in to the ship's wounded place. She stepped out of the way when the four doctors moved in to scan the area in more detail with their tricorders.

Captain Kirk had been quiet, following along with the group, learning the situation.  
He was waiting for Spock to step in with his usual scientific expertise, but Tinman must have been an unknown, for the ambassador was just as in the background as he found himself to be. So he turned on the uncaptain like diplomacy on Tam.  
"Mr. Elbrun.."

"Sir?" Tam said, pulling on a lip as he watched the doctors fuss over Tinman.

"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage here. You can read my mind even before I can say anything." he said, with a cock eyed grin.

"Oh." Tam sighed nervously. "I can. But I can choose to ignore the impressions.  
Usually the tone and flavor of someone's thoughts are completely different than the mental image I get. Please.....go on with what you are saying.."

"Very well. Can you tell me more about what happened out there? How you found out about the Borg being targetted by the super nova.."  
Kirk asked.

Lt. Yar moved over to the conversation to be at the ready and just listened.

"Oh, it was quite by chance, captain.." Tam said wide eyed and fearful. "Gom'tuu scented the 8472 coming out of their seas like he always does, rather like a hound on a rabbit..Heh."

Kirk's steady smile never wavered, but it was a plastered and serious one. "I see."

"So we left the galactic skirt, and went to track them. Imagine our horror when the albino faction came out with Omega buzzing harmonics in their possession and they immediately made war on the nearest Borg vessels between them and the nearest normal space star.." Tam sat down,  
weak kneed at the memory. "I told Tinman to bank around. To...lay low, thinking that this battle was going to be like all the others.  
Just a sortie and a star formation like the Borg and Species 8472 boringly perform time and time again.. But we were wrong captain." Tam's face filled with tears.  
"I saw one of the bioships Gom'tuu had tasted as older albino sacrifice itself into the star's corona. It was the only one buzzing in subspace and, and we didn't realized until to late that they were triggering Omega to cascade..."  
Tam's mouth flopped open as he remembered a nightmare. "The star,...disappeared, captain.  
Utterly.. I- I- I've never seen any nova quite like it.. Gom'tuu told me it was.  
angry.. somehow.. I.." he got to his feet, laying a gentle hand on his companion ship, feeling Gom'tuu's gentle mental presence calming his reeling emotions.  
"Then we were wounded, most grieviously.  
stellar concussion and backlash is what hurt Gom'tuu doctors.." he said in sudden announcement out loud to them over Kirk's shoulder. "Despite all that, I knew then I had to stop the battle's spread.  
The initial Cubes were destroyed in the super nova.. and those first few albino bioships sent in to run interference. But always.. always, the 8472 kept a dimensional portal running open, sliding ahead of the nova's shockwave, so..that...more.  
could pour out.. Gom'tuu and I were bleeding, but we acted when another buzzing bioship suddenly appeared in another parsec from where we were floundering. I remember screaming.. "No! Gom'tuu.. Do not allow..."  
and Tinman did it.. He spun in reaction, and he kicked subspace and it sent the Borg away from the bioship. And the bioship was cast back into Fluidic Space with its biodrive inoperable. " Tam's eyes met the living ground and he said more. "That was when that Borg Cube outside misunderstood. They must have thought I was attacking them,  
not preventing another Omega rigged bioship from entering normal space.. They gave chase and we ran.. But then our injuries started to weigh us down and then I realized that Gom'tuu's heart was punctured like this. I panicked, and told Gom'tuu to find...all of you.. You see, I remembered your kindness.."  
Tam said quietly, looking at Deanna.

"You did the right thing, Tam.." Deanna Troi said, setting a hand on his shoulder.

Tasha piped up. "Yes.. you bought us all time to stop any more bioships carrying Omega from leaving Fluidic Space."

Kirk held up a hand, silencing the two ladies.  
"Tell me something Mr. Elbrun.. Can Gom'tuu scent...the albino, in here? Inside Fluidic Space?"

"Oh, yes, captain. He's quite good at tracking quarry once he knows its essence.."

"Good. How discerning is Tinman, Tam? Can he tell how many of them still carry Omega? We've learned that only that faction of Species 8472 is doing it..." Kirk asked quickly.

"Gom'tuu's pain is masking his outer senses, but if your doctors can heal some of this damage in the heartdrive, he'll be able to pierce the seas for about ten light years distance by comparison.." Tam replied.

Kirk walked over to where he saw the doctors working and watched them discuss and try one thing, only to try another to heal the flesh around the Omega craters.  
"As wounded as he is.. Tinman may be our only hope to end this third world war escalation of the Borg/8472 conflict.."

Tasha spoke aloud to the doctors.  
"That can't be working.." she said to them.  
"Omega's foreign.. How can someone heal around a splinter? And there's hundreds of energetic molecules here.." she said in frustration.

Dr. Crusher looked up. "We know. This is just a temporary patching to stop some of this bleeding. If we can't, the heartdrive will weaken and stop functioning. And believe me, there's no way on Earth any of us will be able to revive it then. We would need at least two ships with tractors to perform life supporting compressions on it."

"For starship sized CPR?" Adra said incredulously.  
"Oh, please.. now I've heard it all.." she said and stalked off to go sit on Delta Flyer's hull.

Kirk and Yar and Crusher ignored her.

The EMH spoke up without looking up "This is all seat of the pants emergency medicine.. I can safely say all of us are in new territory here. I'd say Beverly's idea is one of the more sounder protocols we've managed to come up with..for.  
"just in case" I'll have you know.."

Captain Janeway moved nearer Chakotay.  
"Just how possible is it that Gom'tuu's heartdrive will arrest like that with these kinds of injuries..?"

The EMH said. "About a fifty fifty chance."

She sighed fast, not liking it.

The holodoc interrupted her, raising his hands, "Now that's if, and only if, we can't stop this hemorrhaging within,  
say the next two hours.."

Chakotay set his hands on his waist,  
considering. "Captain. Remember. Starfleet did say they were hastening Voyager's recovery from the bay just for us. We could repair Delta Flyer, go outside Fluidic Space.  
Deliver the message that we need Voyager for medical reasons and then get right back in here before that Borg Cube ever finds out we've peeked out our heads.."

Janeway gave a wry look of amusement.  
"Oh, boy. That would be one h*ll of a subspace message. "Hi, admirals,  
President Avalonii. Please hurry and kick Voyager our way, we need her as a defibrillator standby, giant sized.." ".

Chakotay chuckled. "More like a thumper."

Janeway's face fell into one of worry and she regarded Kirk's steady eyes in wearing seriousness. "We command types are only in the way here. This is doctor/  
engineer territory.. Why don't some of us go back to Delta Flyer and make repairs so we can deliver that message by your plan, Chakotay, if necessary. I want it to be an option we can use to ensure Gom'tuu's continuance."

"I agree with everything you are saying, captain." Lt. Yar said. "Seems more and more that Tinman's the only ship capable of dealing with Omega,  
and keeping the 8472 and Borg from murdering each other with Omega,  
and taking us with them.."

"All right.. I'm no Torres, Tom or B'Elanna. But I do know my way around that Flyer. Between all of us, we should be able to run repairs in a positive gain until they're done taking care of Gom'tuu's most life threatening problems.  
Let's go. Chakotay, come with us or stay. Doesn't matter. We're guessing all around here anyway.."

Harry Kim ran up to them.. "Ah, maam,  
uh, I mean captain.. "

"Yes, Harry?" Janeway said, turning from the direction she was heading.

"Sorry to slow you up but that's exactly what I'm doing over there by Gom'tuu's heart drive.. I'm not a medical man,  
Tom is.. Can I come along and help out all of you?"

Kirk grinned. "The more the merrier.  
Come on, ensign.. It takes at least three to crack open that aft compartment to the impulse drives.."

Khan was watching all the discussion between the Starfleet officers and Tam.  
But he wasn't paying any attention.  
He had taken a special alloyed necklace from around his neck and when the doctors weren't looking, set its rim against one of the Omega molecule contaminated punctures of Gom'tuu's heart and pressed it deep until the Omega "Grain"  
tumbled inside of it. "There.. I have one at last.. Now Seven and I can see it at last. Omega perfecting itself.."

Seven of Nine had seen every move Khan made and she licked her lips in anticipation. Betraying her shipmates wasn't easy on her and Khan knew she might yet not go along with him in his quest to learn the secrets of Omega.  
So he sealed off the vial holding the blue fire of the single Omega particle and he held it up, and rattled it.

Its soul wrenching purity of sound as it contacted the metal in vibration made both Khan and Seven's hearts ache with its beauty.

Then Seven of Nine held out her hand for it like an addict for a drug.

Khan smiled.

----------------------------------

Kirk, Janeway and Yar saw that B'Elanna was already off the back med bed aft and gone to the outside to help out.

"That was fast.." Janeway said.

"Must be the Klingon in her.." Lt. Yar agreed. "Worf healed like that.."

Kirk, Tasha, Janeway and Harry had just gotten the hatch off the rear jeffries tubes leading to the Delta Flyer's impulse and warp holds, when they heard the outer hatch cycle open again.

Some one or some others, were rejoining them....

-  
(attachments)

Image: Kirk by rocks, communicating to his ship.

Gif: A bar showing only Lt. Yar's green eyes.

*animated gif* A beating organic heart.

*******************************

From : "Tyler Sherkin" t_ Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Diffusion Healing Date : Sun, 27 Oct 2002 13:16:05 -0500

Janeway glanced back at Riker to see how he had fared with his foot during the bizarre application from the living ship.  
Riker looked back at the Captain, and chuckled. "Who needs Starfleet Medical? Give me alien biogenic energy any day..."  
"I HEARD that..." came Dr. Crusher's reply fromthe other side of the room.  
Riker raised both of his eyebrows and pursed his lips in a mock, "Oh, no!" look that made Janeway laugh.  
"I guess I should be a bit more careful about what I say around here, it's such a small space." He said, jokingly, winking at Kathryn. "Alright, what can I do?"  
The EMH looked at Riker.  
"Unless you have an advanced degree in xenobiology or warp physics, I don't you can do anything to help Tinman, so its probably better to think about Voyager and the Delta Flyer."  
Riker nodded, agreeing. "Well, the Flyer is fine right now, I mean, we're inside Tinman which is, for the moment, the safest place we could possibly be. Voyager isn't in Fluidic Space, which means it should be fine for now. I think I'll go help with the engines. I WAS a pilot, in my long-ago youth.."  
"Don't say that!" said Janeway, feigning shock. "You're making me sound old!" She said, with a reproving look on her face directed at Riker.  
He flashed a smile and chuckled while he walked back to join those in the engine compartment. Janeway's eyes widened in shock. "There's Omega crystals in this tissue.. And they're growing...."  
"How do you figure the Omega molecule is replicating inside of a living organism? I mean, yeah, it can spontaneously stabilize itself, but that doesn't explain how its replicating itself, and definitely doesn't explain how its reacting inside these conditions. Do you think its using Gom'tuus own organic material, breaking it down and then reconfiguring it into its own form?"  
B'elanna thought about that for a moment.  
"Maybe it has the ability to replicate seperately, and is just using the most convenient location."  
Geordi tilted his head quickly, accepting the hypothesis. Captain Janeway regarded Lt. Yar with a thoughtful expression. "My guess is that Gom'Tuu has metabolic processes which can halt any of Omega's inherent instabilities. Why else would they be growing into larger crystals here.  
Extraordinary.." she said, leaning in to the ship's wounded place. Geordi's eyebrows popped up.  
"That's a great hypothesis!" He rushed over to the crystals, tricorder out and began scanning the molecules growing on Gom'tuu's insides.  
"You're right, Captain! The molecule has half-stabilized by itself, like it did on Voyager, but its being completely stabilized by Gom'tuus biogenic field, it's keeping everything contained. And of course it gravitates to a stable condition, so when it passed by Tinman it must have been attracted to the field."  
Geordi' smile faded and turned into a frown as he continued scanning.  
"You said it was the stellar backlash, Tam? There's some signs of radiation damage in his tissue, I think that's what is causing the problem, not the Omega molecules. The molecules don't seem to be impeding any living functions, only replicating and stabilizing. There's some radiation damage to his central cardiac system. I, think. I can't read this right, I don't know how, I've never tried to read an engine as a heart before..."  
"And you'd be wrong, Mr. LaForge. The Omega molecules are acting as a sort of splinter, keeping the wound open and causing massive problems with his heartdrive. We need to remove them if Gom'tuu is ever to stabilize. Maybe THAT is what you and B'elanna should be working on, hmm?" the doctor said flippantly.

"Right, yeah, I'll get on it." she said.  
Geordi muttered to himself about bedside manner, and the Doctor arched a critical eyebrow, giving a dry, deadpan look to the Enterprise engineer.  
Geordi wasn't even paying attention by that point, his eyes glued to his tricorder while he tried to figure out how to remove the 'splinter.' It was wedged in deep, and appeared to be growing on more than just the surface, working its way right through the space creature's hullflesh. It just couldn't be done, he thought. It was in their too deeply, so stable and locked into organized patterns. Stable and organized... "That's it!" Geordi exclaimed.  
"What's it?" asked the Doctor.  
"We have to DEstabilize the Omega molecules, then we can attract them to a mimic energy field that duplicates Tinman's biogenic field! That's the only way we can get them out of this crystal pattern, and into some kind of containment. What do you think? We could direct a field of differently modulated biogenic energy, destabilizing the crystal lattice and force the Omega molecules to look for a different place to go. Once they're unstable, they will be relatively easily manipulated, so we switch the frequency of the biogenic field, and the Omega molecules come running right into the container we want them to go into. Now, all we need is something to create a biogenic field, which I have in my Engineering Kit because we use them on bio-neural computers all the time. Doctor, do you think Gom'tuu is up to this kind of procedure, I mean, can he handle the physical stresses?"  
"Not if you plan on RIPPING Omega right out of his skin, no. That would be like me twisting a knife in you before I pulled it out." the EMH said.  
"It shouldn't be like that, Doc, we're going to break it into small pieces and basically transport the molecules out of his flesh. When they go unstable, they should be energetic enough that they'll get through without actually affecting Tinman's flesh in any harmful way. The biogenic field will only enhance that effect, it'll end up being like a diffusion effect." Geordi suggested.  
"In that case... probably. We'll have to monitor Gom'tuu as you perform this procedure to make sure he doesn't go into 'cardiac arrest' and die right here." the holodoc agreed.  
"Of course. Captain, Captain! Commander! I think we've got a way to remove Omega!"  
the Enterprise engineer said excitedly.  
Khan's ears perked as he heard this, tuning in innocently.  
Captain Janeway, and both of the slightly confused Commanders, Riker and Chakotay, walked over to where Geordi stood, field generator set up, and listened as he explained his theory and predictions. The Doctor chimed in once or twice about medical precautions and the like, but on the whole he managed to explain the procedure as something that was reasonably feasible.  
"So what do you think?"La Forge asked.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Showing Omega's heart up close.

Image: Riker from Generations, grinning at you.

************************************

From : "Cory Anda" Subject :[voyagerliveaction] Diversion Alley-- Date : Tue, 05 Nov 2002 17:34:52 +0000

Captain Janeway, and both of the slightly confused Commanders, Riker and Chakotay, walked over to where Geordi stood, field generator set up, and listened as he explained his theory and predictions. The Doctor chimed in once or twice about medical precautions and the like, but on the whole he managed to explain the procedure as something that was reasonably feasible.  
"So what do you think?"La Forge asked.

Mr. Spock had been one of those who entered the Delta Flyer after Janeway and her group did to fix the subspace Chambers Coil. He had been listening along with Reginald Barclay to Geordi's theory.

"Mr. LaForge.." Spock said steepling his hands. "What were you planning on using as the biogenic lure for Omega?  
And with what containment module to hold it once it is captured?"

Geordi glanced up from the hatchway where he was watching Janeway and Harry Kim and Kirk slowly repair the ODN conduits for usage in delivering their message to Starfleet about sending Voyager their way. "Watch that main relay captain. Try that spanner on a negatively charged induction field. It will bond faster.  
Yeah, that's it." Then he regarded Spock.  
"Sir, I was thinking of cascading the false biogenic field onto Tinman's cuboidal pests out there, the Borg Cube. You know how they always ignore small objects around their hull. Omega particles hitting them should be no different than one of our shuttles on a close fly by. They would just think the energic particles are part of the supernova blast corona.."

"What a deviously clever plot, sir..."  
Moriarty said. "It's like beating a highway robber into submission with a bag of gold unknowingly right under his very own nose...."

"They wouldn't be harmed by the Omega sanding, Moriarty. The Cube would serve merely as the magnetic draw to pull them out of Gom'tuu's heart drive.." La Forge said.

Commander Riker smiled. "The Borg are blind to anything not aggressively attacking them. Geordi, are you sure you didn't pick up a few tricks from Q?"

Geordi half grinned and licked his lips.  
"Well, I did remember the Kalamarain,  
Commander. And how they clung to Q's biogenic field to punish him but were repelled by our own self modulating shields when we tried to offer him asylum.. That's where I got the idea.."

Janeway frowned. "Now, how do we keep from having that Cube attack us? The Delta Flyer was hiding inside Tinman, its bound to have traces of Gom'Tuu's natural energy embedded onto its hull, we'd be a moving target getting into beaming range."

"Beaming range?" Harry said. "I thought we were just laying low here.."

Barclay piped up. "Mr. Kim, in order to make the Borg Cube biogenically favorable to lure Omega, an away team will have to beam on board to set up Geordi's field generator to create the effect.."

Mr. Spock added more. "It would also be continued logic to contact Starfleet and get Voyager here."

Harry bit his lip. "Uh, captain, aren't we forgetting something here?"

"What's that ensign?" she asked.

Mr. Kim finished sealing his repair and then looked at her thoughtfully. "How do we know this particular Borg ship won't remember Voyager as the ship which killed their Queen and city populations.?"

"Easy, Mr. Kim. They need their Queen to take out any initiative "revenge" action. And they simply don't have her any more. My older self made sure of that.. My guess is that our Borg Cube is simply a scout, more focused on Tinman for running interference in favor of the 8472.."  
Kathryn grinned. "Only outer perimeter Borg scout vessels and those on military maneuvers with Species 8472 would have been spared our viral plague the day we got home ensign."

"They are still strong enough..." came a mumbled reply..

All heads in the Delta Flyer looked up.

Mr. Spock asked. "Mr. Khan. Who are still strong enough?"

"That square ship out there. That,...Cube. Forgive me..I...I was just thinking to myself.." and Khan backed away, his head spinning with ideas.  
::An army. Without their head Queen. A force,  
without a leader. ::Could I be a new leader for them, per se?::

Khan could not wait for the Delta Flier to become flight and communications ready and for the whole procedure freeing Gom'Tuu from his Omega particles complete.

Captain Kirk didn't like the look he saw on Khan's face. But neither could he just shoo the man away. He saw a new necklace around his neck but its significance nor what it was, stayed in his mind. "Let's rush on this comm work all.  
The sooner we have that message out to Starfleet for Voyager, the better I'll feel.  
Mr. LaForge, start work on your idea. Captain Janeway and I will brainstorm how we can get Delta Flyer close in to the Cube for us to site to site beam without being blown from the sky for scenting like Gom'Tuu.."

Suddenly, Tam was there, inside the Flyer.  
"I heard. I'm sorry. But if I'm a telepath stuck on listen, I'm going to use it. Especially if my ship's life is dependent upon the actions of others. I have a solution to your dilemma.  
Gom'tuu can leap back into normal space long enough for you to get your subspace transmission to your Starfleet about getting Voyager here.  
The Borg Cube will think the chase begins again and will follow us, but Tinman says he has enough speed in him to get far enough ahead for you to send your message without them detecting it. Gom'tuu can just simply,  
open his mouth for you, pointed towards home.."

Janeway grinned, cockeyed, "Anything he can do to get us near the Borg Cube without being detected?"

"Sorry. He and I both apologize for changing your hull's scent. But that happens to all things in contact with Tinman. Unconscious reflex.."

"We smell?" Barclay asked, sniffing his own sleeve.

Harry smacked Reg on the stomach to hush up but Tam just bowed a little. "Not in the human olfactory sense, Lieutenant. It's more like the Delta Flyer's been pheromone tagged for easier identification to Tinman, so he can find you again.."

"A tracking signal scent.."

"Yes.."

"Well, that's our remaining problem captains.."  
Geordi sighed. "Getting the Delta Flyer against the Borg Cube hull for easy beaming.."

Janeway shivered. "I don't fancy a return to a Borg ship. I'm still remembering the drone I had become on Excelsior when Seven inadvertantly changed me instead of innoculating me against the Phage.. I don't care a return to that condition."

Spock levelled his head. "Then send your junior officers to do the mission instead. Protocol does favor such action nowdays.."

Janeway shot an acid wry look at him. "Don't remind me. That was one of the hard points I had to learn after getting back to Earth.."

Kirk chuckled. "I still can't get used to that captains stay behind rule either. And I watched that rule evolve Kathryn.."

"I love it.." Riker said empathetically.

Harry finished the repair job on the comm system. "There. Lt. LaForge. Care to check my handywork?"

Geordi raised his tricorder. "Couldn't have done it better myself.. Looks like the Delta Flyer is now subspace comm ready.."

Spock looked at Tam. "The risk to your vessel is small, Tam? For Tinman's next leap into normal space?"

"The risk is no greater than it is right now ambassador.." he answered Spock truthfully.

"It is acceptable.. We should begin the feinting run immediately.." Spock said.

"Wait. We're still going to need a helmsman to pilot Delta Flyer out to the Borg Cube."  
Janeway said, she hit her commbadge.

=^=Janeway to Paris. Respond. We need your skills Tom. Looks like we'll be playing chicken with the Borg. Game?=^=

-  
(attachments)

Image: Spock in a serious pose.

Image: A Borg Drone outside.

Image: Barclay looking tense.

Image: Janeway and Chakotay standing over Tom Paris at his helm station.

******************************

END WEEK TWENTY FOUR RECAP 11-06-02

Showcase Site

.com/group/voyagerliveaction Writer's Distribution Site.

WEEK TWENTY FIVE RECAP 11-06-02

United States Graphic Showcase Site

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***********************************

From: "Katherine Bird" .uk Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2002 17:44:06 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [voyagerliveaction] Catch as catch can...

"It is acceptable.. We should begin the feinting run immediately.." Spock said.

"Wait. We're still going to need a helmsman to pilot Delta Flyer out to the Borg Cube."  
Janeway said, she hit her commbadge.

=^=Janeway to Paris. Respond. We need your skills Tom. Looks like we'll be playing chicken with the Borg. Game?=^=

=^=Torres to Janeway.=^= came another comm call.

"That's odd." Captain Janeway said and hit her combadge. "Go ahead, B'Elanna."

"Tom's a little busy right now. He's helping the EMH steady a tractor field onto the worst of Gom'tuu's heart wound. I'd recommend you get Mr. Data for for pilotting. Can't get any better than him."

"Understood." Kathryn replied. "Keep me posted on the doctors progress with stabilizing Tinman.  
It may be a while before we get Geordi's field generator online on board the Borg Cube."

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute, captain. I'm not staying behind here."

Janeway grinned. "Oh? How so?"

B'Elanna's reply came back full of awkward assurances but rapidly became full and confident.  
"Uh,..I....Well, I know the inside of a Cube better than Lt. LaForge does, having been on several before.."

"Good point. We're just finishing up here on the Flyer. We've managed to get subspace channels clear and running. As soon as Gom'tuu can get us into normal space, the faster we can send that message to Starfleet to intercept to us with Voyager." she answered. "Why don't you join us here and bring Mr. Data with you. We'll use him instead."

"On my way captain." Torres replied.

Janeway sighed and watched as Geordi LaForge and Wil Riker closed back up the hatch they had been working on. ::Its looking more and more like our little sidetrip into Fluidic Space is ending up to be an undercover rescue operation. Of one. Gom'tuu.:: she thought.

Harry Kim almost read his captain's mind.  
"Want me to get sensors on line so we can track that Borg Cube, captain?"

"Spoken like a true Ops officer. Get on it. I want to know its position and bearing.  
Wouldn't hurt to learn what its doing in here against Species 8472 while we're hiding out like this.."

Harry Kim nodded and made his way to the front of the Flyer, throwing away debris and tangles of seats until he got to the front control panels. He sat down and looked out the forward viewport. Only Gom'tuu's substance showed, enveloping them like a great glowing living hanger but at a thought, a crack appeared,  
wide enough to show the outside and the peach plasma writhing there. Kim smiled. "Thanks,  
Gom'tuu. I needed just a peek here. Just like this."

Tam Elbrun suddenly appeared and joined Harry by sitting in the other pilot's seat. "Hello Harry."

"Hi.." Kim replied, a little self consciously. ::Man,  
must be written all over my face and other places too, that I don't like telepaths.::

Tam smiled. But the Betazoid didn't deign to say anything on the impression he had picked up. "I wanted to thank someone on the crew for helping me like this. I... feel sort of foolish for bringing my problems to your crewmates and....to Deanna.."

"You know the counselor?" Kim asked politely.

"Yes. She helped me ...cope when I was still on Betazed. My problem, you know.." he said, absently waving fingers at his head.

Kim smiled, not knowing what to say.  
But then Gom'tuu shuddered and Tam gasped in sympathy, and he said out loud. "Run Gom'tuu!"

"What's wrong?!" Harry shouted, becoming all Starfleet officer. The sensors he had just aimed through the slit in Gom'tuu's mouth showed the Borg Cube firing blind at his hull, methodically.

Tinman writhed, throwing everyone not hanging onto something to the floor.

In the heart chamber, the holodoc was livid.. "Don't move! Don't move! You'll damage your heartdrive further!!"  
The EMH reached down and grabbed Dr. Crusher and hauled her to her feet.

Dr. Pel sighed. "He's under attack, must be.. These are evasive moves.."

"Attack or no, my patient has to cease immediately or he'll just bleed to death faster..!" The holodoc snapped. "Help me here. Perhaps we can patch this arterial fuel line until whatever the reason for this craziness is, dies down.."

"Got it.." Dr. Pel gasped, playing a dermal regen over the area the Holodoc was pointing. Brown ichor poured over her shoes until their hasty repair started to work.

Eerily, the Omega particles embedded in the cardiac tissue started to glow and pulsate with Gom'tuu's spasming motions.  
And they began to grow larger..

The EMH's eyes widened. "Parasympathetic growth regeneration? This is bad. Omega's using Tinman's involuntary bioenergy to expand. Wish Tam were here. Gom'tuu has to stop, right now!! The tissue necropsy is getting worse."

"What choice do we have?... We can't tell him to just freeze in place. There must be a reason for all this motion..!" Dr. Crusher gasped, hanging onto the wall of heartflesh..

A flash of green and the stench of ozone filled their chamber as a bolt of verdant fire pierced clear through Gom'tuu's hull. In a shimmer,  
a Borg drone appeared through the hole it created.

Beverly's mouth dropped. "That's a good reason.."  
she mumbled. And she and the others ducked down as the drone turned into their direction as if seeking someone.

Deanna Troi said, "They're seeking Tam. The one who was responsible for interfering with their attack against the Albino bioship. I must warn him..!"

Suddenly, the peach fire of Fluidic Space gaping through the tear the Borg had made gaining access to Tinman, suddenly filled with stars.

::Normal space.. Gom'tuu's transferred:  
Chakotay thought. "Everybody. Stay down.  
Don't let that Borg see you.." and he hugged the shapes and spires of Tinman's internal landscape, working nearer to the drone to watch what it would do. ::So far so good.  
It's not even noticing the presence of Omega in the heartdrive. Maybe the Borg don't know what truly was the cause for that star to supernova..:: He didn't draw out his phaser,  
remembering that weapons attracted drone attention. Chakotay contented himself to watch and thought real hard to Tam about the invasion. ::One drone. Now separated from its Cube. Could be very very dicey:  
The commander thought, crawling on his stomach to get nearer.

---------------------------------------

Tam on the Delta Flyer had just told Gom'tuu to leap into normal space. He could feel his ship companion's pain with the physical motion to avoid the weapons fire from their tailing Borg Cube. "What do they want now?  
Ouch!! Oh. Chakotay says the Cube's cut a hole into Tinman and sent in a scout to look for me."

"We're being invaded?" Harry Kim gasped.

"Not anymore. I had Gom'tuu shift to normal space and prevented the rest of them from coming on board. How rude.  
It'll take a while for the Cube to find out where we exited.. There's only one drone who's made it across."

Kim didn't forget his priorities.. He squirted out his emergency message to Starfleet asking for Voyager's rendevous to their original Fluidic Space entry coordinates for the medical aid for Gom'tuu.

He received a passive reply from Earth and knew the message had been received.

Captain Janeway burst through the aft Delta Flyer doors with her phaser drawn.  
"Did you finish the subspace message?"

"Yes, captain. Got a reply ping. Voyager's on her way."

Janeway was breathing hard as if she had run out to the heart chamber to confer with Chakotay and the others about the Borg drone in their midst inside Gom'tuu.  
She nodded.  
"So far, the drone's not doing anything except recording. Seems he's stunned that Gom'tuu has no machinery suitable for assimilaton..."

"He's still functioning detached from his Cube across dimensions like this?" Harry wanted to know. "That's odd."

"Is it?" Janeway said, genuinely surprised at the idea.

Then Neelix came in from the aft hatch where he had been cowering. "Captain.  
Captain! What if that Borg were one of the individual ones the Enterprise D found that time with Lor? "

Geordi spoke up. "Wait a minute. He might even be.." he broke off as he played passive sensors over the single Borg signature showing outside near Gom'tuu's heart chamber. "...no, he's not Hugh.."

"Who's Hugh..?" Neelix asked.

"Oh, just a Borg we found in some wreckage. He had an injury to his recall self destruct chip that prevented him from ending once he was separated from his Cube. Captain Picard and Dr.  
Crusher and I repaired him to...." LaForge cut off his sentence.

"To do what?..." Neelix asked inncocently.

"Oh, never mind.." Geordi said, "It was a long time ago.."

Janeway didn't even have to ask the Enterprise engineer to what he was referring. She had read about the virus plant that Captain Picard had sent along with Hugh when he was returned to his people. She kept silent, also protecting Neelix's feelings.

Janeway said, "We can't wait for Tom. We have to get Tam Elbrun undercover.."

"Wait a minute, Captain.. I can't leave Gom'tuu.  
He'd...he'll go crazy if I leave him...."  
Tam protested..

"Would you rather that Borg drone share your location with his mothership?"  
Janeway hissed. "You asked for us to help you so let us do our job to carry that out. Just tell Gom'tuu that we're launching Delta Flyer out into space with you on board,  
long enough to hide in that asteroid field right here before our other Borg friends on the Cube show up. Surely Gom'tuu can handle that if he knows where you are.."

"Well..."

"Tam..." Janeway warned.

"Ok. ok, He doesn't like it but if it protects me, he'll endure the mental loneliness for at least a little while.."

"Tinman's not alone.. He has the rest of the away team and Data still on board.."

"Ah, yes.. Data.. Gom'tuu's very fond of Data.." Tam smiled.

"Harry Kim. Close the outer hatch. We're leaving Tinman.. Head for the thick of that asteroid field. Lucky for us, Gom'tuu popped back into normal space well away from that supernova's effects."

Kim took the Flyer out of Tinman's front oriface and followed Captain Janeway's order to hide Tam and the Flyer under cover. ::Wish you were here Tom. But looks like you're playing medic with Tinman right now...::

Delta Flyer laid low.

Chakotay saw on his tricorder that the Delta Flyer departed Gom'tuu.  
::Smart thinking, Kathryn. Get him out..:: he thought about Tam Elbrun.

He sank low behind a pillar of living ship and watched the Borg drone continue is slow, methodical scan of Tinman's inner structures. ::What is it looking for?  
Doesn't even seem to care the shuttle got away...::

Chakotay took a chance and rose to his feet, right in front of the drone..

-  
(attachments)

Image : B'Elanna Torres close up, worried.

Image: Gom'tuu/Tinman in normal space in orbit around a red star.

Image: A spectacular Borg Collage.

*******************************

From: Myron Ojala Date: Thu Nov 7, 2002 1:23 pm Subject: Oversight--

A joint post tandem effort by.. "Myron Ojala" and "Jeff Seltun" written via email over the course of a day.

Seven of Nine felt the change immediately.  
And actually felt.....fear. ::A drone? On Tinman?  
That isn't normal Borg scoutship reconnaissance:  
She thought. Still, she felt her almost inert homing beacon kick in from the close proximity to another drone. She was very very glad the EMH had lessened its hideous effect on her ever since her misadventure with the three from her home Cube. She rode out the shuddering waves of Gom'tuu's muscles as he maneuvered out of Fluidic Space into normal space, thinking hard.  
"Why would the Cube implant a scout on Tinman?  
There is nothing here worth taking."

Seven didn't know she had spoken the last out loud when Khan Singh near her answered.

"Ah, but there is my darling." Khan said.  
"You are forgetting what captivates even us so readily.." and he lifted the necklace that was around Seven's neck, and opened the chamber, showing Omega's pure blue fire within.

Seven gasped, closing her eyes, and turned away, until her fingers closed the clasp lid shut again. "Impossible. The Borg Cube knows only that Species 8472 was responsible for the damage to their space. They don't realize how. Omega, is non machine, and almost biological."

"True, Seven of Nine. But will they recognize its power.. when the time finally comes? As we do...." he whispered, caressing Seven's implanted chin softly.

Seven of Nine pulled away. "We have an agreement only to fulfill Omega's stabilization, so...." Seven gasped in anticipation. "...so we can both view the true moment of its ultimate perfection.."

"So you say..." Khan laughed low in his throat.  
"So you say...." He leaned in to Seven of Nine as she lifted her tricorder to get a bearing on Chakotay's position. "But others may use Omega for less than noble causes.. So many ..like ..the death it brings.."

Seven shuddered when she thought of Omega being perverted to kill instead of being revered.  
"The Albino 8472 are crude, they show a lack of sophistication. All they know is conquest and war.."

Khan smiled slowly. "Sort of like the Borg? You know, you were once a party to philosophy like that..."

Seven's hand exploded across Khan's cheek,  
an edge of her carpal implant cutting across his cheek, making his blood spurt.

Khan didn't even bother to stem its flow.  
"Ah, my little Borg cat. I am honorable still.  
I shall do nothing to displease you while we are still within our pact concerning Omega.  
Forgive my bluntness."

Seven slowly calmed down, torn between returning to the heart chamber and the away team or remaining behind with Khan.

The sense of duty that Janeway had instilled in her, finally won out. She abandoned Khan to Tinman's tunnels, running.

Chakotay had just risen up in front of the lone Borg scout when Seven shouted.  
"No, commander!" And she leaped,  
catching the drone's hand as it fired assimilation tubules out into Chakotay's vicinity.  
Her fast deflection prevented the attack from driving home. Seven shoved Chakotay to the ground and away from them.

"He is programmed to assimilate all crew found on this vessel.. *ugh* " Seven said as she struggled hand to hand in a stationary wrestling match of wills. "He won't try on me since he knows I am Borg.. It was foolish of you to let him know you were even there."

"Had to establish a dialogue somehow.."  
Chakotay said, pushing to his feet. "Even if it was only to elicit a physical reaction."  
Then that smile faded, and his face grew serious. "Captain Janeway..." he said,  
in an odd tone so Seven would understand,  
"..is taking evasive action with the second half. We're on foot now."

"Understood.." Seven said to him. Then she faced eye to eye with the full Borg.  
"You will cease immediately. I am Seven of Nine, Tertiary adjunct to matrix Zero Zero One.  
Will you continue to raise offensive at another drone? Perhaps you are defective..." she snapped.

The Borg drone immediately withdrew its tubules back into its wrist, but it did not stop grappling with Seven of Nine.

She grunted. "I cannot get completely through to him this way. I need to...." and she herself shot tubes into the drone's neck. The Borg scout did not flinch, nor resist.

Then it began speaking in a chorus of Borg voices. %%Resistance is ceased. Recall has been terminated. Objective to seek and assimilate ship infestations has been overridden.%%

He let go of Seven's arms and returned upright, he started once more to one of Gom'tuu's walls to carefully record its inner structure. It was as if his lunge at Seven and Chakotay had never taken place.

Seven fell to her knees.

Chakotay immediately crouched by her side, keeping one eye on the analyzing drone.  
"You ok?"

She nodded.

"Was that a smart thing to do giving him some of your enhanced nanoprobes like that? He might be able to learn from them and adapt,  
and then perhaps transfer their design to the Mother Cube.."

"Unlikely.. I've lobotomized that part of his Borg cognitive subroutine. He won't even know he's been infiltrated by them."

"Yes, but other drones might figure it out when he rejoins and links back up with them."  
Chakotay continued.

Seven actually smiled at his persistence.  
"Since when has any other drone saved a damaged one. All they do is wait for one to die of its injuries and then salvage it for parts. They don't bother retrieving a drone's nanoprobes.."

"Things might be different now that the main Borg City and Transwarp Conduit Portal has been lost to them. They might have turned to scavenging on their own kind."

Seven's confidence, finally fell a notch or two. "Then I may have just signed his death warrant.." That thought filled her with remorse. Not for the Borg drone, but for the living being that had been enslaved inside of it.

"Can you reverse what you've just did on him?" Chakotay asked, helping Seven to her feet.

"Not if you want him to continue to turn you and our crewmates into drones like him."  
Seven said with partial disgust. That disgust was aimed at herself for not thinking ahead.

"We'll worry about him later.. Come on, let's see if the others are ok, in Tinman's heart chamber."

The two of them left the drone behind, alone to its analysis.

Khan approached the drone as it busily scanned and processed the data internally with an eye beam.  
He stood a short distance away and crossed his arms. "Hello there my busy friend." He said to the drone, which ignored him. "Quite a puzzle, isn't she...?" he said watching the way Seven had run. " I've thought so ever since I laid eyes on her. Perhaps you and I can work together,  
eh? I need a ship, you need more droned crew for your Cube." Khan saw that the scanning drone still wasn't paying attention to him. So he lifted his own metallically gloved hand up to the drone's face until his Borg eye laser caught it under its green light.

The Borg was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. The first sign of machinery and metal he had seen since he transported over. The drone ignored the man inside of the glove and reached out his own appendage to touch it.

"That's it.... Come this way." Khan said. "I have quite the machine for you to assimilate right....over.....here...." and he chuckled when the drone followed him like an obedient lamb.

----------------------------------------------

Chakotay and Seven of Nine got to the doctor's sides where they were working fast to quell Tinman's resurged hemorrhaging. It cascaded down the walls in tiny seeps, in hot ichor falls of chocolate brown. Chakotay handed his phaser over to Dr. Bashir.. "Would this help?"

"Oh, yes...." Julian sighed. "What's going on now?  
Thought I heard the shuttle fire up.."

Seven answered him. "A Borg drone has been sent into Gom'tuu to scout out crew and machinery for assimilation, and the captains were forced to leave on the Delta Flyer with others to hide Tam from the Borg Cube's detection."

"That's bad.. We are trapped in here. We can't leave this wound or Gom'tuu will die.."

"I have disabled its crew assimilation directive.."  
Seven added.

"Now that's good. Stand back.."Julian said.  
"I'm going to begin to cauterize some of this bleeding.." He waved off the EMH, Dr. Crusher,  
Dr. Pel from Gom'tuu's main heart wall.

He keyed up the phaser in his hand to level two, heating, and said aloud. "Gom'tuu.  
I am helping you. This is going to smart a bit,  
but whatever you do.. Don't move..." he said,  
patting the wall of flesh nearest him..

He fired.

Gom'tuu emitted a squeal of anxiety at the first onslaught of energy into his tender wound but, obeyed, by keeping his chamber still. Soon, the paralytic aspect of phaser fire kicked in and the twitching muscles around the heartdrive's violated walls began to relax.

"There. It's working. I think we can catch up repairs to undo all Tinman suffered fleeing the Borg Cube's weapons." Dr. Bashir said.

Chakotay asked, "Well what about the hole created when the Borg was beamed on board?"

"That was in tissue that has accelerated regenerative ability. It will heal on its own. Probably already has.  
Only Gom'tuu's brain and heart heal like we do. Very slowly over time on its own, but faster with energy sources." Dr. Bashir told him.

Seven of Nine kept looking back the way she and Chakotay had come. Chakotay noticed her glancing up, more than once. Finally he turned away from Dr. Bashir's phaser cauterization and asked. "Problem, Seven?"

"Oh. No. I was....just wondering if it was unwise to leave the Borg drone unguarded."

Chakotay afforded her a wry grin. "Don't you trust your own nanoprobes to do their job keeping him at bay from us?"

"I have no doubts about that. It's just...."

A commotion from down the main flesh tunnel drew their attention. It was the Borg drone, scanning the walls as it analyzed.

"He still looks ok to me..Same non dangerous, one tracked mind."  
Chakotay showed no concern, trusting Seven's patch job on its programming.

He turned back to watching the doctors work. And soon, Seven of Nine did the same.

No one noticed that the Borg drone was now wearing Khan's metallic glove, a token offering.

Commander Data decided to serve as a watch over the drone while the others continued their desperate surgery on Tinman's heart drive. So he moved closer to the Borg, quietly.

Khan came out of the darkness and leaned on a living wall a short distance away from where the drone was peering and scanning the wall's around it. He folded his arms,  
and waited. "Oh, everything's fine and dandy my android friend. Seven did quite the brainwashing on him. Why don't you shake his hand and say hello? It will be the first android/  
Borg meeting in history..." he said silkily.  
"It's perfectly safe..."

Data's overwhelming natural curiosity kicked in and he missed all the warning signs.

The moment the Borg's eye saw Mr. Data.  
The drone rushed forward and its assimilation tubules shot out into his neck.

Data gurgled and his eyes implored to Khan in startlement and betrayal.

Khan just sighed. "I meant to say, perfectly safe for those of us who are only flesh and blood.  
You my friend, are completely, metallically automated. And therefore, still fair game for this drone.." and he sank back into the shadows, leaving Data to pull himself off the drone's pikes,  
alone.

The drone, fell immediately back to scanning the walls as it had done before when it sensed its nanoprobes working in the salvagable piece of animated machinery it had found. He continually called to it, waiting for the moment when the machine man's newly instigated connection, spoke back, handily altered into receptive modes.

A short distance away, Seven again looked back down the faintly glowing tunnel, uneasy.

The Borg drone was gone. And she was only reading satisfaction in his circuits through her nanoprobes. ::I wonder why he is satisfied.  
There are no machines around for him to find..::

Then a commotion drew everyone's attention and Data staggered into the heart chamber, lurching like Frankenstein.

"Data!!" Dr. Crusher shouted out loud.

%Dd-On-Nn-'Tt CcOmEe AaNnYy NnEeAaRrEeRr%  
Data warned her and everyone. Intentionally,  
Data wrapped his hands around a living pillar,  
tore off the white dermal covering on both his hands and tangled them together in a rain of sparks against each other until they held him fast like handcuffs around a pole. %Ii DdOoNn'Tt WwAaNnTt TtOo HhUuRrTt YyOoUu%  
came his voice, part staticky and part Borg Chorus.

Dr. Bashir redirected his phaser fire at Data's hand wires and firmly fused them together,  
strengthening the restraint Data had made for himself. "There, he won't pull free now for fear of further harming his own components or Tinman.. Oh, Mr Data.. How are we going to reverse Borg assimilation on you?"

Seven was dumbstruck when she realized that it had most likely been Khan who lured the drone into the heart chamber. His utter callousness towards her crewmates angered her and she started off to find him, but a question from Dr. Bashir stopped her in her tracks.

"Seven.. Can your nanoprobes give him immunity against the drone assimilation ones?"

"No, mine were directed only at making him ignore living crew and to cease the auto message homing beacon outgoing to the Borg Cube.  
I guess I hadn't defined the parameter 'living'  
to him, clearly enough. He sees Data as simply another machine that he tagged for salvage."

"Anything we can do to help him.?"

"Nothing that I'm aware of.. If I try to send in nanoprobes to aid Mr. Data,  
They will overwrite the ones I already have in place keeping the Borg drone in line..."  
Seven said miserably. "For the drone's nanoprobes are now in Mr. Data..linking the two together.."

"We've got to do something!" Dr. Pel shouted, her tricorder still aimed at the android commander. "He's getting predigested!"

::So it's come to that protocol. Data wasn't found worthy to be a drone.  
Only classified suitable for Cube construction material.:: Seven shouted.  
"Data! Fight it. They are dissolvent nanoprobes working on a covalent binary moding."

%WwOoRrKkIiNnGg..% Data grunted.  
But he soon fell to his knees and hideous Borg implants sprouted from his face. The sparking in his slag fused hands increased as android positronics and Borg technology warred with each other over Data's physical and mental spaces. His grunts turned to cries rising into metallic shrieking completely inhuman as he struggled for his life and identity.

Deanna Troi screamed in horror. A short cry of sympathy and helplessness....

Then a pinging filled the room, coming from Mr. Data. A Borg homing signal.

And it was telling the Borg Cube searching in Fluidic Space just where to find Tinman...

-  
(attachments)

Photo : Khan, sitting in a chair and studying a main viewer.

Photo: Data, half Borgified.

Photo: A winning smile on Seven of Nine.

*  
From :"Cassidy Meyers" Subject :[voyagerliveaction] The Calvary Charge..... Date :Mon, 25 Nov 2002 02:12:04 +0400 Tandem post between Cassidy Meyers  
and Patti Keiper via Yahoo chat window.

MAINs involved.

Dr. McCoy Counselor Troi Dr. Crusher K'Ehleyr

FREEuse characters

the EMH Harry Kim Geordi LaForge Wil Riker Janeway Federation President Avalonii

Then a pinging filled the room, coming from Mr. Data. A Borg homing signal.

And it was telling the Borg Cube searching in Fluidic Space just where to find Tinman...

Out in space, Harry Kim's eyes shot down to his status board at a warbling tone query from his panel. "Uh, oh, captain. Trouble. Something's gone wrong inside Tinman.  
I'm reading Data's lifesigns fluctuating.  
Now there is a new signal just beginning.  
A Borg homing signal.."

"D*mn. What's going on over there?"  
Janeway sighed, not liking the news one bit. She turned to Captain Kirk. "Should we stay hidden? We'll lose Tam to the Cube if they discover him on the Delta Flyer like this."

"We have no choice. Let the others handle their situation. Your Commander Chakotay's a very capable officer.." Kirk replied.

Janeway continued to sit tight in her seat.  
Her tricorder was set to long distance scan on Data's signature..."I'm not familiar with these readings. He's looking more like Seven does, than an android.."

"Let me see." Wil Riker said.

Kathryn handed him the tricorder.

Commander Riker sighed. "I've seen this before. When the Borg Queen was trying to turn Data human."

"What?" Janeway said. "But the Queen's dead. My future self made sure of that."

"No, what I mean is Data's under attack by Borg salvaging nanoprobes. Not the kind that make one into a Borg." Wil reiterated. "But the kind that turns any machine parts a drone finds into its basic constituents to ready for transport.  
That's the reason for the recall device. It's a salvage location flag for the mothership."

Geordi LaForge was peering out of the Delta Flyer's forward transparency and towards where he could barely discern the outline of Tinman resting near the edge of the asteroid field. He saw the hole where the Borg had entered him from Fluidic Space,  
heal up. "Tinman's holding his own over there.  
Whatever's happening, it isn't effecting him directly yet. Only Data.." he said, his voice filled with a calmness tinged with worry.

::Somebody over there. Do something.:: Riker said in his mind.

Tam began to feel worry almost as deep as what he found paralyzing Riker and Geordi LaForge, standing next to him.

The cool silence inside the hiding Delta Flyer hushed everyone watching.

--------------------------------

"Don't always make it so dang blasted difficult!" McCoy spat. "You don't have to be a captain to see how to get out of this one.."

Bones McCoy ended up leaping at Data, where he was restrained by his own melted wiring, to Tinman's pillar.  
He reached down, leaping like a cat at the android and he clung there, until a questing hand, found Mr. Data's off switch.  
The light and life went out of Data's eyes in a rush. The homing signal died away.

"There! Now Commander Chakotay. You do whatever it is you gotta do to get your blind engineer's new fangled generator on board that Borg Cube and turned on! Nice thing about androids. They don't need lifesupport."

Chakotay rose to his feet and eyed Seven of Nine.  
"Will Data's off switch stay off like that?"

"Yes. Borg nanoprobes can only alter flesh, not machine. He will be fine until he can be rescued from his mechanized nanoprobe dissolution." she replied.

Deanna Troi immediately felt Tinman begin to panic.  
"Oh, no. Tinman. Tinman.. Keep your calm. Data's alive but just offline. I'm still here. We all are, and you can still smell where the Delta Flyer is. Tam's not far away. You aren't alone.. Calm down!!"

Dr. McCoy got to his feet with K'Ehleyr's help.  
"Thanks. "he told the ambassador.

"That was a move worthy of a Klingon, doctor.."  
she grinned.

"Had to do something to top that move you made on the Phagemind by stabbing your own heart earlier on.." McCoy grinned ruefully.

Dr. Crusher and Dr. Bashir didn't look up from the delicate phaser surgery they were doing to repair Gom'tuu's wounds.

Bones knelt and inspected Data's inert form more closely. "Would you look at that? My turning him off's activated some kind of dreaming mechanism on him.. I wonder who this girl is?"

"What girl?" Deanna Troi asked.

"This one.. "Bones said, pointing to a panel that had melted away under the nanoprobe's digestive effects on Data's neck.

Deanna's eyes filled. "It's a picture of Lal. Data must have put that there to remind himself of her. He..told me once, he'd have his circuitry reveal it in the event of a cascade failure about to happen. Like now.."

"He's not cascading, counselor.. I shut him off before that could happen.." McCoy groused.

"Yes, but he's still dreaming about her. Don't you feel it?" Troi said, looking up..

------------------------------------------

From the stars, a cuboidal shadow drew nearer.  
The sound it had been following had ceased,  
but the Borg on board the vessel were new.  
Individualized. Because of that, they extrapolated and found the location of Tinman nestled against a red sun near a river of asteroids. They moved in to intercept. ##I see it. Collectively regroup,  
Hugh Delta Modules. The fleshed pod is here..##

The Borg burst out of warp into subspace and screamed right into the lonely solar system where Tinman was making a stand. ##Resistance is futile. Give us the one who made the star desintegrate and we will show....mercy!## it shouted at Tinman.

-------------------

In the asteroid chain, Janeway on the Delta Flyer got a bad feeling. "They've been discovered. Time to make our move.. Let's go let's go. Geordi, get ready to site to site all of us onto the Borg Cube. We'll have about half a minute to set that biogenic field regenerator of yours for the doctors on board."

LaForge hastened to work faster. "I'm set captain."

"Let's move.." she said.

Geordi LaForge, Wil Riker, Harry Kim, Captain Kirk, Tasha Yar and Moriarty all beamed over to where Janeway least wanted to be, the heart of the Borg Cube.

---------------------

Janeway flattened against a slimy wall and hand gestured silently with a phaser drawn,  
to Geordi and the others to begin tapping the biogenic field's generator into the Borg power conduits in an empty Borg alcove.  
Her look said, Set it up here.

Geordi hastened to obey, working fast with Kirk. Yar and Geordi and Janeway kept a lookout for wandering Borg Drones but so far, their beamed entry from the Delta Flyer to the Borg Cube, went unchallenged.

Soon, the power taps harmlessly bled energy from the Borg Cube and the generator kicked into roaring life. The area around the Starfleet officers filled with a blinding blue white light as the effect spread through that side of the Borg Cube like a stain.

With a nod, Janeway and the others hit their automatic recall back to the Delta Flyer and they flew into their seats, flinging the tiny racing shuttle back into high gear towards Tinman.

Tam sent out a mind sending. ::Gom'Tuu. Let us in...::

The red brown living pod ship whipped its head around in the direction of his master's thought in the asteroid field and opened a three petalled maw to admit it.

The Borg Cube seemed startled as the biogenic field sent up by the fast beaming away team took effect and spread through its inherent hull plating.

Tinman oriented itself to face the now biogenically blue glowing Borg Cube before it and suddenly,  
Gom'tuu trembled as a stream of dust like Omega motes sprang away from his internal heart drive, and out to impact against the now more energy attractive Borg Ship, like a driving desert sandstorm. Omega particles fled Tinman and nestled against the Borg Cube as planned.

Janeway's combadge sprang alive in excited voice.  
It was Dr. McCoy. "You did it! You did it! Gom'tuu's heart's free of its Omega splinters."

Janeway tapped her combadge while she watched a tense Harry call up a reverse viewer back towards the confused Borg Cube, liberally floured in glowing Omega. "Don't count your chickens before they're back in the pen doctor.. We're still out here. In plain sight!"

The Borg Cube suddenly rotated itself, to a side not effected by Geordi's glowing biogenic field device implanted deep inside, and a normal dark face suddenly glowed angry green and a beam lanced out,  
trying to connect with the Delta Flyer in a punishing move. The powerful Borg tractor stretched like putty jutting forward until.....

It smacked into Voyager's hull with full shields raised and smeared away into useless trails..

A cheer erupted from both Gom'tuu and Delta Flyer as the sight of Voyager arcing gracefully out of a warp bubble turned to intercept the Borg Cube's beam, allowing time for Delta Flyer to flee back inside Tinman's mouth.

##Voyager to Delta Flyer and the Gom'tuu Life Pod.  
This is Avalonii. Got your message.. Anything else we can do? ##

The Borg Cube fled the scene, with Omega particles still peppering its flanks like magnetized buckshot,  
taking its scouting drone inside Tinman with it.

The Borg Cube disappeared into a subspace conduit of a different color and vanished.

------------------------------------------

Dr. McCoy's voice snapped online and his hand stung from the impact of his palm onto his badge. "Ensign Kim, get back outside with the Flyer to Tinman's port side. Voyager get starboard. Gom'tuu may have those Omega grains removed but he's a long way out of the woods surgery wise. He may still arrest.!"

"Understood doctor.." Harry said, reversing course out of Tinman's mouth and going where ordered.  
Voyager uptook an opposite position and both ships played a passive tractor each against Gom'tuu's side in prep for further assistance.

"Mr. President.." Janeway grinned through the open comlink. "I trust you enjoyed your flight.."

##H*ll yes, captain. Transwarp on Voyager's something I commissioned personally. Never got to test drive her with it. Thanks for the opportunity.##

"No problem.. " she grinned.

Soon, Janeway and Chakotay and all the others were safely on board Voyager's bridge, with the exception of Harry, stationkeeping Delta Flyer against Tinman's hull keeping the tiny ship's tractor available for lifesupport standby on Gom'tuu's skin. Voyager did the same on the other side, waiting for news.

Avalonii relinguished Voyager's center seat to Janeway as she appeared. "Captain, I hate to say this, but I ..stand relieved of her.."

"In duty but not in heart. Appreciate it, Sir. But Gom'tuu's surgical assistance mission aside, we're not out of the woods yet. There may be more Borg hunting down Tam in blame for that Omega induced supernova.."  
she said without preamble.

"We'll deal with that when we come to that bridge captain."  
Avalonii admitted. "Meanwhile. I want all your able officers back on Voyager except your man on Delta Flyer and the doctors operating on Tinman's heartdrive. Tam, I want here where we can protect him."

"Understood sir.." Janeway replied.

Soon, only the four doctors were left on Tinman,  
orchestrating his delicate cardiac repairs.

The EMH came online. "I'm patching through Gom'tuu's heart EKG. If the beat fails, I'm beaming aboard and Holozimm likewise to Delta Flyer to begin resuscitative measures. Only he and I can coordinate the between-ship tractor beams well enough for compressive fields for we.. think alike.." he said.

"So noted. "Janeway said. Then she leaned into Avalonii sitting in the seat in Tom's place, as the ensign was still not present, working with the doctors on Tinman. "This is where that Ship sized CPR standby comes in, Mr. President. "

"I had wondered about that part of your message,  
captain.." he admitted. "A first for everything. Let's hope we don't have to experiment.." he told her.

Then a call came in from sickbay, from Geordi LaForge.  
"Sickbay to the bridge.. Mr. Data's still dreaming and he's starting to call out Lal's name and struggling despite the restraining fields. We gotta do something about his Borg nanoprobe infestation, now.."

(attachments)

Image : K'Ehleyr close.

Image: Borg Cube Janeway inside.

Image: Omega close.

Image: Gom'Tuu.

Image: Tam and Data inside Tinman.

*animated gif* Borg zooming at you.

************************************

From: Jeff Seltun Date: Wed Dec 4, 2002 11:28 am Subject: How Small is Small?

Tandem Post between Jeff Seltun  
and Katherine Bird .uk via email over the course of a week.

Characters involved :

B'Elanna Torres Data Seven of Nine Neelix

FREE use characters :

Chakotay The EMH Geordi LaForge Boothby

Then a call came in from sickbay, from Geordi LaForge.  
"Sickbay to the bridge.. Mr. Data's still dreaming and he's starting to call out Lal's name and struggling despite the restraining fields. We gotta do something about his Borg nanoprobe infestation, now.."

Janeway stood up tapping her combadge and said,  
"Understood Lieutenant. I'll send B'Elanna Torres down to help you."

"Eh, Captain.." Neelix started up from where he stood on Voyager's upper deck. "I'll go to Torres if I may. Perhaps I can help in some way."

"Keep me posted. Our hands are a little full up here handling Gom Tuu's situation." she replied.

"I will." he said.  
Inwardly, it was a tremendous relief to be back on board Voyager. It still smelled fainting of ozone where massive transporters had shifted all free sea water off the ship.

He practically chuckled, walking fast to sickbay.  
"All right, Neelix" he told himself. "Let's see what we can do for poor Mr. Data.."

Sickbay was a flurry of activity. Engineering personnel instead of medical technicians surrounded where Data lay restrained and a myriad of equipment lay strewn about as Geordi LaForge attempted to help Data the best he knew how.

"Mr. Neelix. What can I do for you?" Geordi asked.

"Oh, uh, I was sent down to see if there was anything I can do here." he replied, steepling hands in front of himself. He peered with curiosity at the cable Geordi had strung from Data's open temple access port to an ODN scanner. It seemed to have been adapted with a keypad interface.

"Ok, until B'Elanna Torres gets here, you're my positronic emission monitor." Geordi said, grabbing Neelix's arm and setting him in front of a multi colored display.

"What's that?" he said, of visual images flowing across the screen in front of them.

"Dr. Soong programmed Data to dream as a defense against any attack on his primary systems. You just happen to be seeing what Data's seeing right now."

"Oooo. You mean whatever the Borg did to him with those nanoprobes has been harmful?"

"Neelix, nothing short of an electrical magnetic pulse can hurt Data. He's just inconvenienced right now.  
I'm counting on his ability to adapt to new situations to bail him outta this one. I'm just trying to make it easier for him while he does that." La Forge said.

"Very well. " then Neelix grew uncomfortable seeing images of very very personal scenes of what seemed to be another android and Data, spending some time with each other. "Should I be eavesdropping in on Mr. Data's dream like this?"

"Sure. Data has always been forthwith about his inner most thoughts. He never dreams anything that he wouldn't want anyone else to know about."  
Geordi shrugged.

"Uh...ok.. Then who's this other android I'm seeing?  
Data seems to be very fond of her." Neelix said.

"That's Lal, his daughter.." Geordi said looking up at the display while he rechecked the cable connection between his friend and the machine.

"Daughter? " Neelix said confidentially. "Excuse me lieutenant, but isn't that a little improbable?"

Geordi's grin grew very huge. "Not for Data. He built her. And they had a lot of good times together as father and child. but..."

Neelix didn't miss the long look on the Enterprise D engineer's face. "But..." he prompted gently.

"It didn't work.." Geordi said, "Lal ended up falling into cascade failure and dying."

"I'm sorry, I...I..didn't realize.."

"It's ok. It happened a long time ago and I still have very fond memories of her." Geordi licked his lips.  
"Just let me know if any of that dreaming stops,  
ok? That would mean something was happening that Torres and I need to know about."

"You can count on me.." Neelix said, blusteringly cheerful, trying to ease the engineer's sad memories.

"I'll be over here." Geordi said, and he got to work on a computer display that looked into Data's diagnostic functions.

B'Elanna Torres flew into sickbay. "This better be good. The docs still need my help over on Tinman."  
she grumbled. Then she saw Data's current state,  
being restrained on a biobed and cabled to several machines. "Oh, my.. He looks worse than Gom' Tuu."

"Looks bad. But isn't. I was worried enough about these free roaming Borg nanoprobes in his system to drag you into it. We need to configure a metaphasic field over him to try and coax the nanoprobes into leaving,  
as they would if they were inside a Borg drone who plugged himself in to regenerate.."

''Oh.. That's easy.. I've had lots of practice with Seven of Nine that way. She has to purge herself monthly of any nanoprobes that are wearing out and we initiate such a field to do that. It's simple. .here.. Let me show you how to set it up.." B'Elanna said.

Geordi and Neelix both smiled as the engineer got fully engrossed in her work, tapping keypads and rerouting computer commands into sickbay's terminals.

Seven of Nine appeared in sickbay and she stood quietly by Neelix and watched the dreams go by on the viewer there. The Omega particle necklace that Khan had given her, was strangely gone.

But no one noticed.

She and Neelix stood watching the dream unveil on Data's screen.

It was a repeat of the final moments Lal and Data had shared together, before Lal slipped into unconsciousness and failure.

Geordi even watched partially as he hadn't been in the lab when Lal died. Despite himself,  
his emotions ran high as the dream unfolded.

-----------------------------------------

"Father."

"Yes, Lal."

"Will it hurt while I go?"

"Not the way you're feeling now. Dr. Crusher and I will not allow your body to manifest those particular symptoms."

"But I am in pain, now. " she said, real tears flowing down her face. "I.. I don't want to go."

Data's head tipped over to the side as he marvelled at his daughter's surprising evolution of emotional awareness that still escaped his own grasp. He took Lal's hand. "I am here.  
And I will not leave your side until the process of downloading your memory subroutines into my own positronic net, is complete."

Lal gripped Data's hand tightly. "This is helping.  
The touching..."

"You are not alone, Lal." Data said, offering a simulated smile.

"Good.."

The dream changed and it was many hours later in the lab, and the place where Lal had stood in the lab lattice frame, was now covered with a sheet over her still, dead form.

Data was still holding onto her hand.

Then slowly, one by one, Data peeled off Lal's stiff grip off his own palm, finger by finger and departed the lab to tell those on the bridge about her passing.

The dream faded off Neelix's monitor just as the image of Data passed through the door out into the corridor. He looked up with a shout. "Geordi.. The dream's ended.."

"Already? That was fast.." he commented.

"Fast?" B'Elanna said.

"Yeah.. Usually when Data dreams, he does it for days at a time." Geordi replied.

Neelix said, "He's got an emotion chip now.  
Perhaps he didn't like this particular dream."

"I doubt that. Mr. Data isn't one to avoid things you or I would find unpleasant typically.  
He even drinks beverages that are revolting from time to time just for the experience.."  
LaForge said.

Neelix didn't know what to say to that.

Torres piped up from where she was working.  
"Seven? Can you take a look at this EPS net I've set up? I think I got the subharmonics right to drive the Borg nanoprobes out of Data's system."

Seven moved quietly, faintly withdrawn, but everyone was too busy working over Data to see any of it. "I shall examine your work."  
she answered. And her hands danced over the computer terminal, checking and making fine adjustment's on Geordi and B'Elanna calculations.  
Then she said. "The field will function properly. You may begin whenever you're ready." she said, and just as quickly, Seven left sickbay for the outside corridor..

B'Elanna, lost in thought, hardly saw her leave,  
"Thanks, Seven.." she mumbled, distracted.

The diagnostic bar over Data's inactivated body glowed and the metaphasic field hummed into life over him. Borg nanoprobes began to weep out of his integument pores and into a transparent aluminum lab flask that Geordi had told them to seek in algorithm.

Soon, scans showed Data completely free of his Borg infestation, and the nanoprobes themselves safely sealed away inside the specimen jar.

B'Elanna, Neelix and Geordi sighed in satisfaction.  
And Geordi took the jar full of Borg bits and shook it by Data's ear. "Rise and shine, Data. You can come out of it now. We got rid of them.."  
he said, at the same time, his hand pressed the hidden activation switch nestled in between Data's ribs.

Torres and LaForge and Neelix saw Data's eyes open and he sat up, pushing the medical arm aside. He blinked a few times. "Where am I?  
I seem to be on Voyager..."

"That's correct. " Geordi beamed. "We brought you here when you slipped into that sleep mode when the Borg nanoprobes tried to take over your primary systems."

"I dreamed about Lal, Geordi.."

"You sure did.. " Neelix sighed with affection.  
"And what a fine offspring she was.."

"How are you feeling, Data?" Geordi asked.  
Then he shook his head. "Still feels strange being able to ask you that question now.."

Data tipped his head as he checked himself out internally in layers. "I am fine, Geordi.  
May I get up now?"

Torres hastened to deactivate the waist restraint Geordi had placed over Data earlier following their beam in to sickbay. "Certainly. You're right as rain.."

Data got off the bed and stood before the three of them. "Thankyou for assisting me in ridding myself of the Borg nanoprobes.  
They were most annoying.."

"No problem.." Geordi answered, "But, uh.  
we weren't the only ones who helped you Data. Seven did also, for a few minutes."

"Then I will go thank her personally as well.  
Where did Seven of Nine go when she left here?"

Torres scratched her nose ridges. "You know, she didn't say.."

"No matter. I will just offer my thanks to her later.." Data said. "I assume.. all the action is on the bridge.." he said.

"Hmm?" Geordi said, still shutting down computer panels and servos. "Oh oh oh,  
yeah. Heh. I heard President Avalonii himself delivered Voyager to us directly. He might still be up there."

Data started to leave but Torres and Geordi both stopped him with a pair of hands.

"What?" Data said.

They both pointed to the very long cable still embedded into the side of his head.

"Oh.."

Geordi removed it with a twist, laughing.

-------------------------------------------------

Seven of Nine returned to her old cargobay and to Khan waiting for her there. "We must act fast, before Captain Janeway realizes.."

Khan stood, transfixed by the site of Omega held suspended inside Seven's alcove stasis field. Two molecules of it hung in the air in suspension. And they were orbitting each other like two spiralling blue worlds.  
"Relax Seven, we are doing nothing untoward.  
We are merely,..safeguarding a hazard.."  
he grinned, waving a hand at Omega.

"Stabilizing Omega and allowing it to fall into perfection will be tricky at best without a vaccum chamber as it is. Kindly refrain from stating something the process is not. We are far from safe.." Seven admonished.

Khan said nothing else and simply stepped away with hands raised from the alcove so Seven could move inside of it with the two specks of fastastic energy, and merge into her regeneration cycle. Seven was careful not to let any part of herself touch them nor their tiny circular flight paths in the air.  
In his mind, Khan was pleased Seven would risk the ship and her old crewmates for this moment.

Seven slipped into her regeneration cycle,  
and into H*ll.

----------------------------------------------

Flashes of extended time, and the light of a million sunrises and sunsets on millions of worlds raced across her awareness and she winced outwardly while she slept. ::What is this?:: she wondered. Everywhere, instead of a sun, an Omega particle glowed in every sky of every world she saw in her vision.

The analogy struck her. "Omega isn't subatomic?"

She let the images from her close proximity to Omega's energies fill her even more.

Time seemed to flow high speed in both directions.  
::Like the Guardian of Forever's gate..::

Seven's eyes flew open immediately, and she shot out of the alcove and into Khan's arms.  
He caught her reflexively and kept her from falling to the deck. "I must get to the bridge.."

And she fled the cargobay.

Confused, Khan followed on her heels.

---------------------------------------------

"Captain! I must speak with you...." Seven shouted.

Janeway and President Avalonii and all others on the bridge looked up with startlement from where they were reading the doctors'  
final report on Gom'tuu's successful surgical cure.

Seven was only half aware that the Living Pod ship was fully healed and normal once again.

"Seven? Are you all right?" said the EMH,  
"You look a little flushed.."

"Captain.." Seven said, stumbling into the rail.  
Chakotay immediately vacated his seat and pushed her into it. "I've discovered something important, about Omega.. The molecules,  
they aren't what they seem.."

Tom Paris folded his arms from where he sat at the main helm station. "Of course they're not. They're only just the most powerful molecules ever discovered by humankind, packing a hidden punch that only we, and now the Borg, and Species 8472 know about." he said glibbly.

"Not true.." Seven said, ignoring the med tricorder the EMH was playing over her head and torso.  
Janeway and Chakotay and Boothby crouched down by her side while the holodoc examined her.

"Seven? I don't understand.." Chakotay said.

"I....have discovered that Omega is not only hyperdense and hyperenergized, it is multi dimensional and transcendentally time phased."

"What?" Torres retorted.

Seven held up a trembling hand. "Hear me out. I...was running some tests on finding a better way to stabilize Omega molecules..."

Janeway cut her off, "You brought those things on board my ship?!"

"Captain.. They are fully secured."

"Where are they!? " Kathryn snapped.  
"You're going to have to tell me since Omega doesn't show up on conventional internal ship's sensors.."

Chakotay's expression hardened into one like his captain's and he folded his arms.

Seven said, "They're in my alcove, in stasis."

"In the open air?" Torres said in shock.  
"I'd better get down there.."

Janeway was about to nod her agreement when Seven's hand shot out to grip B'Elanna's preventing her from leaving in a powerful grip.

"Ow, Seven, ease up. That hurts.." B'Elanna said, and just as fast, she broke out of Seven's hold with a defensive move. "All right. I'll trust your judgement that Omega isn't about to blow up this ship to smithereens.. Just out with it. What's so all fired important that you'd risk your life and ours by monkeying around with Omega.. You can start by explaining your out of the blue statement about Omega being Other-Stated."

Seven's eyes were still stunned, but her mouth began to work. "I was in a regeneration cycle,  
linked with Omega.." she said hesitantly.

"That would explain the buzz I'm reading on you.." the EMH snapped.

Janeway and the others hushed him quiet.  
"Go on.. I'm mad, but listening.." Janeway growled.

"So am I.." Boothby said, very near them.  
He wore a matching look of folded arms.

Seven was unphased. (sorry for the pun).

She went on with her incredible tale.  
"I felt odd, awed.."

"You always do around Omega.." Neelix quipped.

Again, everyone hushed the interrupter.

"This was different. I ..was... I was.  
connected.. somehow. And I began to see Omega's larger purpose.."

"Wait a minute.." Janeway gasped. "You speak like Omega's something alive.."

Seven met her captain's eyes squarely.  
"That's because.. I believe it is.."

Angry surprised reaction from everyone on the bridge erupted at that statement.  
But Seven only had to open her mouth to hold their attentions rapt once more.

"Omega is all things in some universes. But in this one, Omega is merely stars. Stars that have been shrunken down to the atomic level and compressed with hundreds of others.  
And I know the agent behind the process. And I believe Captain Kirk knows it well too."

Captain Kirk's eyes lifted in shocked understanding.  
"The Guardian of Forever?"

"Yes.." Seven replied.

Again noisy debate made it impossible for anyone to hear anything until Janeway's firm command shout snapped out and silenced everyone.

Boothby ignored her. "This is preposterous. I've been around for centuries and none of my sources have ever accused Omega of being THAT.." he grumbled. "Nor accused the Guardian of Forever of having greedy paws deep into that kind of matter/energy manipulations."

"And why should it be so hard to believe?" Seven whirled on him. "The Guardian has more than once demonstrated its loose philosophy concerning us. It used the Iconian Gateway freely enough for its own purposes when it left us a month ago."

Captain Kirk was listening very very closely and even Doctor McCoy's face was starting to pale as Seven's views came into light.

Seven went on. "I saw Omega in the skies of a hundred worlds, acting as solar energy sources."  
Then she broke off as a revelation hit her.  
"Omega is not perfect in the form we see it because it is too small to stabilize itself properly.."

Torres blanched, "Temporal mechanics and quantum casuality. Nothing compressed from its natural covalent shell configuration can function naturally.  
That's probably why Omega is such a powerful powder keg. The energy has no where to go but "out." "

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute.. Now Seven, this just doesn't wash.." Boothby said. "What does shrunken suns, now called Omega in our normal space, have to do with the Guardian of Forever?"

"Because Omega, in its natural state, Mr. Boothby,  
become Guardians of Forever themselves in Otherspaces. Each and every one of them.."

And Janeway paled even more than those listening. "And we just peppered the backside of a Borg Cube with Omega thick as sand. And where did run? Right into a subspace conduit...outside of normal space."

"I think that Borg Cube is in a very crowded space right now, captain. Don't you think?" sighed. " I mean its probably sandwiched in that passageway by literally thousands of Guardians of Forever in with it.."  
Neelix had indeed said it all. "I think we just ticked off one very old gateway..." he gasped. Then he corrected himself hastily. "Er.,, I mean the Borg and Species 8472 have by using Omegas to blow up stars.  
Or is it Gateways to blow up stars. Or eensy stars to blow up bigger ones?"

"Shhhhh." Torres said. "Neelix you're making my head begin to hurt."

"Sorry.."

Janeway rubbed her very dry mouth. "First things first. If all you say is true, Seven.  
Then we should expect a visit from The Guardian of Forever. And very soon."

"That is a distinct possibility captain.." Seven said frankly.

-  
(attachments)

Photo : Seven of Nine in close up, glowing under a blue light.

Photo : The Omega particle in a tight view.

Photo : The Guardian of Forever, surrounded by crew from Kirk's timeline.

*

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 2002 05:33:47 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: Full Circle

"I think that Borg Cube is in a very crowded space right now, captain. Don't you think?" Neelix sighed. " I mean it's probably sandwiched in that passageway by literally thousands of Guardians of Forever in with it.."  
Neelix had indeed said it all. "I think we just ticked off one very old gateway..." he gasped. Then he corrected himself hastily. "Er.,, I mean the Borg and Species 8472 have by using Omegas to blow up stars.  
Or is it Gateways to blow up stars. Or eensy stars to blow up bigger ones?"

"Shhhhh." Torres said. "Neelix you're making my head begin to hurt."

"Sorry.."

Janeway rubbed her very dry mouth. "First things first. If all you say is true, Seven.  
Then we should expect a visit from The Guardian of Forever. And very soon."

"That is a distinct possibility captain.." Seven said frankly.

Data had entered the bridge proper and had been listening most intently. "Intriguing." he sputtered.

Federation President Avalonii glanced up at the android. "Mr. Data? Are you well enough to assume your duties?"

"Perfectly, sir. Geordi, B'Elanna Torres and Seven of Nine have restored my normal positronic functioning.  
The Borg Nanoprobes have been extracted and stored."

"Good riddance.." Janeway sighed. "I really didn't want to see the first android to Borg assimilation in history."

"That makes two of us, Janeway." Boothby said.

Data had moved to a computer terminal and everyone followed him, recognizing an informal briefing request, unverbalized. "What an interesting concept." Data said once again, calling up a schematic on Omega as Starfleet imagined it to be, and changed it to account for other dimensions, namely,  
that of time.

Omega's glowing, ethereal blue white flaming beauty changed, to a fourth dimensional array guideline, similar to Deep Space Nine's wormhole cut away diagram. "Omega in normal space, being subatomic stars, but Guardians of Forever in Other Spaces?  
Fascinating.."

Ambassador Spock, next to the android, arched his eyebrow in mild Vulcan aplomp at the subconscious imitation of his own reaction to a novel theory.  
"Indeed." he replied. But he didn't interrupt Data as he carefully constructed the new theory about Omega's dimensionally transcendental nature to Voyager's mainframe.

Data went on. "This explains a great many mysteries Starfleet has been thus far, unable to answer. For instance, the seemingly endless energy Omega produces when it is self destructed in normal space."

Barclay commented. "Ah, I see. Sort of like how coal and oil fossil fuels can burn so well and last so long for their apparent mass due to the large amounts of the sun's energy gathered by the plants which comprise it's makeup."

"Or a piece of wood that burns in a fire.." Janeway said. "Hard to imagine. Years and years of sunlight gathered into a tree, making it grow, stored neat as you please into its molecular makeup, until some match,  
or other incendiary, releases it all back into the atmosphere in just a few minutes. Incredible."

"That's Chaos theory for you. "Geordi LaForge chuckled.  
"Always a hundred times easier to destroy something than it is to create it."

Boothby was less than starstruck. "Be that as it may,  
our normal space and realm could do well without Omega floating about for any warlike species such as the Borg and Species 8472 to utililze like they have been doing."

Janeway rubbed her chin as she angled a hip against the bridge computer display they were all gathered around on the upper deck. "I agree. I sweated buckets handling that Omega "outbreak" in the Delta Quadrant. I wouldn't wish any repeat event on any starship captain for the future.."

Holozimm had been listening quietly, and he was very very mousy for the inquisitive newly formed template he was. "I may have absorbed all of Starfleet's records at my formation, classified or unclassified, but none of that knowledge is convincing me that any of us are safe from Omega's ravages should it fall into more hostile hands than the Borg and Species 8472."

"That's true." Data said. "But we are now aware of Omega's dual nature in Otherspaces."

Seven of Nine entered the bridge. In her hands, lay the necklace that Khan had given her in his attempt to corrupt her loyalty to the Federation to suit his own needs.

Khan, visibly started. He recognized the two Omega particles that had been working on in Seven's alcove.

B'Elanna Torres immediately went to her side.  
"Give me that. Seven, we can't hold onto these any longer. They are really proto Guardian Gateways."

"I know.." Seven replied. "My central cerebral node ascertained that information through the link I still have with the Borg Cube who attacked Tinman."

Janeway looked up, touching Seven's shoulder.  
"You're still connected with that vessel?"

"Unintentionally, captain." Seven answered her.  
"I had a subtransponder tied into the metaphasic energy generator you and the away team set off on the Borg Cube to extract Omega out of Tinman's heart drive. My link, is acting as a visual monitor to events happening in the immediately vicinity of the Borg Cube as it travels the Transwarp conduit."

"Let's see it.." Janeway said quickly.

Seven's hands played over the computer console.  
And soon, a visual image of the Borg Cube, bogged down in an Otherspace conduit tube showed itself.  
The Cube was trapped, sandwiched in between what looked like loops of stoney linked chain.

Janeway's heart skipped a beat when she realized each link was actually a Guardian of Forever, hyper grown from its normal space state of a glowing subatomic particle.

James Kirk took to his feet. "Oh, my.." he said.  
He felt both in awe and alarmed at the idea that a Gateway like his old friend was as common as beach sand in other dimensions.

Boothby pretended he didn't see the Enterprise captain react. "Well, it never rains but it pours.  
Now, its just a matter of logic.." he said easily.

"How so?" Chakotay asked the wizened garden advisor.

"It makes sense that the Guardian we know is the oldest Omega Particle. It knows the most about our timeframe, past, present and future than these others.. see? Their middles are simply glowing open gateways, showing no scenes of humanoid history.  
Every ever lasting one of them crowding around that Borg Cube." Boothby mused. "What I meant by logic is that our Guardian of Forever will be drawn to this jam up to deal with it. Perhaps, Omega particles are the Guardian of Forever's young spore."

McCoy snorted. "Oh, and time gates just happen to spawn exactly like sea anemonaes.."

"Why not? It's a highly effective method of propagation."  
Data surmised.

Boothby's tooth filled ancient grin, widened.  
"Well now, That's a thought." he chuckled. "Not only is James Kirk's Guardian of Forever alive, he's .  
a she.. A mother a billion times over, in a true Mother Horta like syndrome. hehehe.."

James Kirk shot his mentor a dirty look.

But Lt. Yar and K'Eleyr and Khan began to look discomforted rather than amused by it all.

And the Klingon Ambassador hugged her son, Alexander to her closely.

All the others on the bridge knew the reason.

Chakotay straightened respectfully for their benefit.  
"That's another factuality. Those of us here on Voyager out of time and place might be returned there once the Guardian of Forever returns to us. The gate's a fierce monitor and proponent of proper timelines."

K'Ehleyr covered her son's ears. "Yeah, well I for one,  
don't relish a return to the Barge of the Dead, however honorable."

B'Elanna Torres shivered for the Ambassador's benefit.

Khan stiffened and his eyes cast about for a means to prevent the situation that seemed rapidly approaching. He began to weight the odds he'd have taking on Voyager's security guards for the phasers they carried at their sides.

Khan decided to wait until a better opportunity to act. ::I can use Tinman and Tam for my purposes most satisfactorially.:: he considered.

And Captain Kirk missed the subtle body cues in his old rival completely.

Meanwhile, Yar didn't like the idea of returning to the Netherworld either. And she saw Troi's eyes beginning to mist.

Lt. Yar turned to Deanna and took her into a deep hug. "No need to hide your feelings about this Deanna. I already know I'm dead in my proper time line. Remember, it was the Guardian who brought me here. And so it makes sense that it may be the Guardian who will put me back once it comes on board to deal with this.." she said, waving a hand to the image they all could see of the Borg Cube trapped inside the confined transwarp Borg Conduit with all the newly budded Omega Gateways crowding around it in their chain link proto strands.

As if on cue, Voyager's intruder alert sounded and the viewscreen immediately flickered on to the source of the invasion.

Seven of Nine exclaimed. "It's the Guardian of Forever. It's just appeared in Stellar Cartography."

"Let's go.." Janeway said.

Moriarty hugged Lady Regina closely when she said,  
"Oh, Mort, this is a little too much reality. Please let us go back into Reginald's holojail world and back to our normal hololives..."

Moriarty simply said. "In time, pet. But first, we've got to win our independence from its environmental parameters, remember? Janeway promised us holo freedom as great as that enjoyed by the EMH."

"Start pouring the tea darling. I'll put on my best parlor dress to persuade her to hurry, Mort.." Regina said a little fearfully.

Professor Moriarty just smiled at his Lady's innocence.

-----------------------------------------------------

All from Voyager's bridge gathered around Seven of Nine and the star lab's open spaces, now filled with the massive stoney bulk of Kirk's original Guardian of Forever.

Its stone surface was now glowing, not just in its center emptiness, but completely yellow orange in its torus ring, too.

##All is as it should be and what is destined to come#  
The Guardian announced in all of their heads.##Let me be your Gateway..##

Seven of Nine felt humbled when she saw unborn Omega Particles swirling around inside its open time viewer. She was the first to speak. "Guardian of Forever. Two species in our dimension are guilty of destroying your young even as you birth them. The Borg and Species 8472 have been using their energetic physical properties in our space,to kill. In the process, stars and humanoid life, along with the Omega particles, have died."

Boothby and Avalonii startled at Seven's admission of non-humanity's crime, but then quieted, once they realized the Gateway already knew their future and present as well as their past inside of itself within the livid fire of its time gateway.

##It it the nature of Life to obey the Natural Laws governing their Birthing Cradles. It is an impossibility that your kind, linear time Lifeforms, could disobey your Laws of Chaos and Entropy, inside yours.##

"But, I don't understand. The Borg Cube is killing your infant Gateways.." Seven said, as she spied the mired Cube inside the Conduit on the viewscreen blindly firing its weapons at the temporal chain gateways around it in an attempt to free itself from their masses.

Everyone could see the Cube's green Borg phaser bolts dissolve baby gateway after baby gateway as it played weapons in rapid patterns about itself.

The Guardian of Forever simply stood in its eerily immobile weighty way in silence. Then it's glowing ring "spoke" once again. ##Android new life. What is the most fundamental Law in your realm?##

Data arched both his eyebrows.

Geordi, buried his face in exasperated palms as he anticipated one of Data's famous drawn out theoretical explanations. But he was surprised when a cowed Data said. "Matter and energy is neither created nor destroyed."

The Guardian of Forever's uncharacteristic yellow stoney glow, flared in mirth. ##That is a Universal Truth, New Life. You have done well in Knowing it#  
The Guardian of Forever's restless gateway began to show humanity's timeline history as it always did when faced with Federation people. It spoke again. ##Restored Life..## The Guardian referred to Seven of Nine. ##True, my progeny are being altered by the Borg Life you see here. But they are simply going to another Fold,  
obeying the physicality of the Transwarp Conduit paths by leaving it, when their local energy states exceed allowances.##

McCoy mused. ::What a way to say they are getting out of the way when their butts are phasered burned by the Borg Cube.::

##All things have their proper place in Space and Time.  
We are dispersing uniformly as all the Known Universes have Expanded again..##

Spock was about to inquire further on that modality, but Kirk elbowed him silent.

Janeway sighed in relief, counting her blessings that the Guardian of Forever was not angry by the ignorance of humanity about Omega's true nature. "Guardian,"  
she began. "In your concept of Order, things may be fine and dandy. But in our tiny patch of turf, the recent destruction wrought by your young's changing states,  
reacting to Species 8472 and Borg meddling, have gone a little out of hand. Large areas of what we term the Delta Quadrant are now irradiated from Supernovae and many many peoples, are dead."

The Guardian of Forever's eerie fire dimmed, but did not cease. It became thoughtful in all of their heads as it spoke.  
##Your Cradle has another rule, Ephemeral Starship Captain. All the Life in it is granted Free Will. I cannot change what has been created by its handiwork.##

Janeway's passionate response was drowned out by McCoy's indignant, sputtering reply.

-  
(attachments)

Image: Seven of Nine and Janeway walking in Voyager's corridors.

Image: Data and Lt. Yar looking worried.

Image: Boothby in briefing room.

*  
From : WHAT'S UP Subject : [voyagerliveaction] Finding a Stowaway Date : Mon, 30 Dec 2002 05:08:15 -0800 (PST)

"What's with this Guardian of Forever stuff?"

"You got me, Tom." Harry said. "But with all that's been going on with Starfleet past and present merging like this, I have to say that I'm not surprised."

"Good point."

Now that they were off-duty, Tom wanted to show Harry the modifications he made to the Flyer before they headed for the Mess Hall.

"Check this out, Harry. With the new console refit,  
not even Tuvok can complain." he said as Shuttle bayed the Shuttlebay.

"Not even him? Boy, if you can pass *that* test, then you're good to go." Harry said, nodding. "He's a harder nut to crack than the Captain."

"Don't I know it." Tom said, as they reached the Flyer. He pressed the button that would open the hatch. "Harry, my friend, behold! The Delta Flyer's newest addition." he said, extending his hand proudly.

He was puzzled at Harry's astonished reaction.

"What? You don't like it?"

"It? I was thinking more of 'her'." he said, pointing just inside the craft.

With a confused expression, Tom spun around to see a girl in her adolescence seemingly asleep on the floor of the vessel.

"Wha?" Tom went over to where the girl lay. "Harry,  
can you grab the medkit? I can't seem to find a pulse on her." he said, the worry plain on his face.

"When B'Elanna finds out about this..." Harry began.

"It's not like that." Tom said, shaking his head.  
"I've never seen her in my life."

"Uh-huh." Harry said with a grim smile. He crouched down across from Tom and took out the medical tricorder. As he commenced scanning, the girl began to stir.

"Mmmm.... fa-father?" she murmured.

"Can you hear me?" Tom asked her. "Do you know where you are?" He was certainly relieved that she was awake. "At least she has a pulse." he muttered to Harry.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that."

"What?"

"No pulse."

"Then the tricorder's faulty."

"Strange, yet familiar. And no, Tom. Tricorder's fine." Harry said.

"Explain?"

"This girl has no pulse--"

"Of course I have no pulse." The girl said, suddenly sitting up. "I am an android with a positronic matrix." she said brightly.

"Like Data..." Tom thought aloud.

"You know my father?" she asked, blinking mechanically.

"Hold on a sec. Your father?" Harry asked.

"Yes. He is the one who created me. Hence, he is my father."

"Works for me." Tom said, standing up. He held out his hand for her to take it.

As she stood, she looked around the shuttle.

"I do not recognize this place."

"You're in the Flyer. The Delta Flyer." Tom said.  
"It's one of the shuttlecrafts aboard the USS Voyager."

"Voyager? I am unfamiliar with that name." she said,  
her head tilting slightly to one side.

"We're part of Starfleet. Like your dad." Harry said.  
"In fact, he's onboard the ship with us now. We can take you to him if you'd like."

"Yes, please." she said, smiling.

Tom walked on ahead. He re-entered the corridor before tapping his comm badge.

"Paris to the Bridge."

=/\= Go ahead, Tom. =/\=

"Captain? We seem to have a stowaway onboard. Well,  
not exactly a stowaway, but I'm not sure how she got here."

=/\= Well, do you know who she is or where she's from,  
perhaps? =/\=

"Apparently, she's an android claiming to be Commander Data's daughter." he said, wishing he was on the bridge to see the Captain's reaction.

=/\= Did I hear you correctly? =/\=

"Aye, Captain."

=/\= Alright, kindly escort her to my Ready Room. I'll have Mr. Data meet us there. Janeway out. =/\=

-  
(attachments)

Image : Tom Paris and Harry Kim looking awed.

Image: Lal in closeup.

Image : Tom and Harry puzzled at something.

*

From: "Roxy Dee" Date: Tue Jan 7, 2003 7:45 pm Subject: Deeper Than You Know~~

"Paris to the Bridge."

=/\= Go ahead, Tom. =/\=

"Captain? We seem to have a stowaway onboard. Well,  
not exactly a stowaway, but I'm not sure how she got here."

=/\= Well, do you know who she is or where she's from,  
perhaps? =/\=

"Apparently, she's an android claiming to be Commander Data's daughter." he said, wishing he was on the bridge to see the Captain's reaction.

=/\= Did I hear you correctly? =/\=

"Aye, Captain."

=/\= Alright, kindly escort her to my Ready Room. I'll have Mr. Data meet us there. Janeway out. =/\=

Captain Kirk levelled an ear at the exchange between Tom Paris and Janeway. Ever since the Guardian of Forever had come on board ship,  
he'd been itching to get down to the cargobay to see for himself that the Guardian was truly there.

He kept his silence and he watched Janeway get a hold of the situation. But inwardly, he thought. ::The Guardian's returned? I know this casuality business with the Omega particles becoming something else in otherspace is captivating,  
but a new person out of temporal placement?  
Lal's dead, isn't she?:: he thought more to himself.

Unconsciously, he glanced at Tasha Yar, who'd been with him since the beginning when he asked the Guardian to come to Starfleet to help with the mystery of the plasma fire on Earth ::I hate temporal mechanics. If we're to uphold the Temporal Prime Directive,.. Tasha, along with this new Lal, Khan, K'Ehleyr should be returning through the Guardian to their proper place in history. ::Or even Moriarty and the Lady Regina for that matter. In all essence,they should no longer exist.::

A wash of foreboding swept through Kirk when a whisper of an image came unbidded to his mind.  
Twisted scaffoulding, and a bald visage shouting his name in the dust.. And his own lips mouthing the words. 'Oh my...' He tasted blood.  
::What?:: his mind thought.

Tasha noticed Kirk's change of expression when she turned back to him. "Sir, are you ok?"

Kirk focused his eyes and returned to the present.  
"Sorry, Lieutenant. I was just.......thinking."

"We've a lot to think about sir, the Omega particles true nature as young unformed time gates; this whole business with the escalating conflict between the Borg and Species 8472. It's all unnerving."

"Yes...." Kirk mused. But inwardly, he was looking at the others around him as the sudden communications between Voyager's helmsman and Captain Janeway ended.

"Harry.." Janeway's order rang out. "You have the conn."

"Aye, aye, maam.." the ensign replied.

Already, Kirk knew what he would do. He'd gather all those he knew were out of time together and then see what the Guardian wished. And still,  
he could not shake off the feeling that he, too,  
was somehow out of time and place history..

Kirk decided firmly to follow Chakotay and Janeway as they waited for Tom Paris to bring the strange Lal to the ready room. "Lieutenant. We're following them."

"Should we, sir?" Yar said with a start. "I mean, they're going into the captain's ready room."

"So? I'm a captain. And I'm ordering you to follow me."  
he said cheekily with a hellbent grin.

Falling silent, Tasha accompanied him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Data had received the summons to report to the captain's ready room, but not the reason why.

He followed Chakotay and Janeway there and stood calmly before them as they dialed coffee for everyone filing into the room. Janeway blinked at Captain Kirk and Yar's self appointed presence but didn't deign to reply.

::This is as much their business as it is mine:  
Janeway decided. ::This Lal is definitely out of her place if I remember my history correctly:  
"Commander Data.." she began. "My helmsman has just reported an unusual incident, a stowaway aboard the Flyer. And she responds to the name of Lal. Sound familiar?"

Kathryn schooled herself as she studied Data's face for some hint of reaction.

And she got one.

Surprise. A smile. Then confusion. Then a sudden blankness as Data himself turned off his emotion chip.

"Captain. I cannot explain this occurance."

"I might be able to." Captain Kirk said, coming forward.  
"Computer. Visual Beta Nine, Cargobay Two."

##Visual is established.## came the feminine voice of Voyager's embedded computer.

The side viewer by the external port near Janeway's desk activated and it showed that the Guardian of Forever was on board, as it had been on Excelsior,  
during the Vidiian Phage Outbreak Quarantine.  
Kirk held out a hand as both Chakotay and Janeway froze, looking at it. "It's all coming to a head, captain.  
Us. " he said, sweeping a hand to himself, Chakotay and Janeway,..."Them.." he said more gently, indicating the doomed Tasha Yar and Khan and K'Ehleyr who had silently entered the ready room in haste. "We've come full circle. Now it's time for reckoning."

When Janeway didn't move from where she was standing by the rail near the couch, Kirk went on.  
"Long ago, an accident occurred with Dr. McCoy and a near fatal overdose of cordrazine. A woman had to die so that our time and Starfleet's continued future, would be secure.."

Janeway's mouth whispered. "Edith Keeler.."

"Yes.." James Kirk said and he was surprised by the sudden mental tears that name still produced in him. He fought down his reaction before it reached his face. "And now, we have more alarming things happening and yet again, they involve the Guardian of Forever. This Lal's arrival is just the latest unexpected wrinkle. And it's ....not.  
...proper." He leaned forward so the ones history had recorded to be dead wouldn't hear. "The timeline must be restored. All of it. No more unnatural conflict between the Borg and Species 8472 possessing Omega particles. No more temporal distortions allowing those not alive to walk among the living.." Kirk broke off as once again, a vision of himself lying mangled at the bottom of a canyon and another captain trying frantically to reach him. He shuddered and buried the image. "Our mysteries, are over.. The situation why the Guardian accompanied us to Earth is now solved.  
The plasma fire danger at Starfleet Headquarters is now past. We .....we have to right what's wrong with our situation. It cannot be allowed to go on." he said passionately. "The Guardian's return must be clear evidence of this."

Inside, the Voyager captain was deeply worried.  
For many hours since Tinman's crisis had been averted, her feeling of wrongness and ill at ease had rankled her better senses.

Even the line's on Chakotay's face were more furrowed than usual around his tattoo.

Janeway rubbed her forehead. ::What I wouldn't give for one of the commander's calming vision quests right about now.:: But outwardly, she waved Chakotay nearer to her huddle with Kirk over the railing. "I whole hearted concur with everything you're saying, captain. Everything's happening too fast. Omega being a super destructive force. Omega being living young to the Guardian. It's all a bit overwhelming. But the one thread I do follow easily is the part about the dead needing to return to that state. I don't need Tuvok nor your Mr. Spock to tell me that at all. The question is. How do we right things to the way they were?" she whispered.  
"Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here. Perhaps it's not a matter of when or how or where to do things for our timeline, maybe it's all a matter of--"

Then Kirk's lips fell into a single word. "Why?"

On the main viewer set into the wall, the Guardian flared in energy, and all space came to a halt. The stars themselves, stopped.  
##A question. Long have I awaited a question#  
The Guardian of Forever spoke in their heads.

Just then, the ready room doors parted, emitting Tom Paris, and Lal.

The two androids wasted no time in embracing.  
Lal's face filled with tears. Data said. "Lal. It is good to see you. I cannot explain why you are here but none the less. I am happy to see you.."  
and his own eyes filled with his emotion chip's approximation of tears.

Kirk felt Holozimm, Moriarty, the Lady Regina,  
McCoy, Spock and everyone else on board Voyager with the exception of Harry, stuck in the Chair in command enter behind him and he turned to the Guardian of Forever manifesting there on the viewer. "Why do you let events progress out of their proper place and time, Guardian? Some..do not belong here, at all.  
Not now. "

Behind him, Seven of Nine rose in ire. "The Borg in Borg Space should not have died so completely in the supernovae. That was immorale of you."

The Guardian took all the viscious verbal jabs aimed at it, including a very loud one from Dr.  
McCoy,and was unbowed. ##Subjective time must tear and overlap upon itself, for the higher Universes to grow. All will be as it was. The growth is complete. The prolapsing timelines will be relieved. Just give the word.##

Unspeakingly, Tasha Yar felt a thrill of dread. One that was suddenly founded when tears filled Counselor Troi's eyes as they rose to meet Tasha's.  
Sickeningly, Lt. Yar knew those tears were for her. They hugged tightly without speaking.

##My purpose in procreating is at an end. Omega has left your plane of existence and has metamorphed into that for which they were born. They are now installed as Guardians in the Other Spaces. As I was once installed here to be yours. The unnatural will become natural once again. Those out of Place, enter the portal and be restored in Time.##

That was an unbidden command. Even Spock's eyebrow rose. Barclay merely peeked over his mentor's shoulder.

Alexander knew. He knew with all his being what was coming with the sharp ability of a child. He hung onto K'Ehleyr's hand as she hit her combadge. "Computer,  
site to site transport myself and Alexander to Cargobay Two."

"No mum.." said Alexander. But the sparkles took them away.

Khan, his purpose now thwarted with Omega molecules as vanished as his old ship and crew, followed suit.  
"There is no place for me here. Kirk, I salute you."  
and he too tapped his combadge and called for a transport move to the cargobay.

Deanna didn't want to let Yar's hand go. "Tasha. Don't go.." she sobbed through her tears.

Dr. Crusher gently broke her hold. "Deanna. She must. She chose to do so then, for you. Let her have the choice she made."

Data looked up and smiled at the memory of Tasha's sacrifice to Armus the skin of evil which ultimately saved the counselor in the crashed shuttle so many years ago. Then he turned to Lal. "Lal. You must go. Remember we are together. I have all of your memories and experiences.."  
he touched his forehead. "...right here. In a way,  
we will still be together."

Lal ducked her head innocently and allowed Data to fastened his combadge to her shoulder and order it to beam her also to the cargobay a meter from the Guardian's open portal. Her eyes were the last thing he saw as she dematerialized.

Then Kirk felt an emotional certainty that he knew couldn't be disobeyed. His hand went to his own combadge even as he saw Moriarty and the Lady Regina wink out to join the ones in the Cargobay.

Janeway startled as did Barclay.

Reg mumbled. "No.. not you too.."

"The good of the many outweigh the need of the few...." Kirk said.

"Or the one.."

Spock raised his hand in farewell to his captain.  
"Live Long and Prosper,.....Jim.." he whispered.

Kirk beamed himself away from the ready room.

The officers and crew in Captain Janeway's ready room all watched on the viewer as those displaced throughout their odd adventures of the past year faced the glowing, white corsicating fire of the Guardian of Forever.

James Kirk took a breath and said. "Follow me.  
There won't be any...more....pain... for all is as it should be, once we cross over." He took a step even before McCoy could blink.. and was gone.

The others also, took a step and vanished back into Time.

Then the Guardian of Forever flared brighter and brighter on the viewer and in their minds as it said.##All is as it was, and shall be. Let me be your Gateway.....Gateway....Gateway......##

The light from the wall flared brighter and brighter,  
blinding all in the readyroom and expanding bigger and bigger until outside and everywhere, there was a bright flash..

The stars began to move again...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Captain Janeway fidgetted in Starfleet's cafeteria over her computer padds and tipped over her second empty pot of coffee so the mess hall servers would know Chakotay and she needed more. And buried herself deeply back into her screen containing her speech on the Effects of Temporal Casuality and Real Space Events on Higher Universes' Development.

"Kathryn.." came Chakotay's voice filled to the brim with amusement. "I think you've had enough caffeine for the day. Should I call the EMH for a tranquilizer for you instead? You're practicing leaving finger dents on that touch pad of yours.."

Janeway's hand shot out and intercepted Chakotay's hand before it tapped his combadge and she said.  
"That.....won't be necessary Chakotay. I'll just stick with water and let my liver do the rest. Satisfied?"

Chakotay chuckled and let her pull his hand down and linked fingers with her affectionately. "You're a different woman these days, Kathryn. I'd swear you're no longer the same woman I married.."  
he laughed.

Kathryn's head shot up in mirth. "Oh? Maybe I should curb your own caffeine intake with all that tea you usually drink whenever we're invited to Starfleet for a symposium like this."

"Touche in kind, Captain..Kathryn.."

"No pulling rank. We're equals. See these rings?"  
she said, holding up his and her wedding banded digits.  
"Rank only holds on board ship, remember?" she said, pulling herself onto the chair next to his. She silenced his next retort with a kiss.

An anonymous cafeteria diner wolf whistled a cat call but when Chakotay and Janeway glared about themselves for the perpetrator, all hundred or so cadet heads were innocently occupied with their dinner trays and not one was gaping in their direction.

"Come on, Chakotay.. We're too popular for our own good in here.." she laughed.

Chakotay hastily gathered both of Kathryn's lap computers and her datapadds as she carried their empty trays. "Where are we going?"

"For a walk.. I hear Boothby's in the north rose bed on campus.. I wanna talk to him."

"About what?" Chakotay said, fumbling with all Kathryn's symposium notes and the two computers.  
Then he used a little gray matter and set the pile back onto the cafeteria table. He tapped his combadge. "Chakotay to Delta Flyer's mainframe.  
Beam tagged paraphenalia in front of me to storage.  
Engage.."

Kathryn smacked his arm as her things disappeared in a bright sparkle. "Hey... I wasn't through preparing my speech for Seven's class."

"Umm Hmm. " Chakotay said teasing her a little with a waist tickle just enough to embarrass her without giving away his play to any discreet cafeteria dining cadets.  
"And I'm sure you want Boothby to see you loaded down with books like any first year cadet hmm?"

"No, I suppose your right.." she said, slapping his hand away from her side. "Stop it.." she giggled.  
"What will the under rank think?"

"Doesn't matter." Chakotay grinned. "Didn't all or most of them attend our wedding as guests last year?"

"Hmm.. Guess so.." she mused.

"Then it's all right to do this.." and he swept Captain Janeway off into a french dip and gave her a kiss that took her breath away before he lifted her to her feet once again.

He steadied her with an arm as she "recovered".

Bright unanimous cheers burst musically throughout Starfleet Academy's mess and a thunder of applause.

Janeway beat a hasty retreat out of the cafeteria as Chakotay bowed gallantly to them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Out under the warm summer sun on the campus grounds Chakotay and Janeway held hands until they spotted Boothby groveling in the dirt around a particular beautiful shade of rose. It was one Kathryn adored. Then they dropped their grips like guility newlyweds and wandered down that stoney path.

Boothby shouted a greeting and took off his battered straw hat in respect. "Ahh,,, Captain Janeway, Chakotay.  
Knew you'd be sculking about Starfleet sometime this week. Just didn't know what day for sure..." he said. He stooped and swept off a brilliant bloom for Kathryn in respect and gave it to her. "A belated wedding gift. Sorry I couldn't attend your vows last year. Pressing business.."

"Oh?" Chakotay said.

"Yeah.." Boothby said, rubbing dirt off his overalls and gesturing vaguely over his shoulder at a new building that hadn't been there before in Chakotay and Janeway's recollection. "Overseeing Building Five's construction.."

"Building Five?" Janeway said in confusion. "I don't believe I've been briefed on that project.."

Boothby grunted in a half laugh half dismissing chuckle. "Been set up for Section 31 investigations.  
Temporal tampering and the like.."

Suddenly Boothby leaned forward into the smiling Chakotay and Janeway's faces and the sunlight winked off his silver tooth. "Tell me.. You two have any weird dreams the last few nights? About Strange plasma fires, or shipwide plagues or a Delta Quadrant species civil war involving Omega molecules and exploding super novae? How about seeing dead Starfleet personnel and holograms out of time?  
Seen Kirk's Guardian of Forever lurking around here lately?"

Chakotay and Janeway's faces didn't change from their previous expressions for long seconds. Then Janeway's hand shot to her combadge. "Janeway to the EMH. Medical Emergency. North Garden.."

Chakotay advanced on the elderly man and helped him to a bench. "Now, Boothby.. You put this hat right back on. I think you've done enough gardening for the day.  
Haven't you heard of the dangers of sunstroke?"

The EMH shimmered into existence. "Please state the nature of the medical emerg-- Oh, Captain Janeway,  
Commander Chakotay. Heard you two were creating a scene around Starfleet Academy a few minutes ago.  
Overheard more than a few cadets talking about the Great Cafeteria French Dip when I got your call. What seems to be the problem here?" he said, raising a med tricorder and bioprobe to scan her.

Janeway sighed firmly twisted the doctors wrist around and aimed his bioprobe down at Boothby, whom Chakotay watcbed on the stone carved bench beside the old caretaker's dirt filled wheel barrel. "Doctor. We called about Boothby. He's off his rocker. Mumbling pure nonsense. Maybe it's a symptom of too much sun.  
We all know he's out here all the time."

"I protest that.!" Boothby snapped, grumbling. "I'm not sick. I was just....." and he clamped down on his own reply.. "Checking on something I was asked to check on by the G-- never mind.."

"Oh..?" the holodoc said sarcastically. "I frequently hear cadet captains cadidates accusing Boothby of just that affront frequently. Are you claiming that honorific claim for this med call, too?"

"Yes.." "yes."  
Janeway and Chakotay said simultaneously.  
They both double glanced at each other in annoyance.

"I see." said the EMH with a wry look. His eyes never left his tricorder as he scanned the cross Boothby who sat glaring up at them all, with tightly folded arms.  
"And exactly what did he say that so alarmed you two enough to pull me away from the Opera House? I left Seven holding our place in the ticket line."

Janeway and Chakotay both opened their mouths.  
And ....nothing came out..

Kathryn and Chakotay both looked at each other in puzzlement and both tried to speak again.

Again. They couldn't recall one memory of the reason why they had summoned the doctor.

Boothby stood, breaking away from the EMH's attention and said. "Hhmm. Perhaps you should examine THESE two doctor. I'm not a medical man but I'd say both these two have have more than their fair share of coffee this morning. Tell me,  
doesn't Caffeine cause short term memory loss and poor judgement in high enough doses?"

The EMH considered, putting a finger to his mouth.  
"It can.."

Boothby scoffed a nameless grunt and gave a "there you go" gesture at the three of them.  
"I rest my case.." he said. "Now if you'll excuse me... I'm going to get back to my gardens if you don't mind. And Kathryn.. Be a good girl, get that bloom I gave you into some water before it wilts, huh? Or I'll regret ever maiming my bush to give it to you.."

"Huh?" Janeway said, "Oh... Oh,, of course.."

The EMH rolled his eyes and broke out a vial of sterile water for her from his medkit and handed it out to her.

Janeway said, "Thank you, doctor. Sorry we called.  
Don't know what came over us.. I'll requisition front row seats for you and Seven at that Opera performance if she misses out on getting just the tickets you want because of this."

The EMH regarded Janeway and Chakotay closely.  
"hmmmm.. Maybe I should put in an order about giving you that vaccine against real coffee or I could file a medical order for synthecoffee for you captain.. Then you wouldn't suffer these jittery memory lapses Boothby says you're going through right now. I can do the same for you Chakotay.." and he dug into his medkit for two new looking hyposprays.

Janeway snapped into exaggerated animation.  
"Oh, no no no.. We're fine.. Just.. carry on.  
Boothby. Doctor.. We're just off for a little stroll."  
And Janeway gritted her teeth, saying under her breath so only Chakotay could hear. "Here's where we beat a hasty retreat Chakotay. Don't want that coffee vaccine at all, do you?"

Chakotay took her cue hastily and linked an arm with hers. "Oh,.. uh, sorry doctor. Didn't mean to trouble you, you see we... oh never mind. Later then.. " and he gave a cheery wave which Kathryn matched and both backed away neatly as they retreated down the path to the main gardens.

The EMH shrugged and looked after the two fleeing humans.  
"You know. I've spent six years on Earth since Voyager got back and I still don't think I understand humanity at all."

"Join the club doctor." Boothby said, kneeling from where he was planted yet another rose bush. "That's precisely what I've been trying to do for over three centuries."

"Huh?" the holodoc said, breaking out of his reverie.

But Boothby was busy reaching for another pink rose bush transplant.

The EMH shrugged and instaphased out to rejoin Seven of Nine, leaving Boothby alone in his solitude.

Nearby, a newish modern marble fountain suddenly turned on in a spray of cool water creating a rainbow, and inside of it, Boothby saw the vague outline of the Guardian of Forever in its afterimage.

The old caretaker winked an eye up at the vision and thought he saw a flash of reply from its glowing internal torus of stone.

Then fountain and rainbow vanished in a blink leaving Boothby laughing quietly to himself. "Ah,  
I love my jobs.. Both of them. Chooser of captain candidates and unofficial spy for the Guardian of Forever. Somebody's gotta keep these overactive Federation types on the right track. Might as well be me."

Then he tapped his combadge. "Thanks Guinan.  
For sensing that latest not right with the status quo on Earth thing. The Guardian's fixed it right off and none of them suspect a thing. Keep in touch. You know I will."

And Boothby closed the connection between them with a good heart and turned back to his rose beds.

-  
(attachments)

Image : Kirk under a scaffoulding, dying.

Image : Data looking mystified.

Image: Yar holding up dress.

Image: Boothby handing Janeway a flower.

Image : Chakotay and Janeway hand in hand.

Image : Starfleet Academy.

Image : Earth on the main viewer.

*animated gif* The End being spelled as a shuttle flies by.

*******************************

FIN Year 2002 adventure.  
Home Soil Journeys 


End file.
